Collection of 283 letters assembled and presented to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia by John Torrey. Correspondents include: Louis Agassiz, Zaccheus Collins, Peter S. Du Ponceau, Elie M. Durand, Asa Gray, William Hembel, Alexander von Humboldt, William H. Keating, James Mease, Samuel G. Morton, George Ord, Charles Pickering, Constantine S. Rafinesque, Benjamin Silliman, Sr., John Torrey, Charles Waterton, Alexander Wilson.
David Hosack (1769-1835, APS 1810) was a physician and botanist active in medical education, as well as cultural life of New York City. Hosack founded Elgin Botanic Gardens, the first botanical gardens in America, co-founded the New York Historical Society and the short-lived Rutgers Medical School in New York City.
These manuscripts include a few letters to John Torrey, Amos Eaton, and Reuben Haines, and journals of travels to the Appalachian mountains (1833), and to the source of the Schuylkill River (1834).
These papers include letters on natural history, metals and mineralogy, botany, insects, the geological survey of New York, and analyses of distilled liquors in the cause of temperance.
The largest portion of correspondence is with Charles Edwin Bessy on botanical matters, including botanical publications in the United States and Europe, and plants and shell specimens.
This is primarily a collection of letters, with some additional documents, concerning Young's interest in botany, geology, mineralogy, and natural history. There is information about Bowdoin College, where he studied under Parker Cleaveland. There is also much on the natural history of Maine, where he was the State Botanist in 1847-1849, and also on the Bangor Natural History Society. There are materials on Brazil in relation to Young's service there as the U.S. consul to Rio Grande do Sul from 1863 to 1873. There are also letters from his brother, John C. Young, and his sister, Sarah Augusta Young.