15/4/24 Guide to the Arthur G. Vestal Papers Arthur G. Vestal Papers

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19 Library 1408 W. Gregory Dr. Urbana, IL, 61820 URL: http://archives.library.illinois.edu Email: illiarch@illinois.edu Phone: (217) 333-0798 Fax: (217) 333-2868
This finding aid was encoding in EAD by Archon 3.21 from an SQL database source on March 28th, 2024. The collection description/finding aid is written in English
Guide to the Arthur G. Vestal Papers 1899/1964 University of Illinois Archives Overview of the Collection Arthur G. Vestal Papers 1899-1964 15/4/24 Vestal, Arthur Gibson, 1888-1964 2.90 English University of Illinois Archives
19 Library 1408 W. Gregory Dr. Urbana, IL, URL: http://archives.library.illinois.edu Email: illiarch@illinois.edu Phone: (217) 333-0798 Fax: (217) 333-2868

Other Information:

7 Pages

Additional information may be found at https://files.archon.library.illinois.edu/uasfa/1504024.pdf

Biographical Information:

Arthur Gibson Vestal (1888-1964) was professor of botany (1929-57) and professor emeritus (1957-64) at the University of Illinois (UI). He was an influential ecologist, who made significant contributions to the study of plant and animal ecology, phytogeography, and phytosociology.

Vestal was born in LaGrange, Illinois, on September 10, 1888, and grew up in Chicago. He earned a bachelor's degree from UI (1911) and a master's degree from the University of Colorado (1913). In 1915, he obtained a PhD from the University of Chicago with a dissertation titled, "Phytogeography of the Eastern Mountain Front in Colorado." Vestal held teaching positions at the University of Colorado (1911-14), Eastern Illinois State Normal School (1915-20), Stanford University (1920-29), and UI (1929-57). Over the course of his long academic career, he "made valuable contributions toward the development of concepts and statistical methods to be used in describing and classifying plant communities and regional vegetation complexes from a phytosociological point of view" (Martin). He published widely, including his influential 1949 monograph Minimum areas for different vegetations: their determination from species area curves, and made extensive study of the ecologies of Illinois, Colorado, and California.

Vestal married fellow botanist Wanda Pfeiffer Vestal (1882-1969) in 1916, and they had three children. He died on June 5, 1964.

Sources:

"Trelease Woods," Illinois LAS, accessed April 29, 2020, https://las.illinois.edu/news/2019-09-06/trelease-woods.

"Arthur G. Vestal," The Ecological Society of America's History and Records, accessed April 29, 2020, https://esa.org/history/vestal-a-g/.

W. E. Martin, "Resolution of Respect, Arthur Gibson Vestal," Ecological Society of America, accessed April 29, 2020, https://www.esa.org/history/obits/Vestal_AG.pdf.

Access Terms

This Collection is indexed under the following controlled access subject terms.

Genre/Form of Material: Papers Topical Term: California Grasslands Colorado Eastern Illinois University Ecology Faculty Papers Field Trips Plant Communities Stanford University Student Life University of Chicago
Administrative Information Accruals:

3/21/1969; 4/5/74; 6/22/79; 9/23/2014

Arrangement of Materials:

Chronological.

Scope and Contents

Papers of Arthur Gibson Vestal '11 (1888-1964), professor Botany (1929-57) and Wanda Pfeiffer Vestal (1882-1969), instructor of Botany (1944-45), including correspondence, photographs, course and lecture notes, manuscripts and publications concerning graduate study and botany field trips at the University of Chicago (1906-16), undergraduate life at Illinois (1909-11), expense records of a faculty family at Eastern Illinois (1916-20) and Stanford (1920-29), biology at Stanford (1920-27), botany field work and summer teaching in Colorado and neighboring states (1922-30), California grasslands research, plant community investigation methods and family matters, and photocopies of correspondence related to service as the Ecological Society of America Secretary (1928-42).

The series contains files on botany field trips (1929-60), departmental correspondence (1950-58) and student papers (1925, 1930, 1935-39, 1950-52).

Correspondents include Charles C. Adams, Henry C. Cowles, Max M. Ellis, Henry A. Gleason, Roland M. Harper and A.G. Tansley.