Deaf Scientist Corner

Thomas Meehan
Thomas Meehan was born on March 21, 1826 in England. He began learning about plants when he was a little boy. His father taught him. When he was fifteen he made his first discovery.		Parts of a Plants Photo Courtesy of The Visual Dictionary
Royal Gardens of Kew Picture Courtesy of Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew		He wanted to learn more about botany so he read books. Meehan went to school at the Royal Gardens of Kew. After he graduated he came to America. He was twenty-two years old.
He worked at several different nurseries. A nursery is a place where you grow plants. While working in the nurseries he kept studying the plants. Finally he started writing about what he had studied. His first book was called The American Handbook of Ornamental Trees.		Calla Palustris Picture Courtesy of The American Handbook of Ornamental Trees	Calla Palustris Copyright Eleanor Saulys
Polypodium Incanum Picture Courtesy of The American Handbook of Ornamental Trees	Polypodium Incanum Copyright USC Herbarium	After the Civil War he helped write several magazines: Gardner’s Monthly, Meehan’s Monthly, and Forney’s Weekly Press. The ideas Meehan had were very different from the other botanists. Meehan was a botanist at the same time Charles Darwin was doing his research on evolution and natural selection. They disagreed for a long time. He eventually agreed with Darwin and supported his theories.
In 1877 Meehan became the state botanist for the state of Pennsylvania. The most important book he wrote was The Native Flowers and Ferns of the United States. He also discovered the Engelmann Canyon in the Wahsatch Mountains.		Wahsatch Mountains Picture Courtesy of Michael D. Schroeder
		He eventually became known as the “Dean of American Horticulture”
Honors Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia American Association for the Advancement of Science American Philosophical Society Veitchian medal for distinguished services in horticulture
Attention teachers! This scientist has experiment videos available on the wiki. Web Links http://deafscientistcorner.pbworks.com/Thomas-Meehan References Lang, H. G., & Meath-Lang, B. (1995). Thomas Meehan. In A Biographical Dictionary: Deaf Persons in the Arts and Sciences (pp.252-254). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.