Cincinnati business man, retired at forty-three and turned to natural history, he made great local collections, exchanged plants with many botanists of the day, and accumulated a large herbarium which was willed to his son James M. Lea. His botanical observations and collections were intended for a flora of Ohio, which was published posthumously in Philadelphia, 1849, by Collins. This collection includes Lea's letterbook and fifteen letters listing all the plants and shells sent to various colleagues, the manuscript of the “Catalogue of plants native or naturalized in Cincinnati, Ohio” with various small notebooks of field data, flowering dates, etc., with certain papers describing the status of some insects and blights in Cincinnati. His memoranda on zoological subjects refer to the American tent caterpillar, the bee moth, helices and other shells. A biography written in an old-fashioned hand in faded ink, is included and carries a note by F. W. Pennell giving details of Lea's will.