A businessman by training and a botanist by inclination, he gave up his position with the Lehigh Valley Railroad in 1902 to become the first curator of the herbarium to be formally appointed in the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. With Ida A. Keller, he published a book on the “Flora of Philadelphia and vicinity,” but devoted most of his time to improving the herbarium, particularly by collecting in various parts of the world (Florida, Alberta, Venezuela). This collection includes his botanical correspondence and a manuscript catalog of his private herbarium, as well as such personalia as his school reports from the Germantown Academy, 1883-1884, news clippings, an announcement of his forthcoming book and letterpress copies of The Gossip, v. 1, no. 4, Sept. 10, 1881 and The Linnaean Fern Bulletin, no. 8, n. d.