Science & invention
Alexander H. Smith
1904–1986 · mycologist
Leading American mushroom expert who spent his entire career at the University of Michigan Herbarium and wrote popular guides to Michigan's mushrooms.
- Born
Crandon, Wisconsin- Died
Ann Arbor, Michigan
aged 82- Birth name
- Alexander Hanchett Smith
- Also known as
- Alexander Hanchett Smith
- Detroit years
- 1928–1986
- Field
- Science & invention
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Smith was born in Crandon, Wisconsin, in 1904 and came to the University of Michigan in 1928 for graduate study in botany with the mycologist Calvin H. Kauffman. In 1934 he became assistant curator at the university's herbarium, and he stayed there for his whole career, teaching in Ann Arbor and at the university's biological station at Douglas Lake. He described hundreds of species of gilled mushrooms, boletes and puffballs, and his collections form a core of the herbarium's fungus holdings. For the public he wrote field guides such as Common Edible and Poisonous Mushrooms of Southeastern Michigan, The Mushroom Hunter's Field Guide and The Boletes of Michigan, which made him a familiar name among mushroom hunters around Detroit and across the state. He led several Michigan scientific societies and died in Ann Arbor in 1986, on his 82nd birthday.
Highlights
- Curator at the University of Michigan Herbarium from 1934
- Author of Common Edible and Poisonous Mushrooms of Southeastern Michigan
- The Mushroom Hunter's Field Guide and The Boletes of Michigan
- President of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts, and Letters, 1966–1967
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Worked here · 1928–1986
University of Michigan
He did his graduate work here and spent his whole career at the University of Michigan Herbarium.