author
Lorin Low Dame
1838–1903
A New England teacher and botanist, he helped turn careful field observation into books that ordinary readers could use. His work on regional trees and plants made the natural world feel close, practical, and alive.
1 Audiobook
Handbook of the Trees of New England
by Lorin Low Dame, Henry M. (Henry Mason) Brooks
About the author
Born in Newmarket, New Hampshire, in 1838, he moved with his family to Lowell, Massachusetts, as a child. He studied at Tufts College from 1856 to 1860, then began a long career in education, serving as a high school principal in Braintree before later becoming principal of Medford High School.
Alongside his school work, he built a strong reputation as a botanist and collector. He was especially interested in the flora of New England, and he wrote books and papers that focused on plants as readers could actually find them in the field, including Flora of Middlesex County, Massachusetts and, with Henry Brooks, Handbook of the Trees of New England.
Dame died in Medford, Massachusetts, in 1903. He is remembered as both an admired educator and a careful naturalist whose writing helped make regional botany more accessible to students, teachers, and general readers.