Aris Berkley Donaldson, born in Muskingum County, Ohio on February 20, 1831, was the University of Minnesota’s Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature from 1868 until 1873. In their elections of April 1873, the board of regents did not re-elect Donaldson, so he lost his university position. With only twelve university instructors at the time and as a fellow Methodist, Winchell undoubtedly knew Donaldson well enough to be aware of his abilities as a botanist and may have arranged his appointment with the expedition in the wake of his leaving the university. During the expedition, Donaldson also wrote dispatches for the St. Paul Pioneer. The following August 1, Donaldson purchased the Alexandria Post and ran that newspaper until his death on November 27, 1883, at the age of fifty-two. He died of heart failure while rushing to meet his niece at the Alexandra train station, having overslept while awaiting her 3 a.m. arrival.
Aris Berkeley Donaldson (image courtesy of University of Minnesota Library)
Sample of Astragalus adsurgens Pall. collected by Aris Berkeley Donaldson during the 1874 Black Hills Expedition. Originally sent by Winchell to Wabash Herbarium and subsequently donated to the New York Botanical Garden.
The image note reads:
"Aris Berkeley Donaldson was the botanist on Lt. Col. George A. Custer's 1874 expedition to the Black Hills in search of gold and a suitable site for a military post. Donaldson gave the plant specimens to N. H. Winchell, who sent them for determination to J. M. Coulter, the botanist at Wabash College from 1879-1891." -- V. Masson, 1993
Image of Donaldson from Brief History of and Collector's Index to the Wabash College Herbarium (WAB), Now Deposited at the New York Botanical Garden (NY) by Veronica J. Masson, in Brittonia, Vol. 46, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1994), pp. 211-224 (14 pages) Published By: Springer Nature
Image of Astragalus from https://herbariumworld.wordpress.com/