Romeyn Beck Hough Papers

Romeyn Beck Hough (1857-1924) was a naturalist, author, and businessman in the state of New York. His father was Franklin Benjamin Hough, the first chief of the U.S. Division of Forestry. In 1888, Romeyn Hough published the first book of a planned 15-volume series called American Woods. The work was designed to represent the native and naturalized wood species of the United States and Canada. These volumes were unique in that they were illustrated using wafer-thin samples of wood showing the transverse, radial, and tangential cross-sections of the grain for each species. Hough devised a specialized machine capable of slicing wood to thicknesses as small as 1/1200 of an inch. In the scientific world, American Woods was well-received and won numerous awards, including the grand prize at the Paris Exposition in 1889. Subsequently, Hough produced another book, Handbook of the Trees of the Northern States and Canada, containing photographic and textual descriptions of 208 kinds of trees found in Canada and in the Eastern United States. While researching for his books, Hough traveled frequently and kept journals of his activities. Hough completed 13 volumes of American Woods before his death; his daughter Marjorie Hough later completed a 14th volume.