Henry Nicholas Bolander

Who was Henry Nicholas Bolander?

Henry Nicholas Bolander was a German-American botanist and educator.

Bolander was born in Schlüchtern, Germany and emigrated to the United States in 1846. He joined his uncle in Columbus, Ohio and enrolled in the Columbus Lutheran Seminary. He graduated from the seminary and was ordained a minister but never served in a religious office. Instead, he began his career teaching at the local German-American schools in 1851. In 1857 he married Anna Marie Jenner, a widow who had three children from her previous marriage; together, they eventually added five more children to their family.

At the same time, Bolander became acquainted with a neighbor, Leo Lesquereux, a well-known botanist who had emigrated from Switzerland in 1847. Lesquereux inspired Bolander to develop a keen interest in botany. Bolander began to travel widely in Ohio and neighboring states to study the flora and collect specimens. In 1857 he teamed with John H. Klippart, the Ohio Secretary of Agriculture, to create a catalog of the plants of Ohio. However, in 1860 failing health caused Bolander to return to Germany and the catalog was never published.