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Cyrus Pringle

U.S. botanist, writer, tax resister and quaker (1838-1911)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 16, 2026
Entity authorityQ3009492 ↗
Source-derived summary

Cyrus Guernsey Pringle (May 6, 1838 – May 25, 1911) was an American plant breeder and botanist who spent a career of 35 years cataloguing the plants of North America. He was a prolific collector and accomplished botanical explorer.

The standard author abbreviation Pringle is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.

Early life

He was born on May 6, 1838, in Charlotte, Vermont, to George and Louisa (Harris) Pringle. He studied in Hinesburg and Bakersfield, Vermont, and later at Stanbridge, Quebec, before entering the University of Vermont in 1859. However, the death of his older brother during the first semester made it necessary for him to aid his widowed mother in the management of the farm and to withdraw from college. Later, however, he would be awarded an honorary Sc.D. from the University of Vermont as well as an honorary M.A. from Middlebury College.

In the early part of his life he was interested in the Quaker religious doctrine of the Friends, and it was through these meetings that he met Almira Lydia Greene of Starksboro, Vermont. Pringle became a Quaker in order to be with Almira, eventually marrying on February 25, 1863.

His first horticultural undertakings were on his mother's farm in 1857, when, at the age of nineteen, he budded a small seedling apple tree with a large, striped, sweet summer apple.

Editorial summary

“Cyrus Pringle” enters the record as u.S. botanist, writer, tax resister and quaker (1838-1911). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Cyrus, Pringle and botanist can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1838, 1911, 1859, 1863—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1838-05-06. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Cyrus, Pringle and botanist.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Cyrus Pringle” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Cyrus, Pringle and botanist provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3009492. VIAF identifies the subject as 74992245. The Library of Congress control number is no93012156. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1838, 1911, 1859 and 1863.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

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  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Three-step research path

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  2. Expand the search: follow Cyrus Pringle primary sources, Cyrus Pringle archive and Cyrus research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Cyrus Pringle” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.