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Ira Waddell Clokey

American botanist and mining engineer (1878-1950)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 31, 2026
Entity authorityQ4224039 ↗
Source-derived summary

Ira Waddell Clokey (1878-1950) was an American mining engineer and botanist active in the western United States. He first studied at the University of Illinois, then moved to Harvard University, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in mining engineering in 1903. From 1904 to 1915, Clokey worked as a mining engineer in Mexico. In his spare time he collected plant specimens for his personal herbarium, which, however, was almost completely destroyed during a fire in 1912. In 1921, Clokey completed a Master of Science in plant pathology from Iowa State University.

Clokey began intensive studies of the flora of the Charleston Mountains in southern Nevada in 1935. At the same time he started to edit and distribute the exsiccata-like specimen series Charleston Mountain Flora, Clark County, Nevada. His book, Flora of the Charleston Mountains, Clark County, Nevada was accepted for publication just prior to his death in 1950.

The International Plant Names Index lists 44 plant names published by Ira Waddell Clokey.

List of plants named after him

A number of plants have been named in his honor:

Allium howellii var.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Ira Waddell Clokey” as american botanist and mining engineer (1878-1950). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1878, 1950, 1903, 1904—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1878-12-21, 1878-01-01—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. The account is most persuasive where Waddell, Clokey and American can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as american botanist and mining engineer (1878-1950). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4224039. VIAF identifies the subject as 107450322. The Library of Congress control number is no2010029242. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1878, 1950, 1903 and 1904.

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.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Ira Waddell Clokey”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Ira Waddell Clokey primary sources, Ira Waddell Clokey archive and Waddell 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

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Ira Waddell Clokey”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Ira Waddell Clokey” 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.