Victor King Chesnut
American chemist and botanist (1867-1938)
Victor King Chesnut (June 28, 1867 – August 29, 1938) was an American botanist and chemist who pioneered the scientific study of poisonous plants in the United States.
Biography
Chesnut was born in Nevada City, California on June 28, 1867, the son of John Andrew Chesnut and Henrietta Sarah King. After graduating from Oakland high school, he matriculated at the University of California. He was awarded a B.S. in 1890 and became a chemistry assistant at the same institution for three years. For a brief period, he studied at the University of Chicago, then was accepted as a botany assistant at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 1894. Initially, he was assistant to the chief in the department's office of botanical research. In November 1894, the department decided to undergo an investigation of poisonous plants, placing Chesnut in charge of this program.
In 1898, Chesnut was the author of Principal Poisonous Plants of the United States; a government report that was widely circulated and reprinted with illustrations. He was married to Olive Branch Spohr on July 18, 1899, at Berkeley, California. The couple would have four children: George Spohr (born 1900), Alma Etta (born 1902), Frank T. (born 1904), and Gertrude (born 1906).
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q58055027. VIAF identifies the subject as 60454038. The Library of Congress control number is n83047904. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1867, 1938, 1890 and 1894.
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This entry incorporates text from “Victor King Chesnut” 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.