Goodwin LeBaron Foster

Posted on by Carol Ann McCormick
A black and white portrait of Goodwin LeBaron Foster.

(4 June 1891 – March 1977)

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Herbarium (NCU) has cataloged approximately 50 vascular plant specimens collected by Goodwin LeBaron Foster, who signed his specimens and scientific papers “G.L. Foster.”  Foster was clearly keen on collecting and keen on his status as an alumnus of Dartmouth College, as he had special specimen labels printed “PLANTS OF SOUTHWESTERN FLORIDA Collected by G. L. Foster Dartmouth 1913.”

All Foster’s herbarium specimens in NCU’s collection are from Florida and were collected in the mid-1960s.  Lee County – Bonita Springs in particular – was a favorite collecting area, though Foster also collected in Collier, De Soto, Hendry, and Monroe Counties.  All NCU’s specimens collected by Foster were a gift from the Jesup Herbarium of Dartmouth College (HNH) in 2002.  (If Foster collected in New Hampshire, it is likely those remain at HNH.)

Goodwin LeBaron Foster was born in Calcutta, India in 1891 to Charles (b. 1850)  and Elizabeth Y. Andros (b. 1851) Foster.  According to the 1900 Federal Census, Goodwin’s father, Charles, was a dealer in teak and the family resided in the town of Norton in Bristol County, Massachusetts.  Goodwin’s siblings included Elizabeth A. (b. in Massachusetts September, 1885), Richard A. (b. in Massachusetts November, 1887), and Sybil (b. November 1892 in India).2  The 1910 Federal census lists the Foster family as living in Sharon, Norfolk County, Massachusetts.3

Goodwin graduated from Dartmouth College in 1913.1  He seems to have spent some time at the Missouri Botanical Garden, as on a 1914 publication, he is listed as “Teaching Fellow in the Henry Shaw School of Botany at Washington University.”  On 5 September, 1918 he married Grace E. Page in Candia, New Hampshire, and in 1920 they were living in Berkeley, Alameda County, California, where Goodwin was working as a biochemist at the University of California, Berkeley.4,5,8  He earned a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1921, and was on the faculty of Columbia University as a professor of Biological Chemistry for 30 years.1

Goodwin & Grace Foster had two daughters, Mary (b. ca. 1920) and Dorothy A. (b. ca. 1927).6

Goodwin LeBaron Foster died in Manchester, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire in March, 1977.7

Goodwin LeBaron Foster (undated portrait). Courtesy of University Archives, Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia University Libraries

PUBLICATIONS (partial list):
Foster, G.L.  1914.  Indications regarding the source of combined nitrogen for Ulva lactuca.  Ann. Missouri Bot. Garden 1:  229-235.
Foster, G. L.  1917.  A modification of the McLean – Van Slyke method for the determination of chlorides in blood.  J. Biol. Chem.  31(3):  483-485.
Schmidt, C.L.A. and G.L. Foster.  1921.  A cheap and convenient source for glutamic acid.  Soc. For Exp. Biol. & Med., Proceedings v. 18:  205-206.
Schmidt, C.L.A. and G.L. Foster.  1922.  The separation of hexone bases from a protein hydrolysate by electrolysis.  Soc. For Exp. Biol. & Med., Proceedings, v. 19:  348-351.
Foster, G.L.  1923.  Studies on carbohydrate metabolism.  I.  Some comparisons of blood sugar concentrations in venous blood and in finger blood.  J. Biol. Chem.  55:  291-301.
Foster, G. L.  1923.  Studies on carbohydrate metabolism:  II.  An interpretation of the blood sugar phenomena following the ingestion of glucose.  J. Biol. Chem. 55(2):  303-314.
Foster, G. L. and Carl L. A. Schmidt.  1923.  The separation of the hexone bases from certain protein hydrolysates by electrolysis.  J. Biol. Chem.  56(2):  545-553.
Foster, G. L. and E. S. Sundstroem.  1926.  A respiration apparatus for small animals.  J. Biol. CHem. 69(2):  565-568.
Foster, G. L. and C. D. Benninghoven.  1926.  On fat and glycogen in the tissues of experimentally induced obesity in the rat.  J. Biol. Chem. 70(2):  285-287.
Foster, G. L. 1929.  The isolation of 3,5-diiodotyrosine from the thyroid.  J. Biol. Chem. 83(2):  345-346.
Foster, G. L. and A. B. Gutman.  1930.  On the fate of diiodotyrosine in the animal organism.  J. Biol. Chem. 87(2):  289-294.
Leland, Jessica P. and G. L. Foster.  1932.  A method for determination of thyroxine in the thyroid.  J. Biol. Chem. 95(1):  165-179.
Schockaert, J.A. and G.L. Foster.  1932.  Influence of anterior pituitary substances on the total iodine content of the thyroid gland in the young duck.  J. Biol. Chem.  95(1):  89-94.
Foster, G.L., A. B. Gutman, and E.B. Gutman.  1933.  Total and thyroxine iodine content of thyroid gland after injection of saline anterior pituitary extracts.  Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med.  30:  1028-1032.
Foster, G.L.  1934.  A comparison of the effects of administration of iodide and diiodotyrosine on the iodine and thyroxine content of the thyroid.  J. Biol. Chem. 104(3):  497-500.
Foster, G. L., Walter W. Palmer, and Jessica P. Leland.  1936.  A comparison of the calorigenic potencies of l-thyroxine, dl-thyroxine, and thyroid gland:  with a note on the thyroxine content of the acid-soluble fraction of the peptic digest of thyroid protein.  J. Biol. Chem. 115(2):  467-477.
Foster, G. L., Albert S. Keston, D. Rittenberg, and Rudolf Schoenheimer.  1938.  Deuterium as an indicator in the study of intermediary metabolism:  XII.  The action of proteolytic enzymes on peptides in heavy water.  J. Biol. Chem.  124(1):  159-161.
Rittenberg, D., Albert S. Keston, Rudolf Schoenheimer and G. L. Foster.  1938.  Deuterium as an indicator in the study of intermediary metabolism:  XIII.  The stability of hydrogen in amino acids.  J. Biol. Chem. 125 (1):  1-12.
Foster, G.L., D. Rittenberg, and Rudolf Schoenheimer.  1938.  Deuterium as an indicator in the study of intermediary metabolism.  XIV.  Biological formation of deuteroamino acids.  J. Biol. Chem.  125(1):  13-22.
Foster, G. L., Rudolf Schoenheimer, and D. Rittenberg.  1939.  Studies in protein metabolism:  V.  The utilization of ammonia for amino acid and creatine formation in animals.  J. Biol. Chem.  127(1):  319-327.
Rittenberg, D. and G. L. Foster.  1940.  A new procedure fro quantitative analysis by isotope dilution, with application to the determination of amino acids and fatty acids.  J. Biol. Chem.  133(3):  737-744.
Graff, Samuel, D. Rittenberg, and G. L. Foster.  1940.  The glutamic acid of malignant tumors.  J. Biol. Chem.  133(3):  745-752.
Foster, G. L.  1945.  Some amino acid analyses of hemoglobin and beta-lactoglobulin.  J. Biol. Chem. 159(2):  431-438.
Shemin, David and G.L. Foster.  1946.  The isotope dilution method of amino acid analysis.  Ann. New York Acad. Sci.  47:  119-134.

SOURCES:

1.       Personal communication, email from Peter Carini, Dartmouth College Archivist, to McCormick 11 July 2012.

2.      United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1900. T623, 1854 rolls.  Accessed 11 July 2012 via:  Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004.

3.      Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910 (NARA microfilm publication T624, 1,178 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.  Accessed on 11 July 2012 via:  Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004.

4.      New Hampshire Marriage Records 1637–1947.” Index. FamilySearch, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2011. “New Hampshire Statewide Marriage Records 1637–1947,” database, FamilySearch, 2009. New Hampshire Bureau of Vital Records. “Marriage Records.” New Hampshire Bureau of Vital Records and Health Statistics, Concord.  Accessed 11 July 2012 via:  Ancestry.com. New Hampshire, Marriage Records Index, 1637-1947 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

5.      Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920. (NARA microfilm publication T625, 2076 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C. For details on the contents of the film numbers, visit the following NARA web page: NARA. Note: Enumeration Districts 819-839 are on roll 323 (Chicago City).  Accessed 11 July 2012 via:  Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.

6.      United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1930. T626, 2,667 rolls.  Accessed on 11 July 2012 via:  Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002.

7.      Social Security Administration. Social Security Death Index, Master File. Social Security Administration. Accessed 11 July 2012 via:  Ancestry.com. Social Security Death Index [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2011.

8.      Anonymous.  1922.  The present location and occupation of former graduate students and others who have undertaken investigations assisted in the laboratory or herbarium.  Missouri Botanical Garden Bulletin 10(1):  16.

 

Special thanks to Peter Carini, Dartmouth College Archivist, for information about G. L. Foster, and to Jocelyn Wilk, University Archives, Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia University Libraries for portrait of G. L. Foster.