(5 March 1879 – January 1970)
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Herbarium (NCU) has cataloged approximately 170 vascular plant specimens, 100 lichen specimens, and 140 moss specimens , and 200 fungi specimens collected by Paul O. Schallert. As we continue to catalog our collections it is likely that more specimens collected by Schallert will be found. He usually used “P.O. Schallert, M.D.” or “POS” on his herbarium labels.
Schallert was born in Watertown, Wisconsin on 5 March 1879 to William and Fredericke Florentina (Volkmann) Schallert. He earned a B. A. and B. S. from Marion College in Marion, Indiana, then graduated from the University of Illinois College of Physicians & Surgeons in 1904 with M.S. and M.D. degrees.4 Schallert was an Externe at St. Mary’s of Nazareth Hospital in Chicago, Illinois from 1903 to 1904, and an intern at Playfair Maternity Hospital in Chicago, Illinois in 1904. He practiced medicine in Wrightstown, Wisconsin (1904-1908), Johnson Creek, Wisconsin (1908-1910), and Winston-Salem, North Carolina (1910-1943).4, 1 During WWII, Dr. Schallert was a First Lieutenant in the Army Medical Corps and stationed in Seattle, Washington.5
How Schallert became interested in botany is unclear, but he collected throughout the United States, with particular emphasis on the area around his home in Forsyth County, North Carolina. In 1920 Schallert bought the “David Reid House” in Winston-Salem. Built ca. 1894, this house located at 1820 South Main Street [in 1982 was] designated a Local Historic Landmark by the Forsyth County Historic Resources Commission. “The David Reid House is one of the finest late 19th century Queen Anne style dwellings in the Washington Park neighborhood, and one of only a few remaining in Winston-Salem… In 1920, Paul O. Schallert bought the property. Schallert was a physician and surgeon, and had an office in the house. He was also extremely interested in botany, teaching the subject at Salem College. He traveled extensively to collect and identify herbal and botanical samples. Schallert was an early pioneer in the campaign against tobacco smoking, which was quite an unpopular stance at the time. He left Winston-Salem in 1943 to join the Army as a contract surgeon. According to a specimen collected in 1947, Schallert’s address in Winston-Salem was No. 3, Cascade Avenue. Sometime after World War II, he moved to Altamonte Springs, Seminole County, Florida.”1 Schallert frequently used “my yard” or “near my house” as locality on herbarium labels, so it is important to correlate his residence in a particular year to ascertain the city, county, and state.
Schallert gave his collection of hepatics (liverworts) to Duke University (DUKE) in the 1930’s. Schallert’s correspondence with American botanists is preserved at the Botanical Research Institute (BRIT) in Fort Worth, Texas, while other papers are held by the University of Central Florida Libraries in Orlando, Florida.
Schallert was a member of the Boy Scouts of America, American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Sullivant Moss Society, the American Medical Association, the North Carolina State Medical Society, the Forsyth County Medical Society, the American Asiatic Society, the American Nature Association, the American Tree Society, and the North Carolina Academy of Science.4 Schallert was a member of a twelve-person American delegation representing the Socialist Party of North Carolina to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in April-May of 1935; he wrote a series of essays, “Russia: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow,” following this visit.7
Paul Otto Schallert and Flora Grace Jackson were married in Bogota, Illinois on 16 May 1904. Together they had four children: Marion Vespera, Dorothy Amaryllis, Paul Otto, Jr., and Nancy Elizabeth.2, 3, 4, 5
Monique Debrule Reed has found vascular plant specimens collected by Paul O. Schallert, Jr. in the collections of the S.M. Tracy Herbarium (TAES) at Texas A&M University.6 Paul, Jr. (21 April 1913 – 6 March 2002) graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a B.S. in Medicine, class of 1935. In 1938 he was a research physiological chemist at the Cornell Medical School Department of Anatomy in Lake Mohegan, New York. In November, 1938 he took a position in the Eastern Research Laboratories of American Cyanamid Chemical Company in Stamford, Connecticut, and in 1940 he was assigned to American Cyanamid’s mining division in Canada. Paul, Jr. enlisted in the US Army on January 21, 1942 and served with the ski troops in Attu and Kiska in the Aleutian Islands. Subsequently he was assigned to Oak Ridge, Tennessee and served as a chemist working on refining uranium ores.5 It is possible that NCU also has specimens collected by Paul, Jr. which were overlooked in initial cataloging.
Nancy Schallert Lofton Morrow (11 May 1917 – 5 August 2009) was born in Winston-Salem, and was the first woman to enter the Honor’s Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She graduated from UNC-CH in 1938. She received a graduate degree in teaching in 1955 from the University of California, Berkeley, and taught in Monterey for 21 years. She was active in the music and theater culture of Carmel and Monterey California for her entire life.8
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PUBLICATIONS (likely incomplete list):
Schallert, P. O. (1934) Schweinitz‘ collecting-ground in North Carolina. Bartonia 16: 8-12.
PARTIAL LIST OF PUBLICATIONS WHICH CITE SCHALLERT SPECIMENS, OR REFER TO SCHALLERT’S PARTICIPATION IN A MEETING OR COLLECTING EXPEDITION:
Grout, A. J. (1923) Leucodon julaceus (Hedw.) Sulliv., with flagella. The Bryologist 26(3): 30.
Evans, Alexander W. (1923) Notes on North American Hepaticae. X. The Bryologist 26(6): 55-67 + viii.
Beals, A. T. (1927) The Philadelphia meeting of the Sullivant Moss Society. The Bryolotist 30(2): 17-20.
Wherry, Edgar T. (1932) Range-extensions and other observations, 1931-1932. American Fern Journal 22(3): 79-86.
Conard, Henry S. (1934) The moss foray at Highlands, N.C. June 11-13, 1934. The Bryologist 37(5): 77-78.
Sayre, Geneva (1934) Decurrent leaf cells in Climacium. The Bryologist 37(5): 83-85.
Blomquist, H. L. (1936) Hepaticae of North Carolina. The Bryologist 39(3): 49-67.
Welch, Winona H. (1936) The moss foray in North Carolina, June 13-15, 1936. The Bryologist 39(6): 122-123.
Blomquist, H.L. (1937) Mosses of North Carolina. I. Sphagnales. The Bryologist 40(4): 67-71.
Anderson, Lewis E. (1938) The mosses of North Carolina: II. Introduction. The Bryologist 41(1): 1-11.
Anderson, Lewis E. (1938) The mosses of North Carolina. IV. Archidiaceae to Seligeriaceae (concluded). The Bryologist 41(5): 118-123.
Anderson, Lewis E. (1939) The mosses of North Carolina: III. Andreaceaceae to Fissidentaceae. The Bryologist 41(4): 82-90.
Anderson, Lewis E. (1939) The mosses of North Carolina: V. Dicranaceae to Calymperaceae. The Bryologist 43(3): 62-70.
Berry, Edward Cain (1941) A monograph of the genus Parmelia in North America, north of Mexico. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 28(1): 31-146.
Evans, Alexander W. (1947) A study of certain North American Cladoniae. The Bryologist 50(1): 14-51.
Kucyniak, James (1949) Jungermannia tristis and Atrichum macmellani in Quebec. The Bryologist 52(2): 62-64.
Anderson, Lewis E. (1951) The mosses of North Carolina VI. Encalyptaceae to Pottiaceae. The Bryologist 54(3): 146-161.
Nielsen, C. S. (1956) Notes on Stigonemataceae from Southeastern United States. Transactions of the American Microscopical Society 75(4): 427-436.
Nielsen, C. S. and Grace C. Madsen (1956) Florida Scytonemataceae II. American Midland Naturalist 56(1): 116-`25.
Andrews, A. LeRoy (1957) Taxonomic notes. XIII. The genus Campylium. The Bryologist 60(2): 127-135.
Anderson, Lewis E. (1958) The mosses of North Carolina. VIII. Grimmiaceae to Orthotrichaceae. The Bryologist 61(4): 285-313.
Anderson, Lewis E. (1958) The mosses of North Carolina: VII. Addenda and corrections. The Bryologist 61(3): 204-213.
Matthews, James F., Lawrence S. Barden, and Christopher R. Matthews (1977) Corrections of the chromosome number, distribution and misidentifications of the federally endangered sunflower, Helianthus schweinitzii T. & G. Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society 124(2): 198-209.
Andrus, Richard E. (1979) Sphagnum bartlettianum in the southeastern United States. The Bryologist 82(2): 198-203.
Hong, Won Shic (1980) Hepaticae of the North Cascades Range, Washington. The Bryologist 83(1): 94-102.
SOURCES:
1. David Reid House. Local Historic Landmark Program. Forsyth County Historic Resources Commission. http://www.cityofws.org/Assets/CityOfWS/Documents/Planning/HRC/Local_Landmarks/LHL_Sheets/42_DavidReidHouse.pdf accessed on 5 January 2013.
2. Yackety Yack, 1937. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Yearbook. Ancestry.com U.S. School Yearbooks [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 2010.
3. 1920 US Federal Census.
4. Thompson, Loyd and Winfield Scott Downs (1925) Who’s Who in American Medicine 1925. Who’s Who Publications, Inc., NY, page1308.
5. Meredith Tozzer, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Alumni Records, pers. comm. 31 January, 2017.
6. Monique Debrule Reed, S. M. Tracy Herbarium, Texas A&M University, pers. comm. 31 January, 2017.
7. “P.O. Schallert.” In the Roy L. Morgan Papers. The Tokyo War Crimes Trial, Digital Collection. University of Virginia School of Lae, Special Collections Library. http://imtfe.law.virginia.edu/contributors/paul-otto-schallert accessed on 31 January 2017.
8. “Nancy Schallert Lofton Morrow” Obituary, The Monterey Herald, 8 August, 2009. http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/montereyherald/obituary.aspx?pid=131205964 accessed on 31 January 2017.