Palemon Howard Dorsett

Palemon Howard Dorsett was an American horticulturist who spent much of his career conducting plant collecting expeditions for the United States Department of Agriculture. Born in Illinois in 1862 and educated at the University of Missouri, he became known for systematically gathering plant germplasm from around the world, and between 1924 and 1927 he traveled through East Asia with his son on what proved to be his most significant soybean collecting expedition. That work led directly to the 1928 to 1931 Dorsett-Morse Oriental Agricultural Exploration Expedition through Japan, Korea and China, undertaken with USDA soybean specialist William Joseph Morse, which produced a seventeen volume report of more than 8,800 pages and roughly 3,200 photographs, now held at the USDA National Agricultural Library. In recognition of his career in germplasm collection and preservation, Dorsett received the Frank N. Meyer Medal in 1936; he died in Washington, D.C. in 1943.