Charles Edward Faxon was an American botanical artist and instructor of botany

Botany

Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...

 who was a native of Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

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In 1867 he received his degree in civil engineering

Civil engineering

Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including works like roads, bridges, canals, dams, and buildings...

 from Lawrence Scientific School in Cambridge

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...

. From 1879 to 1884 he taught classes in botany at the Bussey Institute

Bussey Institute

The Bussey Institute was a respected biological institute at Harvard University. It was named for Benjamin Bussey, who, in 1835, endowed the establishment of an undergraduate school of agriculture and horticulture and donated land in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts that became the Arnold Arboretum...

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Faxon was knowledgeable regarding the flora of New England

New England

New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

, and in 1882 joined the staff at the Arnold Arboretum. Here he took charge of development of the herbarium

Herbarium

In botany, a herbarium – sometimes known by the Anglicized term herbar – is a collection of preserved plant specimens. These specimens may be whole plants or plant parts: these will usually be in a dried form, mounted on a sheet, but depending upon the material may also be kept in...

 and library

Library

In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...

. He worked closely with Charles Sprague Sargent

Charles Sprague Sargent

Charles Sprague Sargent was an American botanist. He was the first director of the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts and the standard botanical author abbreviation Sarg. is applied to plants he described.-Biography:Sargent was the second son of Henrietta and...

 (1841-1927), the director of the arboretum

Arboretum

An arboretum in a narrow sense is a collection of trees only. Related collections include a fruticetum , and a viticetum, a collection of vines. More commonly, today, an arboretum is a botanical garden containing living collections of woody plants intended at least partly for scientific study...

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Faxon created 744 plates for illustration of Sargent's "Silva of North America". In addition to these drawings, he provided the illustrative work for the following publications by Sargent:

• "Manual of the Trees of North America (exclusive of Mexico)", (664 illustrations)
• "Garden and Forest", (285 illustrations)
• "Forest Flora of Japan", (1894)
• "Trees and Shrubs: Illustrations of New Or Little Known Ligneous Plants", (1902-13)