Pioneer Information
Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, Moore received a bachelor’s degree from Wabash College in 1894 and a doctorate in botany from Harvard University in 1900. He served as head of the department of botany at Dartmouth College and in the U.S. Department of Agriculture before moving to St. Louis, Missouri in 1909 to work at the Missouri Botanical Garden and the affiliated Henry Shaw School of Botany at Washington University. From 1909 to 1919, he also served as head of botany at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Moore was appointed director of the Missouri Botanical Garden in 1912, succeeding its first director William Trelease, and held the role for over 40 years.
During the early years of his tenure, Moore oversaw an expansion of the garden’s displays and plantings, especially of orchids and waterlilies, of which he was particularly fond, and an increase in park visitation. He also bolstered the garden’s research, notably through the founding of the journal, The Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden. Beginning in the 1930s , the park experienced a decline in funding and attendance precipitated by the Great Depression and World War II. He was a member of several professional organizations and contributed prolifically to scholarly research. His daughter, Harriet Rodes Bakewell, was raised on the grounds of the botanical garden and went on to have a successful career as a landscape architect. Moore retired in 1953 and died in St. Louis in 1956.
