Edward William Nelson

Nelson and his brother then lived with his maternal grandparents in the Adirondacks when his father joined the Union Army and mother went to Baltimore as a nurse.

Nelson also met Henry Henshaw and Edward Drinker Cope who helped him develop his interests in birds.

Spencer Fullerton Baird was responsible for selecting Signal Officers for the remoter stations, and would choose men with scientific training who were prepared to study the local flora and fauna.

[2] Nelson was the naturalist on board USRC Thomas Corwin, which sailed to Wrangel Island in search of the Jeannette expedition in 1881.

In 1890 Nelson accepted an appointment as a special field agent with the Death Valley Expedition under Clinton Hart Merriam, chief of the Division of Ornithology and Mammalogy, United States Department of Agriculture.

& Rose published Neonelsonia, a monotypic genus of flowering plant from South America, belonging to the family Apiaceae.

& Brettell published Nelsonianthus, a genus of flowering plants from Mexico and Guatemala belonging to the family Asteraceae, also named in Nelson's honour.