Oldham Gallery officials remember John Whitehead with artefacts

At the time of its making the collection was a complete set of over 800 British species, and also included many other botanical specimens.

These were passed from the Oldham Microscopical Society to the former Oldham Museum.

Born in Dukinfield, John Whitehead received little in the way of schooling and went to work at a young age in a cotton mill as a spinner.

Working quietly on his own mosses became his main hobby, but he was also in interested in other plant life and was completely self-taught.

In 1862, the year of the cotton famine, he had to apply for poor relief. He had been financially supporting his sister and mother.

Whitehead reported that he still went out collecting but that his shoes were so worn that his feet were continually wet.

He was already the best authority on mosses in the district and the editors of the Journal of Horticulture, on Whitehead’s behalf, posted a note about the sale of his carefully collected specimens.

These he sold at a guinea per hundred or three shillings a dozen.

He later found employment in the building trade in Oldham.

His employer was a fellow botanist and they travelled together to find, study and collect plants in Wales and Scotland. In 1875 John found a moss new to science, Jungermannia nevisensis, on Ben Nevis.

He corresponded and gained the respected company of many prominent botanical specialists across Europe.

John Whitehead developed severe rheumatism from collecting and working outdoors and was forced to stop.

Having joined the Oldham Microscopical Society and other local botanical groups, local naturalists set up a subscription fund to support him financially.

So, he was able to continue his studies in his enforced leisure time and was at last able to buy a microscope.

John Whitehead co-wrote the Moss Flora of Ashton-under-Lyne in 1888 and the Mosses of North Derbyshire in 1894. And his legacy is preserved today in the collections of Gallery Oldham.