History Commons^™

Niels E. Hansen: Plant Explorer, Harald Jensen

The Bridge

At the age of seventeen, Niels Ebbesen Hansen enrolled at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, where he met Professor J. L. Budd, head of the Department of Horticulture and a creative and inspiring person. This meeting with Professor Budd eventually caused young Hansen to major in horticulture, and plant exploration and development became his lifework. He graduated in 1887 from Iowa State and for the next four years worked in large commercial nurseries in Iowa. This experience, not only supplemented his previous theoretical training in college but gave him an invaluable insight into the problems of northwestern horticulture.