Dr. Douglas Houghton Campbell (December 19, 1859 - February 24, 1953) was an American botanist.

Campbell was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. He graduated from Detroit High School in 1878, going on to study at the University of Michigan. He studied botany, learning new microscopy techniques, and becoming interested in cryptogramic (deciduous) ferns. He recieved his Masters degree in 1882, and taught botany at Detroit High School while he completed his PhD research. He completed his studies in 1886 and using his saving travelled to Germany to learn more microscopy techniques,he developed a technique to embed plant material in paraffin to make fine cross-sections.

When Campbell returned to the United States he took up a Professorship at the University of Indiana 1888 to 1891, writing the textbook Elements of Structural and Systematic Botany. In 1891 he became the head of the Botany deaprtment at Stanford University. During his time at Stanford he studies mosses and liverworts, producing The Structure and Development of Mosses and Ferns in 1895. His third book Lectures on the Evolution of Plants published in 1899, which became widely used as a botany. He also travelled extensively though the Pacific collecting samples, writing Outline of Plant Geography, published in 1926, about his travels.

Campbell was a member of a number of scientific institutions, he was president of the Botanical Society of America in 1913, elected to the National Academy of Sciences, a member of the Linnaean Society of London, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Deutsche Botanische Gesellschaft , the International Association of Botanists , and the American Philosophical Society.

Reference

• Smocovitis, V. B. Campbell, Douglas Houghton. American National Biography Online Feb. 2000.