Joel Roberts Poinsett (March 2, 1779 – December 12, 1851) was an American physician, botanist and statesman. He was a member of the United States House of Representatives, the first United States Minister to Mexico (the United States did not appoint ambassadors until 1896), a U.S. Secretary of War under Martin Van Buren, and a cofounder of the National Institute for the Promotion of Science and the Useful Arts (a predecessor of the Smithsonian Institution), as well as the eponym of Poinsett County, Arkansas; Poinsett Highway, Poinsett Bridge, and Poinsett State Park in South Carolina; Lake Poinsett in South Dakota; and the poinsettia, a popular Christmas flower.
Read more about Joel Roberts Poinsett: Early Travels, Chile and Argentina, Return To The U.S., Political Career, Later Life
Famous quotes containing the words joel and/or roberts:
“They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”
—Bible: Hebrew Isaiah, 2:4.
The words reappear in Micah 4:3, and the reverse injunction is made in Joel 3:10 (”Beat your plowshares into swords ...”)
“I never could have thought of it,
To have a little bug all lit
And made to go on wings.”
—Elizabeth Madox Roberts (1880–1941)