George Herbert Conant

Class of 1920: Botanical products

George Herbert Conant grew up on a farm outside of Ripon and parlayed his early interest in science and botany into an enduring business which shares botanical slides for schools.

He was born June 6, 1896, in Ripon and focused on botany while still in high school. He served during World War I. At Ripon, he majored in biology and English and participated in Glee Club, College Days as editor in chief, Crimson yearbook, Student Council and YMCA. He was a charter member of Phi Kappa Pi. (Merriman).

He also served as a fellow in English and botany and vice president of Men’s League. As a student assistant in biology, he started making botanical microscope slides.

He earned his master’s degree in 1923 and his doctorate in plant pathology in 1926 from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. When a professor there observed Conant’s work on a revolutionary quadruple stain process for botanical slides, he encouraged Conant to pursue commercial slide production.

In 1926, Conant founded Triarch Inc. while serving as an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania-Philadelphia.

He returned in Ripon in 1929 and opened Triarch Botanical Products in the family home at 719 Watson St. Conant developed botanical and zoological slides for the study of plants, trees and animals for grade school, high school and college educational systems throughout the world. Histological, embryological and zoological slides later were added.

“Ninety-five percent of the things described in a botany textbook thrive around Ripon within a day’s drive,” Conant said. Each June, he made a collecting trip through Wisconsin — copper country, Superior, Duluth, over the Mississippi River and back to Ripon, an area he said was one of the best collecting grounds in the United States.

“Our most popular items are lilac leaves, corn stems, lily structures, pine needles and mushrooms,” he said.

Products were shipped to more than 10,000 schools and learning institutions, with more than 250,000 slides readily available for customer ordering. A larger facility opened in 1965 on Union Street in Ripon.

Conant’s son, Paul, took over the business and ran it for 55 years. The third and fourth generations continue the business in 2026. Another son, George Herbert Conant Jr., was a member of the Ripon College Class of 1949.

In the city of Ripon, Conant was a member of the Ripon American Legion Post, the Rotary and Kiwanis club and the Ripon School Board.

He told Ripon his hobbies included color movies “and, you guessed it! Plants.”

Ripon’s Distinguished Alumni Citation was awarded to him in 1947. He humbly said he felt “citations should be made for accomplishments beyond the line of duty, whereas all I have done is to stick to the job and make a living for my family.”

He died May 15, 1970, at the age of 73.