William Grovenor McGinnies was an arid lands ecologist and educator, serving as University of Arizona Assistant Professor from 1927-1929, Associate Professor from 1930-1932, Acting Head of the Botany Department from 1932-1935, Director of Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research from 1960-1964, Director of Office of Arid Land Studies and Professor of Dendrochronology from 1965-1969, Research ecologist Office of Arid Land Studies from 1969-1974. The collection contains an original typescript of Mcginnies’ work originally published in 1981 as Discovering the Desert: Legacy of the Carnegie Desert Botanical Laboratory by the University of Arizona Press, Tucson, along with figures and photographs.