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Joel Roberts Poinsett


 

Joel Roberts Poinsett (March 2, 1779December 12, 1851) was a physician, botanist and American statesman. He was a member of the United States House of Representatives, the first United States Ambassador to Mexico, a U.S. Secretary of War under Martin Van Buren and a cofounder of National Institute for the Promotion of Science and the Useful Arts, (a predecessor of the Smithsonian Institution), as well as the namesake of Poinsett County, Arkansas and the poinsettia, a popular Christmas flower.

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