University Herbarium (University of Michigan) records, 1744-1755, 1851-1981, 2001-2014 (majority within 1890-1955)

Summary

Creator:

University of Michigan. University Herbarium.

Abstract:

The University of Michigan Herbarium, started in 1837, is home to over 1.7 million species and is one of the world's leading botanical collections. The U-M Herbarium records collection includes correspondence, photographs, and research materials documenting early Herbarium history, U-M's ethno botanical research practices, and the international professional discourse surrounding botanical research.

Extent:

36.5 linear feet

Language:

English
Batak

Call Number:

2014136 Aa2

Authors:

Finding aid created by Lexy deGraffenreid (2014)

Background

Scope and Content:

The collection represents the Herbarium's actions as a collector of the historical correspondence and photographs of botanical researchers. The records contained within this collection primarily document the research methods and professional conversations of American botanists. Through the correspondence and papers of Michigan and U-M botanists, this collection also documents the development of the Herbarium, its activities, and its status as a collector of botanical specimens and historical records. Researchers should note that there are photographs and plant specimens scattered throughout the correspondence series, and whereas the plant specimens are noted in the box listing, the photographs are not. The collection's four series include Harley Harris Bartlett Papers, Herbarium Historical Correspondence, Herbarium Historical Photographs, and Archived Website.

Biographical / Historical:

The history of the U-M Herbarium goes back to the November 18, 1837 Board of Regents meeting where Henry Schoolcraft presented a resolution calling for a "Committee on the Library, Philosophical Apparatus, and Cabinet of Natural History" which led to the appointment of Dr. Asa Gray as the first University of Michigan Professor of Botany and Zoology (Bartlett, 13). In 1838, the Herbarium's original collections were started due to state geologist Douglass Houghton's first geological survey of Michigan. In 1839, Dr. Houghton was appointed as Professor of Geology and Mineralogy, and the collected specimens were placed under his supervision. During the 1840s, the collections were moved into Mason Hall and the University continued to receive donated specimens, including from Dr. Houghton and from Abram Sager (Mains, 1442-1443).

In 1855, the collections were gathered into the developing natural history museum under the direction of Alexander Winchell. At this time, the botanical specimens were under the same purview as geological and zoological specimens. Through the 1860s and 1870s, the Herbarium continued to receive donations, including from botanists Dr. George L. Ames, Josiah T. Scovell, Mary O. Rust, and Marcus Baker. These collections were placed under the now established Museum of Zoology. To manage the collections, Mark Walrod Harrington was appointed as an assistant and cataloged the collections. In addition, Louisa M. Reed and Elizabeth C. Allmendinger provided voluntary support to develop the herbarium and catalog the collections. Ms. Allmendinger engaged in plant switching with other institutions and published a list of plants within the Ann Arbor area, donating her personal collection to the herbarium (Ibid., 1443-1446). Throughout this time, professors in the Department of Botany were active in development of the collections. This established a norm where botany professors concurrently acted as curators of herbarium collections.

In 1876, Assistant Professor Joseph Beal Steere and Volney M. Spalding were placed in charge of the herbarium's collections. In 1879, Steere was given the official title of Curator for the museum. An 1881 reorganization of the museum by the Board of Regents split the management of the geology, zoology, and botany collections, stipulating that the professor in charge of instruction for a given topic should be the curator of its museum collection. As the Professor of Botany, Volney M. Spalding thus became curator. In the same year, the collection moved into the newly constructed museums building, with a new herbarium workspace established in 1893. During this time, although the Museum of Zoology had the official herbarium collections, the Department of Botany maintained a separate herbarium collection (Ibid., 1446-1447; Bartlett, 9).

The early 20th century saw significant changes for the botanical collections and the ultimate formation of the U-M Herbarium. In 1904, Spalding resigned, and Frederick Charles Newcombe was appointed Professor of Botany while Charles A. Davis was appointed curator of the collection. In addition, in 1905, the state legislature passed a bill establishing a new biological survey of Michigan under state geologist Alexander G. Ruthven. Due to the increasing collections, and increased interest in the collections, in 1908 staff numbers increased and in 1912, the curation of the collection was split into Curator of Cryptogamic Herbarium (Calvin H. Kauffman) and Curator of Phanerogamic Herbarium (Henry A. Gleason). A disastrous fire in 1913 destroyed a significant portion of the collections and a new museums building was not completed until 1915. To grow the collection, many new donations were received, including from Charles Keene Dodge, of the Michigan Biological Survey. Dodge's collection of 35,000 specimens was curated separately under Cecil Billington.

The herbarium as it stands today was established in 1921 under Director Calvin H. Kauffman. In 1921, the botanical collections, the herbaria of the Department of Botany, the herbarium in the Museum of Zoology, and Dodge's collections were united into the Herbarium of the University of Michigan and given a separate budget. Kauffman and John H. Ehlers were appointed curators, with Cecil Billington as an Honorary Curator. In 1926, Dr. Bessie B. Kanouse was appointed Curator and Assistant to the Director. By 1929, the Herbarium contained nearly 185,000 specimens in classified collections, and 75,000 undistributed specimens. This same year, the Herbarium purchased the collections of Professor Bruce Fink, adding over 16,700 specimens to the collection and bringing Joyce Hedrick Jones to the University as a research assistant (Mains, 1447-1449).

In 1930, an agreement between the Carnegie Institution and the University of Michigan led to biological surveys of Central America, including British Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico, until the cooperation ended in 1939. Several U-M faculty members and staff participated in expeditions, including the Botanical Gardens Director Harley H. Bartlett, Joseph B. Steere, and Cyrus Lundell. These studies grew the Herbarium collections considerably and led to many publications about botanical research in Central America. The Second World War interrupted the activities of the herbarium. Several herbarium staff took leaves of absence to assist with the war effort, including explorations in South America for the Board of Economic Warfare, and Professor Bartlett's work with the armed forces advocating botanical collection by armed forces abroad (Ibid., 1450-1451). Following the war, the botanical collections grew significantly with continued botanical expeditions and due to donations by botanists such as A.H. Poval, Paul M. Rea, E. B. Copeland, and Harley H. Bartlett (Ibid., 1454; Rogers & Shaffer, 3-4). The acquisition of Harley H. Bartlett's specimens changed the Herbarium's collections from a predominantly locally-focused institution into a large, international research collection. (Rogers & Shaffer, 4) After 1975, the collecting policies of the Herbarium shifted towards diversifying the collections through targeted gifts and exchanges rather than through field work, however field work has continued in North America and Mexico. In 1956, the Herbarium was absorbed into the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, remaining as a separate unit until July 1, 2011 when it became part of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (Reznicek).

The Herbarium's later research projects began with Professor Edward Voss' Michigan Flora Project, which started in 1956 and lasted for more than 40 years. The Michigan Flora Project led to the publication of the three volume Michigan Flora series and the Herbarium's current Michigan Flora database. In addition to the Michigan Flora Project, the U-M Herbarium contributed to several projects, including the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, Flora Novo Galiciana, Flora of North America, Mosses of Mexico, Mosses of the Great Lakes Forests, Flora of China, and Flora of the Venezuelan Guyana. In 1974, the Herbarium was designated by the American Society of Plant Taxonomists as one of the 25 National Resource Center Collections in the United States and was ranked as one of the top three herbaria in the country. The U-M Herbarium is also a leader in digitizing herbaria collections, beginning with a 1977 database of seed plant types (Reznicek). The U-M Herbarium currently houses one of the best botanical collections in the world, housing over 1.7 million specimens, including renowned collections of vascular plants, algae, bryophytes, fungi, and lichens.

Early Curators

Date	Event
1839-1846	Douglas Houghton
1846-1848	Silas H. Douglass
1848-1855	Abram Sager
1855-1873	Alexander Winchell
1868-1876	Mark Walrod Harrington
1868-ca. 1881	Joseph Beal Steere
1873-1875	Eugene Woldemar Hilgard
ca. 1866-ca. 1882	Elizabeth C. Allmendinger
ca. 1873-ca. 1889	Louisa M. Reed (Stowell)
1876-1904	Volney M. Spalding
1905-1908	Charles A. Davis
1905-1908	Brown Forest Buffen H.
1912-1920	Calvin H. Kauffman
1912-1916	Henry A. Gleason
1916-1918	John H. Ehlers
1918-1921	Cecil Billington

Directors

Date	Event
1921-1930	Calvin H. Kauffman
1931-1959	Edwin B. Mains
1959-1972	Alexander H. Smith
1972-1975	Rogers McVaugh
1975-1986	Robert L. Shaffer
1986-1999	William R. Anderson
(1994-Acting Director)	Anton A. Renicek
1999-2002	Gerald R. Smith
2003-2005	David P. Mindell
2006-Current	Paul E. Berry

Later Curators

Date	Event
1926-ca. 1960	Bessie B. Kanouse
1930-1966, 1976-1982	William Randolph Taylor
1934-1959	Alexander H. Smith
1944-1959	Joyce Hedrick Jones
1945-1950	William Campbell Steere
1946-1979	Rogers McVaugh
1960-1996	Edward G. Voss
1960-1993	Robert L. Shaffer
1960-1991	Warren H. Wagner, Jr.
1965-1995	Howard A. Crum
1978-2003	Robert D. Fogel
1978-Current	Anton Reznicek
1997-2006	Michael J. Wynne

-------------------

References:

Bartlett, Harley H. The History of Botany at the University of Michigan through the First Century, 1837-1937. Bentley Historical Collection, Herbarium records, Box 21, folder 1. c.1951.

Mains, Edwin B. "History of the University of Michigan Herbarium, 1837-1953. http://um2017.org/2017_Website/History_of_Herbarium.html. 1956.

McVaugh, Rogers and Robert L. Shaffer. History of the University of Michigan Herbarium, 1940-1970. http://um2017.org/2017_Website/History_of_Herbarium_2.html. 1976.

Reznicek, Anton. Recent History of the University of Michigan Herbarium (1976-present). 2013.

Acquisition Information:

This record group was received from the University Herbarium (donor no. 10914 ) in April, 2013 and from the University of Virginia Mountain Home Biological Station (donor no. 11062 ) in February, 2014.

Accruals:

Periodic additions to the collection are expected.

Rules or Conventions:

Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)

Related

Additional Descriptive Data:

Related Material

The Bentley Historical Library has a collection of Harley H. Bartlett papersreceived from the Bartlett estate. Bartlett's collections of botanical specimens can be accessed through the University of Michigan Herbarium. Bartlett's collections of Batak manuscripts and other anthropological materials can be accessed through the University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology and the American Philosophical Society.

Additional archival material related to the historical correspondence collected by the Herbarium can be found in several archives.

1. A collection of Emma J. Cole's papers and botanical specimens is located in the Grand Rapids Public Museum (Accession no. 2008.43.1).
2. Collections for Ernst A. Bessey are located at the Michigan State University archives (Index no. UA17.5 and 00116).
3. Collections related to Edward Tuckerman are available through the American Antiquarian Society and the Amherst College Archives (Call no. MA.00043).
4. A collection of Charles E. Plitt's papers are available at the USDA's National Agricultural Library's special collections
5. A collection of Clarence R. Hanes papers is available at Western Michigan University (call no. A-81).

Subjects

Click on terms below to find any related finding aids on this site.

Subjects:

Batak (Indonesian people)
Botany.
Botany -- Pictorial works.
Ethnology.
Ethnology -- Pictorial works.
Mycology.
Botany.

Formats:

Black-and-white negatives.
Photographs.

Names:

United States. Bureau of Plant Industry.
United States. Office of Rubber Investigations.
University of Michigan. Department of Botany.
University of Michigan -- Faculty.
University of Michigan. Matthaei Botanical Gardens.
University of Michigan. University Herbarium.
Bartlett, Harley Harris, 1886-1960.
Allmendinger, Elizabeth C., 1837-1909.
Clemens, Mary Strong, 1873-1968.
Davis, Charles Albert, 1861-
Dodge, Charles Keene, 1844-1918.
Ehlers, John Henry.
Hanes, Clarence R. (Clarence Robert), 1874-1956.
Herbst, William.
Jones, Joyce, 1897-1980.
Kanouse, Bessie Bernice, 1889-
Kauffman, C. H. (Calvin Henry), 1869-1931.
McIlvaine, Charles, 1840-1909.
McVaugh, Rogers, 1909-2009.
Mains, E. B. (Edwin Butterworth), 1890-1968.
Merrill, Elmer D. (Elmer Drew), 1876-1956.
Rea, Paul Marshall, 1878-
Sterling, Edward Boker.
Tuckerman, Edward, 1817-1886.

Places:

Indonesia -- Description and travel.
Philippines -- Description and travel.