American Museum of Natural History Research Library
author: American Museum of Natural History

American Museum of Natural History. Department of Forestry; Department of Forestry; Department of Woods and Forestry; Department of Forestry and Conservation; Department of Forestry and General Botany; Department of Conservation and General Ecology; Department of Vegetation Studies
birth: 1881
death: 1961
There has never been a formal department of Botany at the American Museum of Natural History. However, throughout the museum’s history there has been botanical activity and a close association with the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) and Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Additionally, the museum curated an important collection of the woods of North America, managed by The Department for Woods and Forestry. The president’s report of 1908 outlined the subjects and divisions of science the museum was to administer; forestry and forest conservation was included in this. However, it was stated that “this, with the Jesup Wood Collection, is the only invasion of the science of Botany” the museum would enter into. (1)
Morris Ketchum Jesup (1830-1908), was President when he announced in 1881 he would fund an initiative to collect specimens of all the woods of North America. The collection, which became known as The Jesup Collection of North American Woods, was to be a branch of a new Economic Department at the museum; Jesup’s collection would focus on Economic Botany. The aim was to collect specimens that demonstrated the uses of North America’s natural resources and what they could be used for. (2) Professor Charles Sprague Sargent (1841-1927), Director of the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard University, was recruited to collect the specimens. Almost 500 species of wood were collected; 470 specimens by Sargent; the rest obtained by connections Jesup made with railroad and logging companies.
Funding began in 1903 for a Department of Forestry and was formally established in 1908, containing Jesup’s collection. Jesup curated it until his death in 1908, when Mary Cynthia Dickerson (1866-1923) was hired as an assistant to the collection. Dickerson was instrumental in rearranging the collection and contributed heavily to education programs for the collection and its general administration. It was a small department and whilst Dickerson was successful in obtaining funding for an assistant curator in 1916, this arrangement only lasted until December 1918 when the assistant curator, retired from the museum and was not replaced. (3)
It was often assumed the museum had a department of botany with many inquiries received during Dickerson’s time as curator asking for botanical identifications or related queries. In most cases, a reply would be sent informing the enquirer there was no botany department at the museum and their inquiry was being forwarded to the NYBG for answer. (4)
When Dickerson retired from the museum through ill-health in 1919, she was not replaced and the department ceased meaningful activity. When Frederick A. Lucas (1852-1929), director, retired in 1924, he became the honorary director and also honorary curator of the department, until his death in 1929. In 1926, he wrote a report commenting “establishment of a department devoted to the dendrology of the world” had never been contemplated and would “under existing conditions” not be advised. His report recorded the condition of the collection and the possibilities of what could be done with it as recommendations for whoever was to take over the running of it. The most significant thing to happen to the collection under Lucas’ tenure was its movement from attic of the south west wing of the museum to the attic of the school services building. (5)
It was not until 1938 that any meaningful attempt was made to reestablish the department. Clarence L. Hay (1884-1969), a trustee was appointed as honorary curator for the department on January 10, 1938. (6) With this revival, the name of the department was changed to The Department of Forestry and Conservation.
Between 1938 and 1961, when the department ceased activity permanently, it underwent many name changes and reorganization. In 1946, it became known as The Department of Forestry and General Botany, the first reference to botany at the museum since its inception in 1869. Henry Knute Svenson (1897-1986), formerly Curator of the Herbarium at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens was appointed as consultant and oversaw the planning and construction of the Landscape Hall, which was completed in 1951. In the same year, the construction began on the Hall of North American Forests, which was opened in May 1958. Another name change occurred in 1953, when it became known as The Department of Conservation and General Ecology. The department was downgraded to a special activity in 1956 and became known as the Department of Vegetation Studies.
There were plans to create a Hall of Plant Science or Botany Hall, with Dr. Erika Rawitscher appointed as Botany consultant (7). The first proposal for this came in 1954 when M. F. Buell produced a report suggesting layout and arrangement of such a hall. (8) A Botany Hall is again referenced in the annual report of 1959, when it is noted “considerable reference material was gathered for the projected Hall of Botany”. (9) This is the last time such a hall is referenced and the museum terminated its full-time staff program in Vegetation Studies in 1961, with Jack McCormick, the department head, moving to the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology at Ohio State University. (10)
Botanical activity was apparent at the museum despite there being no Botany department, particularly during the early to mid-twentieth century. The most common activity was the collecting of botanical specimens on expeditions and transfer of these to institutions in the New York Metro area for deposit, most notably the NYBG and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. This happened in a variety of ways; the museum would collect botanical specimens and offer them to an institution; an arrangement would be made prior to an expedition with the institution that botanical specimens collected would be transferred on or, as was the case with some expeditions, the NYBG provided a salary for a botanical collector or requested specimens to be collected, for inclusion in their collections.
The earliest example of this activity was the Jesup North Pacific Expedition. The Siberian team had collected a box a botanical specimens and upon return in 1904, these were offered to the NYBG who accepted them for their collection. (11)
The Department of Mammology was the department most active in botanical collecting and in corresponding with the NYBG regarding botanical specimens. George H. H. Tate, a curator in the department collected a large amount of botanical specimens in 1926 on the Ladew Peruvian Expedition, which was presented to the NYBG upon their return. Tate went on to collect botanical specimens on many more expeditions.
In 1934, plans were established in the Mammology department to create an ecological sub-section of the department consisting of duplicate botanical specimens from South America and Bolivia the department had collected. Advice was sought from the NYBG for identifications of the duplicates, so labels could be attached when the plants were mounted. (12) In 1981, Tate’s 638 sheets of duplicates from the Ladew Peruvian Expedition were transferred to the NYBG for permanent deposit. Henry Rusby, who had been assigned to identify and report on Tate’s collection, had died before it could be identified completely and the specimens were filed systematically with only partial identifications. Tate’s duplicate set enabled the NYBG to complete the identifications. (13)