New Ethnobtoany Exhibit at NMNH

From Plant Press, Vol. 10, No. 2 from April 2007.

 

In February, with guests from the Cultural Institute of Mexico and the Smithsonian Institution Latino Center in attendance, Cristián Samper unveiled the new North Lobby Research Case in the National Museum of Natural History. Entitled “Ethnobotany of the Southwest United States and Mexico,” this new exhibit results from three years of work by Rusty Russell, Bill Merrill and Jamie Whitacre to organize and prepare the data from more than 30,000 Botany and Anthropology specimens, personal journals, and archives materials. Using these collections, the bi-lingual exhibit tells six stories that describe the manner in which local cultures used specific plants more than 100 years ago. It also chronicles the work of Edward Palmer, whose collections of both plants and cultural objects have contributed significantly to the study of ethnobotany in North America.