From Plant Press, Vol. 19, No. 4, October 2016.
By Laurence J. Dorr
With presidential politics dominating the news I began to wonder whether or not a president had ever visited the U.S. National Herbarium. Sitting presidents have visited the National Museum of Natural History but as best I can tell none has ever toured Botany. I cannot remember any presidential candidate visiting the museum which is a shame because certainly the museum and herbarium would make a great “photo op” if one wanted to address compelling environmental issues such as biodiversity, extinction, climate change, etc. We have had high ranking officials appointed by the president visit Botany. I remember one sitting cabinet member visiting the herbarium and I know that one retired Supreme Court justice has been given a tour. My complaint about lack of attention from the president or presidential candidates is not an argument that the U.S. National Herbarium lacks connections to the presidency. We in fact have several interesting connections.
Onagraceae is one of the plant families recently digitized as part of our “conveyor belt” project (see The Plant Press 19(1): 1, 13-15. 2016) and when the label transcriptions were reviewed I was reminded that we have a specimen (US01361622) of fireweed (Chamaenerion angustifolium (L.) Scop.) collected by President Chester A. Arthur in Yellowstone National Park in 1883. The label is typewritten and probably not original. The specimen does have a separate printed annotation that certainly is original. It states simply “Executive Mansion, Washington.” Arthur was suffering from nephritis and the trip to Yellowstone was intended to improve his health. Firewood in bloom would catch anyone’s attention but why President Arthur, who had no particular interest in Botany or natural history, would collect just one herbarium specimen and donate it to the Smithsonian is beyond me. His time away from Washington may have given him a respite but his health did not improve and Arthur died in 1885 after completing his sole term in office. It appears that this Yellowstone fireweed is the only herbarium specimen that we have collected by a sitting American president.
We also have other specimens associated with presidents. Theodore Roosevelt who occupied the Executive Mansion (a.k.a. the White House) twenty years after President Arthur established a reputation for supporting conservation and even earned credentials as a naturalist. Very shortly after serving his sole term as president Roosevelt headed to East and Central Africa on safari. Although he collected numerous zoological specimens for the Smithsonian and the American Museum of Natural History there is nothing to suggest that Roosevelt took the slightest interest in the African flora. The expedition did collect plants, but this was principally the work of Dr. Edgar A. Mearns. Mearns, an Army surgeon and naturalist, was an experienced plant collector and had earlier made important plant collections while serving on the United States-Mexican International Boundary Commission (1892-94). The labels on Mearns’ African collections acknowledge the former president; the printed header is “Smithsonian African Expedition, under the direction of Col. Theodore Roosevelt (1909-10).” The choice of title, Colonel versus President, undoubtedly was made by Roosevelt.
Dr. Waldo L. Schmitt, curator of the Division of Marine Invertebrates in the U.S. National Museum, collected algae and vascular plants as a guest of President Franklin D. Roosevelt on a very brief cruise in 1938 aboard the U.S.S. Houston. The cruise embarked from San Diego, visited Baja California, Socorro and Clipperton islands, and Cocos Island before transiting the Panama Canal and returning to Pensacola, Florida. Labels on specimens in the U.S. National Herbarium have the header “Presidential Cruise, 1938 Received through the Honorable Franklin D. Roosevelt.” The algae and plants collected on the cruise were certainly incidental to Schmitt’s primary interest in marine invertebrates and as with Theodore Roosevelt there is no reason to assume that his distant cousin Franklin had any particular interest in Botany.
If we expand our inquiry beyond the United States the U.S. National Herbarium can lay claim to having a handful of specimens collected by a former president of Venezuela. Dr. José María Vargas became a physician in 1808 and then near the end of 1813 traveled from South America to Edinburgh to continue his medical training. His mentor in Scotland had connections with the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and may have introduced Vargas to Botany. In any case, Vargas also visited continental Europe before returning to the Americas in 1817. At first he resided in Puerto Rico where he practiced medicine and where he had direct or indirect contact with the botanists Auguste Plée and Carlos Bertero. He returned to his native Venezuela in 1825. Somewhere between Europe, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela Vargas began corresponding with Augustin Pyramus de Candolle and between 1829 and 1834 sent several hundred specimens collected in Venezuela to this Swiss botanist who cited many of them in his Prodromus. Vargas was then pulled from his medical and academic life into politics and from 1835 to 1836 served briefly as president of Venezuela. The botanical activities of Vargas antedate the establishment of the Smithsonian Institution and the handful of collections we have were not acquired until 1913 through the intercession of Henri Pittier who had established strong ties to the Smithsonian and collected botanical specimens for the U.S. National Herbarium first in Costa Rica and then in Venezuela.
Although the Museum is situated between the White House and the U.S. Capitol most of us interested in science spend little time in either of the latter two buildings. Presidential motorcades regularly travel Constitution Avenue and pass by the Natural History building. We can only hope that a future president will take notice not only of the impressive building but also the work that goes on within its walls. Perhaps he or she will even augment our collection of presidential specimens.
Comments