From Plant Press, Vol. 20, No. 3, July 2017.
By Gary A. Krupnick
The 15th Smithsonian Botanical Symposium was held at the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) and the U.S. Botanic Garden (USBG) on May 19, 2017. The symposium, titled “Exploring the Natural World: Plants, People and Places,” focused on the history of plant expeditions. Over 200 participants gathered to hear stories and learn about what motivated botanical explorers of the Western Hemisphere in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Eight speakers presented talks that took the audience on a trip across the Americas, from Canada in the north to Brazil in the south, and the islands of the Caribbean and the Galápagos.
Speakers, conveners, and award recipients of the 2017 Smithsonian Botanical Symposium at the National Museum of Natural History (from left): Laurence Dorr, Janet Browne, Eliane Norman, Jacques Cayouette, Pamela Henson, Robin Foster, Megan Raby, Daniel Stone, and Javier Francisco-Ortega. (photo by Ken Wurdack)
A day before the talks, several attendees joined behind-the-scenes tours of the Smithsonian Libraries’ Joseph F. Cullman 3rd Library of Natural History at NMNH. For the Symposium guests, the library displayed a wide selection of publications produced by scientific voyages of exploration. From early Renaissance travels (Belon, Tournefort, and others), through the great age of exploration (Cook, Dumont d’Urville, von Humboldt, Darwin, et al.), to the government-sponsored expeditions across the North American West in the mid- and late 1800s, these books are held for study and research. In addition, there were a few examples of “directions for collecting” that reveal how plants were gathered, prepared, preserved, documented, and transported as specimens (living or dried) in centuries past.
The symposium began with Laurence Dorr (Chair of Botany, NMNH) giving opening remarks. Since the lectures were taking place in Baird Auditorium, Dorr took the opportunity to talk about the theater’s namesake, Spencer Baird. A naturalist, ornithologist, ichthyologist, and dedicated collector, Baird was the first curator to be named at the Smithsonian Institution and eventually served as Secretary of the Smithsonian from 1878 to 1887. Among his successes, Baird dramatically expanded the Smithsonian’s natural history collections by obtaining specimens from the many U.S. exploring expeditions.
Kenneth Wurdack (NMNH Botany Curator and Chair of the Cuatrecasas Medal Committee) presented the 15th José Cuatrecasas Medal for Excellence in Tropical Botany to Robin Foster. This prestigious award is presented annually to a scholar who has contributed significantly to advancing the field of tropical botany. Foster, a Senior Conservation Ecologist at the Field Museum, was commended for his innovative efforts in cataloging the flora of Barro Colorado Island in Panama. Wurdack also spoke of Foster’s explorations of remote regions of Ecuador and Peru. In his acceptance speech Foster expressed his gratitude and thanked numerous mentors, collaborators, support staff, and his rapid assessment teams. He also encouraged field explorers to continue what they are doing.

The morning session began with a series of talks focusing on the 18th century explorations of Canada and the United States. Jacques Cayouette (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada) presented the first talk, “Moravian Missionaries as Pioneers of Botanical Exploration in Labrador (1765-1954).” He explained that missionaries of the Moravian Church, one of the oldest Protestant denominations, established missions along coastal Labrador in Canada in the late 1700s. The first mission was established in Nain in 1771. Within two years the first plant list, including 37 vascular plant species, was written, most likely by the missionary Christoph Brasen.