that all of the areas of teaching and research in the Museum are 

 marked by this peculiarity of integrating material from and 

 impinging upon several other disciplines. 



The Botanical Museum dates from 1858, when Asa Gray 

 wrote to Sir William Hooker, Director of the Royal Botanical 

 Gardens at Kew: "I must tell you in humble imitation of Kew I 

 am going to establish a Museum of vegetable products, etc., in 

 our University." Hooker sent over duplicate economic botany 

 materials from Kew, and these became the nucleus of a collec- 

 tion that grew in a somewhat desultory manner until 1878, when 

 its care was added to the many other duties of Professor George 

 Lincoln Goodale. Goodale saw this as the "germ of something 

 large and fine"* and felt ". . .that such an assemblage, freed of 

 casual elements and constructively developed along economic 

 lines, might function both as illustrative material for the teacher 

 and as a reference collection to which even the specialists might 

 turn for much-needed information — a place where rare drugs 

 could be identified or unusual fibres compared."* 



The University named Goodale first director of the Botanical 

 Museum in 1888, and the building of the Museum was com- 

 pleted under his direction in 1890. The period of active life of the 

 Museum dates actually from the naming of its first director. Not 

 the least unique aspect of this active life was the creation from 

 1887 through 1936 of the widely known Ware Collection of 

 Blaschka Glass Models of Plants which constitutes today, in 

 addition to its basic function as an adjunct in teaching botany, 

 the major public attraction in the University. 



Over its century and a quarter history, the Botanical Museum 

 has grown into one of the world recognized centres of research 

 in the plant sciences. Yet its reputation has developed differently 

 from that enjoyed by many other outstanding botanical institu- 

 tions, in part because the Museum's research, exploration and 

 teaching, both university and public, are interdisciplinary in 

 nature, transcending the usual strict boundaries of the plant 

 sciences. During the past half century, these aspects of the 

 Museum's activities have enjoyed an especially steady develop- 



♦Samuel Eliot Morison (Ed.) "The development of Harvard University. 1869 1929," 

 Harvard University Press. Cambridge. Mass. (1930). 



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