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Gardens was to seek support and funding from the New South Wales Government for 
construction of a substantial building for rapidly increasing collections and scientific 
and office staff. His outstanding vision, energy, persistence and powers of persuasion 
led to success in both cases, and the herbarium building was opened on 8 March 1901, 
within five years of his appointment at the Gardens. The early years of the Herbarium 
are the story of that dominant figure. Maiden, whose achievements encompassed also 
important developments in the Gardens and elsewhere, as well as many and varied 
scientific publications, contributions to scientific societies, community projects and 
adult education (Gilbert 2001). 
The new two-storey building incorporated an existing Museum room and Lecture 
Hall built in 1878, during Charles Moore's long directorship (1848-96). Most of the 
space on both levels held wooden racks for cardboard specimen boxes, interspersed 
with working areas for the few staff. The Lecture Hall and Museum displaying the 
economic uses of plants remained in regular use, continuing to give evidence of the 
importance Maiden also placed on education and outreach to the community. 
On arrival at the Gardens, Maiden had found a pitifully deficient library and 
specimens of only 'a thousand or two named species', but soon the library was 
growing and the spacious specimen rooms were filling, as Maiden and his staff 
collected enthusiastically, mostly wherever they could reach by train and foot, rarely 
by horseback. Botanical assistant Ernst Betche, collector John Boorman, and 
horticultural managers William Forsyth and Julius Camfield all contributed their 
specimen collections. Along with vascular plants, there were fungi, lichens, algae, 
bryophytes, plant products and wood specimens, with small sections devoted to 
teratological examples and plant galls. Specimen exchanges were established with 
leading herbaria worldwide and many of the specimens received for identification 
from all parts of New South Wales were retained for the collection. Part of the 
herbarium that Maiden had assembled during his 15 years at the Technological 
Museum was transferred; the remainder was received much later, in the 1980s. During 
a visit in 1900 by Maiden to the British Museum (Natural History) in London, the case 
was strongly and successfully made for sending to Sydney duplicates of the Banks 
and Solander collections from Cook's voyage in 1770; more than 800 duplicates were 
received. The efforts of knowledgeable amateur collectors were encouraged and some 
significant collections purchased. The emphasis was on developing comprehensive 
local and world representation of taxa; since resources were limited the specimens 
remained largely unmounted. 
The botanical output of the Herbarium was overwhelmingly that of Maiden, who 
worked individually on Eucalyptus, Acacia, the Forest Flora of Neiv South Wales and on 
plants of economic importance, but also published with his colleagues Betche, Blakely 
and Cambage on a wide range of groups. Alone or with colleagues he was responsible 
for a vast and varied range of scientific publications and other articles, including the 
description of more than 300 new species. Excellent illustrations by Margaret Flockton 
contributed to many of the publications. 
Almost single-handedly. Maiden had built a scientific and international reputation for 
the Herbarium but this was not maintained in the decades following his retirement in 
1924. With the backdrop of economic depression, resources were grossly inadequate 
and leaders lacked vision for the scientific or community roles of the organisation. 
Added to this was a worldwide reduction in the scientific standing of taxonomy. The 
administrative control of Gardens and Herbarium was divided, with a Gardens 
Curator and a Herbarium Curator (or later Chief Botanist), instead of a unitary 
position of Director. All had been within the New South Wales Department of 
Agriculture since 1880, but for years the Herbarium was administratively separated as 
a Branch of the Science Services Division of that Department. Moreover, these decades 
