American Journal of Botany 93(7): 942-952. 2006. Jub ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN BOTANY: A SHORT HISTORY anc Del OF THE BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 1 the for VASSIUK] B ETTY S MOCOVITIS Ew fiel ThE Department of Zoology and Department of History, University of FIOIi da, Gainesville, Florida 326 1I USA wa: ThE This paper offers highlights from the 100 (plus) years of the Botanical Society of America (BSA) and draws extensively on the rest archives of the BSA, In addit ion to examining the foundin g of the society and the attempt to " professionalize" botany in late 19th century America, the paper also explores the comp lex relations between the BSA and a number of related societies in the United apr States, the Society's struggle to create a coherent identity for itself, the place of botany as a who le in the context of the burgeoni ng rig! biological sciences in the 20lh centu ry, and the changing role of the BSA in an international context. The paper assesses both the em achievements and the challenges facing the BSA. It closes by offering some historical reflections on the status of "botany" as bot a science and the historical significance of terms like " plant biology" and "plant science." eXI Ge Key words: American botany; Botanical Society of America; history of botany; scientific society. for the elit ".. " the number of real botanists is increasing in this country by year." itself to shifting conditions, some of which led to the collapse - F. C. Newcombe 10 Erwin Frink Smith, 18 August /895 of other less adaptab le societies, It has, in short, demonstrated be! the kind of evolution ary history well known to students of plant ,,, Botanical' is good! It fits a downsized world because it has primary An producers in its portfolio." evo lutionary biology. a ! -i-An onvmous , comment in fa vor orretaining name ofBotanical Society cal of America . subm itted by David Dilcher 10 the membership, pre August / 99/ EARLY HISTOR Y OF AMERICAN BOTANY to gel In the history and sociology of science, the founding of The society evolved largely through the efforts of late 19th InC a new scientific society is generally considered a critical event, century American botanists mostly living in the northeast. int especially in the history of a discipline, Serving as a kind of Their goa l was to professionalize the study of plants and to social apparatus for disciplinary interests, societies organize distance it-and themselves-from what they felt were the individua l practitioners into a functioning community of more amateurish efforts of their predecessors as well as many workers who generally share common backgroun ds, training, of their contemporaries, Spurred by developments in in­ methods, institutional bases, along of course, with common strumentation such as microscopy and methodologies such as aims and goals (Crane, 1972). As in the case of societies like sectioning and staining, the study of botany moved from more int the Botanical Society of America, they may also have accessible fieldw ork into a technica l laborat ory setting, raJ a geopolitical focus and a commitment to the scientific study rendering it the domain of an elite set of researchers whose ml of a group of organisms, such as plants. goals included experimental rigor combined with technical sl< In its IOO-plu s years of history, the Botanical Society of , know- how, This «new botany," which grew out of mostly na America has had a changing set of aims, played a number of European, especially German workers, rapidly made its way to different roles, and has drawn on varying kinds of members in American institutions where it attracted a new generation to diverse geographical as well as subdisciplinary affiliations , In Ai new areas such as plant anatomy and cytology, genetics, and o ~ some respects it has altered itself radically as it has responded plant pathology, as well as to a revivified physiology and o ~ to differen t pressures, while in others it has remained morphology (Morton, 1981; Overfield, 1993; Campbell et, al., remarkably constant. What it has shown is the ability to adapt 1999), Because of these new methods, understanding of plants ~ . I themselves was radically tran sformed in the middle decades of In I I Manuscript received 20 April 2006: revision accepted 10 May 2006. the 19th century, as phenomena such as the alternation of a The author acknow ledges the support and assistance of Judy Jernsted t, generations and cell theory, along with Darwinian evolution ~ members of the BSA Centenni al Planning Committee and the BSA staff, were recognized, As a result of such successes. plants also especially Bill Dahl, Wanda Lovan, Amy McPherson, Claire Hemingway, s1 and Beth Hazen. Archival research was facilitated by Doug Holland and increasingly began to serve not jus t as organisms of interest in G Andrew Colligan at the Library of the Missouri Botanical Garden, by the and of themselves, but also as the preferred tools and model w I archivists at the Botany Libraries at Harvard Unive rsity, and by the study organisms in burgeon ing areas like cytogenetics. ~ librarians at the University of Chicago, ComeII University, and the In the United States, additional institutional develop ments tl University of Florida, Research was supporte d by the University of Florida also transformed the map of botanical study, The Morrill Act of tl Scholar's Enhancement Award in the Humanities and the BSA, Kim 1862 created the land-grant institution system, recognizing the n Kleinman, Lee Kass, Bill Buck, Chris Haufler, David Dilcher, Scott need for and fueling both teaching and research in agricultural ~ Russell , Anitra Thorhaug, and Art hur Ga lston provide d add itional sciences; the expansion and reorganization of Americ an information for this project. (! universities led to the demand for the study of the life sciences; Note 0 11 primary sources: All minutes of the BSA are in the iJ Archives of the BSA and located at the headquariers of the BSA in St. and the founding and establishmen t of gardens that promoted ~ Louis, Missouri. Page numbers to the minutes are included when botanical research like the New York Botanical Garden and the i available. Missouri Botanical Garden, along with the establishment of t 2 Author for correspo ndence (e-mail: bsmoco [email protected] ) a number of natural history museums such as the Smithsonian, 942 July 2006] S MOCOV ITlS- A SHOR T H1ST ORY OF TH E BOTAN1 CAL SOCIETY OF AMERI CA 943 and the g ro wth of g overn me nt agenc ies like the U.S . Init ial 25 members of the Botanica l Society of Am erica Department of Agriculture, alongside pri vate founda tions like the Carnegie Inst ituti on all pro vided diverse institution al sites J. C. Arth ur F. V. Co ville c. S. Sargent for botani sts and for plant research gene rally (Rodg ers, 1944; G . F. A tkinso n D. C. Eaton" F. L. Sc ribner Ewan , 1969; O leso n and Vo ss, 1979; Vo lberg. 1983; Over­ L. H. Bai ley ** W. G. Farlow" J. Don nell Smi th field , 1993; Craig, 2005; Kin gsland, 20 05 ; M ickulas, in press). C. R. Barnes E. L. Gree ne R. Th a xt e r'~ * The num ber of people with a seri ou s sc ientific interest in pl ants C. E. Bess ey B. D. Halsted W. T release was therefore increasing greatly by the end of the 19th century. N. L. Britton A . Ho llick L. F. W ard * They in tum saw themselves as member s of an elite group of E. G . Britton C. MacMillan W. P. W ilson researchers unlike their amateur counterpa rts who had no D. H. Campbell" B. L. Robin son L. M . Un derwood app reciab le techn ical trai ning or held to little if any standard for J. M . Coulter rigorous ex perime ntal meth odol ogy. In the wid er contex t of an * Did not accept election emergi ng nati on al ide ntity too (W ie be, 1967), American ** Resign ed in 189 8 botan ists also sa w them sel ves as match ing the know-how and expertise of the ir European co unte rpa rts, es pecially in Germany and Britai n, who they felt had domina ted bot any for too lon g. G aining some measure of indepen den ce from Cha rles Reid Barnes ( 1858- 19 10) as the " founding fathe r of them increasingly became a major goal for the same gro wing the Society." elite. At that meeting, J0 charte r me mbers we re e lected who then The BSA thu s grew out of a set of shared concerns that elected an additional 15 (see inset). A committee was also ~ began to pre occupy a number of leaders of late 19th century formed to draft the cons titution of the new soc iety with William Trelease as cha ir. On 1 November 1893, Trelease sent m American bot any. The majo r ob stacle to the creation of a dr aft of the con stitution to all charter members and a spec ial a scientific soc iety specifically orga nized aro und some thin g flyer and reprint of the Botanical Gazette, the primary journal ca lled America n botan y, wo uld prove to be the persisten t for America n bo tan ists at that time, to mem bers of the prob lem that the BSA wo uld face for much of its history : ho w Bot ani cal Club .