MONTU Herbarium

The University of Montana Herbarium has faced challenges since Dr. Morton Elrod created it in 1897. They confronted the consequences of the draining effects of World War II and fought to maintain their space. It overcame these problems and became the largest collection in Montana, with over 136,000 vegetation samples.

The University of Montana Herbarium (MONTU) in Missoula, Montana, traces its origins back to 1897 when the university hired its first Professor of Biology, Dr. Morton Elrod. His employment marked the establishment of the herbarium, as Dr. Elrod brought a personal collection of local plants, providing precise details for each sample discovery. This collection laid the foundation for the first University of Montana Herbarium collection. Upon Dr. Elrod's retirement in 1928, the herbarium experienced a series of curator changes over the next sixty years. The first of these curators was Charles Leo Hitchcock, who gained the responsibility in 1932. Under Hitchcock's leadership, the herbarium underwent significant developments. He relocated the collection to the second floor of the Natural Science building and initiated a program to create multiple copies of all plant specimens for exchange with other universities. By the mid-1930s, Hitchcock's efforts had expanded the herbarium to tens of thousands of specimens.

In 1937, Hitchcock left, and Dr. Fred Barkley succeeded him as the curator and became the botany instructor. During his first three years, Barkley acquired 4,000 sheets of pressed plant specimens for the herbarium and sent out 6,000 specimens to exchange with other herbariums. He resigned in 1945, leading to the selection of Dr. LeRoy Harvey as a Professor of Botany and the herbarium curator in 1946. World War II disturbed the early years of Harvey's tenure due to the university’s resources and time going towards the war, which temporarily slowed the herbarium's growth. With limited resources for research, Harvey focused on maintaining the herbarium space. Over his thirty-year tenure, Harvey made notable advancements, including replacing old wooden cabinets with steel storage to protect samples from insects better. He also discarded specimens that had  incomplete labeling and added 10,000 to 12,000 new specimens, many of which were from Glacier National Park. 

Following Harvey's resignation in 1977, the herbarium underwent various short-term caretakers until 1981, when Dr. Kathleen Peterson assumed the role of a long-term curator. During her seven-year leadership, the herbarium reached a milestone by gaining its 100,000th specimen. After Peterson left in 1988, the university merged the herbarium with the Division of Biological Sciences in 1990, and collection managers took on curatorial responsibilities. Then, in 1994, a group of scientists received a grant and sought to use the herbarium space for their research, but there was limited faculty support in saving it. A group of individuals outside of the herbarium recognized its value and led a campaign to protect it. They wrote to the university's president in support and raised $10,000 to purchase additional cabinets, ultimately saving the herbarium from being displaced. The gathering of individuals led to the formation of the Friends of the UM Herbarium group in 1996. They played a vital role in maintaining the herbarium's attraction and supporting its growth. Since its founding, the herbarium has transformed Elrod's original collection into an archive housing over 136,000 plant specimens.

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