Stillinger Herbarium

Louis F. Henderson established The Stillinger Herbarium at the University of Idaho when he became the school's first botanist. Then, a fire destroyed half of the herbarium collection and slowed the institution's growth. Despite this setback, the herbarium recovered and continued to thrive, becoming the largest herbarium in Idaho and the seventh largest in the Pacific Northwest.

In 1893, the University of Idaho in Moscow hired Louis F. Henderson as its first botanist. Henderson gave the school a collection of local plants he gathered for personal study, and in 1893, it became the foundation of the herbarium. Henderson became the herbarium's first director and retired in 1906. During this time, Henderson accumulated over 10,000 specimens from various locations in Idaho, storing the herbarium archives in the University of Idaho Administration building. However, a fire destroyed 85,000 specimens from the herbarium collection and Henderson's files, such as notebooks and letters, when the Administration building burned down on March 30, 1906. After 1908, when Henderson retired as director, the herbarium's growth was gradual but not forgotten. Botanists William H. Baker and J.H. Christ continued their exploration of the local plants and were significant contributors to the regrowth of the herbarium. By the mid-1900s, the collection had increased to about 50,000 specimens. The herbarium received additional aid to its development when Charles Roy and Nettie May Stillinger created the Stillinger Trust in 1957. Charles was a former university student and afterward became a teacher in botany and science. Charles and his wife dedicated their trust to the University of Idaho, with most of its income to the school herbarium and twenty percent to the Nettie May Stillinger Memorial Scholarship Fund. Their trust funded the development of the herbarium collection for the past sixty-six years and continues to do so to this day.

The herbarium saw a range of new directors that aided the collection's growth—starting with Douglass M. Henderson. He was in charge from 1972 to 1996 and doubled the plant archives' size. However, after his sudden death in 1996, Dr. Pamela Brunsfeld took over in 2001 until 2008. Brunsfeld was an Instructor of Systematic Botany at the university. After the resignation of Brunsfeld, the current director, Dr. David Tank, began. Tank is a biologist and leads active collection-based research programs involving students, staff, and professional hobbyists to aid in the growth and development of the Stillinger Herbarium. Tank's program has led to the current collection of 215,000 specimens, making it a major resource for studying the plants of Idaho and the Pacific Northwest.

Location

Metadata