Behind the Scenes at the Milwaukee Public Museum Herbarium

The Botanical Club of Wisconsin will be holding the December monthly meeting on a Thursday in Milwaukee at the Milwaukee Public Museum. We'll be celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Botany Department at the MPM by getting a behind-the-scenes tour of the herbarium. The MPM herbarium was established in the 1850s, but the museum did not have afull time botanist on staff until Huron Smith was hired in 1917. Discover the history of this important collection where botanists like Lloyd Shinners (founder of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas), Richard Pohl (Iowa State University), and BCW's own Robert Freckmann (UW-Stevens Point) started their careers and others like Albert Fuller (orchids & Rubus), Huron Smith (ethnobotany) and Carl Taylor (ferns & quillworts) spent their careers. We'll see John T. Curtis's moss collection (author of The Vegetation of Wisconsin), collected while he was an undergraduate and the facilities available to researchers at the museum. Snacks will be provided.