Object Record
Images
Metadata
Catalog Number |
PH00037794 |
Object Name |
Specimen |
Title |
Agrostis dispar |
Other Name |
Redtop |
Collector |
Benjamin Smith Barton |
Date |
before 1815 |
Description |
Agrostis dispar "Banks of Mohanic" Modern name: Agrostis gigantea |
Label |
Benjamin Smith Barton (1766-1815, APS 1789) was raised by a family of scientists with close connections to the American Philosophical Society, who encouraged his interest in botany from an early age. He studied medicine with a strong focus on medicinal plants and in 1789, Barton joined the College of Philadelphia, now the University of Pennsylvania, as the first professor of natural history in the United States. He also authored the first botanical textbook to be published in the United States in 1803. The earliest botanical specimens Barton and his collaborators gathered were for his two 1795 volumes of Herbarium Americanum, making Barton’s herbarium one of the oldest in the United States. In the following years, his herbarium at the APS grew to include over 2000 specimens, the nation’s largest herbarium of its time. This sheet contains a specimen of Agrostis dispar known today by the scientific name Agrostis gigantea and common name redtop. The sheet contains an inscription “Banks of the Mohanic” suggesting that this was the location where Benjamin Smith Barton collected this specimen. It is possible this refers to the Mohansic Lake located some 50 miles outside New York City. |
Credit line |
American Philosophical Society |
Search Terms |
19th century botany herbarium nineteenth century plant specimen |
Collection |
The Benjamin Smith Barton Herbarium |