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Abstract Detail


Historical Section

Sundberg, Marshall [1].

Botanical Education in the United States I. The Colonial Period through the Eaton/Nuttal Epoch.

The earliest botanists in the future U.S. were European collectors and naturalists working for European sponsors or as immigrants in collaboration with European mentors. They transplanted their European system to the new world through informal education, frequently in the home. The classic example is the education of Jane Colden by her father, Cadwallader. The first regular course in botany (natural history) was presented by Benjamin Waterhouse at “the college at Providence” [Brown University] in 1786-87, while he was Professor of the Theory and Practice of Physic at “the University at Cambridge” [Harvard]. Unlike his contemporaries on either side of the Atlantic, Waterhouse did not focus on the Linnaean System but began with a microscopic examination of the seed and followed its growth. While planted in New England, formal development of the botanical discipline soon migrated to Philadelphia and New York where Benjamin Smith Barton Americanized the European system and Amos Eaton instigated a new, inquiry-based pedagogy that found wide-spread support.

Broader Impacts:


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1 - Emporia State University, Biological Sciences, 1200 Commercial St, Emporia, Kansas, 66801, USA

Keywords:
botany education
Jane Colden
Benjamin Waterhouse
Benjamin Smith Barton
Amos Eaton.

Presentation Type: Oral Paper:Papers for Sections
Session: 18
Location: 556A/Convention Center
Date: Monday, August 2nd, 2010
Time: 2:00 PM
Number: 18001
Abstract ID:253


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