XVI International Botanical Congess

An identifiable discipline in the history of botany in North America did not emerge until the latter half of the twentieth century. Published botanical history items prior to the 1940s consisted primarily of short biographical sketches of medical, museum, or herbarium oriented botanists. During the 1940s North American botanical history was placed on a solid foundation with the publication of seven full-length book biographies of outstanding North American botanists by the Columbus, Ohio, lawyer turned writer, Andrew Denny Rodgers III. Equally important, his works included also the historical development of that facet of botany for which the individual was a leader. By mid-century and thereafter journals were created that published papers on botanical history and historical sections or programs were established in botanical organizations. Until the 1990s, the chief contributors to the history of taxonomic and herbarium oriented botany were Joseph and Nesta Ewan, Edmund and Dorothy Berkeley, and Emanuel D. Rudolph