University of Iowa Herbarium

The likely closing of the University of Iowa Herbarium has been known in botanical circles for some time, but this past week things have heated up: 'cease and desist' letters have been sent and the courts have imposed a temporary restraining order on the removal of the collection.

In 1998, an external review of the Department of Biological Sciences at the Univ. of Iowa recommended that the herbarium be closed and the specimens be moved to Iowa State University at Ames. This recommendation wound its way through both university administrations, and was ultimately approved by the outgoing president of the Univ. of Iowa.

The interim president and then-vice-president (now president) reviewed the decision and found it to be acceptable. However, the curator of University of Iowa Herbarium, Dr. Diana Horton, did not. Dr. Horton has been tirelessly fighting to retain the herbarium at the University of Iowa.

Articles, editorials and letters in the newspapers of Iowa for the past year have been voluminous, but the university administration has not been swayed.

On Monday, Iowa State herbarium representatives arrived at the Univ of Iowa to start packaging specimens for removal. Dr. Horton has documented what occurred from her perspective on the TAXACOM listserv, which has public archives available on the web (click on March 2004). As of Tuesday, a temporary restraining order had been imposed preventing removal of the specimens.

Links:

The University of Iowa Herbarium Endangered page, which features media coverage of the proposed closure. Although compiled by advocates of the Univ of Iowa herbarium, they seem to have included opposing viewpoints in the assemblage of articles and editorials.

Online Petition to keep the herbarium open. This page also gives a quick overview of the justification surrounding the herbarium's closure, with rebuttal by Dr. Horton.

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 11:28 PM on March 2, 2004

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