A Flowering for the Ages

Botanists who classify and name plants are called plant taxono­mists, plant systema­tists, or systematic botanists, most of whom work in her­baria, a name first applied by Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778), the great Swedish systematist. A herbarium, the plant taxono­mist’s basic reference source, is a collection of preserved plant specimens, mostly pressed and dried (although certain specimens...
read more

Ewell Sale Stewart Library Books

Established in 1812 “for the encour­agement and cultivation of the sciences, and the advancement of useful learning,” the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia is the oldest natural sci­ences institution in the Western Hemi­sphere. The Academy’s Ewell Sale Stew­art Library, with its extensive collections of books, manuscripts, maps, paintings, and photographs, has been...
read more

Peter Kalm in Pennsylvania

The territory now recognized as Pennsylvania was once part of a Swedish colony stretching from Delaware to New York. Swedish farmers settled in small villages along the Delaware River, in southern New Jersey, and in the Hudson Valley. Established by the New Sweden Company in March 1638, it was administered from Fort Christina (Wilmington) in what is now Delaware. In 1655, a band of Dutch...
read more