Gray Herbarium

The Gray Herbarium had its origins in the personal collections of Asa Gray (1810-1888), who is known as the "Father of American Botany" and a supporter of Charles Darwin. In 1842, Gray was called to Harvard as the new Fisher Professor of Natural History and head of the Botanic Garden founded by William Peck in 1807. At the time, Harvard had no herbarium or botanical library, just a small greenhouse and garden. So, Gray used whatever cash he could spare from his salary to build a library and herbarium, which soon took over his house.

In 1864 Gray offered his collections to Harvard with the stipulation that they build a suitable building to house them. That same year a small brick building was built, and the collections were moved. It is estimated that there were about 200,000 specimens in Gray's herbarium and approximately 2,200 books and pamphlets in his library at the time.

By the time that Gray retired from teaching in 1873, his herbarium had become the principal center for botanical research in the United States.

Today there are about 1,939,914 specimens in the Herbarium. Worldwide in scope, the Gray Herbarium is especially strong in representation for all of North America, including Mexico and the West Indies. The collection contains holotypes, syntypes, Asa Gray photo and isotypes of species described by staff members such as Gray, Watson, Fernald, Johnston, Robinson, Smith, Weatherby, Rollins, and Tryon. Exchange between Gray and J. D. Hooker, the De Candolles and others resulted in the deposition in the Gray Herbarium of isotypes or syntypes of taxa from around the world described by Gray's European contemporaries.

Many early or important individual collections were also deposited in the Gray Herbarium. In recent years the New World representation in the Herbaria has grown through staff collections and through exchange.