May 31 2019
Biltmore, a Gilded Era mansion in Asheville, North Carolina, is America’s largest private home. The home and associated estate were commissioned by George Washington Vanderbilt II, grandson of the infamous railroad tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt. While his wealth lasted, Vanderbilt also used Biltmore as the nexus for the many botanical projects he sponsored.
Biltmore’s botanical activities were varied and ambitious, in many cases attracting experts from across the world. Gifford Pinchot, noted forester who would later serve as the first Chief of the US Forest Service, established the nation’s first school of forestry at Biltmore. Frederick Law Olmsted, celebrated landscape architect who designed Central Park in New York City, also designed the pleasure grounds and gardens at Biltmore. Finally, Chauncey Beadle, a Canadian azalea aficionado and trained agriculturalist, worked for decades as the director of Biltmore’s nursery and herbarium.
The Biltmore Herbarium, established in 1895, made significant contributions to southeastern American botany. This was partly due to its large staff of five botanists, unusual for a private herbarium. The herbarium briefly published its own journal, Biltmore Botanical Studies, which included taxonomic studies describing hundreds of new species. Although established to document the flora of the estate, the Biltmore Herbarium eventually broadened its focus, commissioning expeditions to states as far off as Colorado. At its height the Biltmore Herbarium housed between 100,000 and 500,000 plant specimens.
The herbarium was actively involved in trading specimens with many institutions. In 1896 the Biltmore purchased the collections of prominent Florida botanist Alvin Chapman, distributing duplicates to John Kunkel Small, NYBG's first herbarium curator. The specimens were invaluable to Small as he spent his career documenting the plants of the southeast. Small published Flora of the South Eastern United States, where many specimens from the Biltmore Herbarium were described as new species.
A lavish spender and poor investor, Vanderbilt quickly lost most of his fortune, and as a result stopped supporting the herbarium. The final blow came in 1916, when two hurricanes flooded the herbarium, destroying most of its collections. The specimens that remained were sent to the United States National Museum, where they have since been housed.
Although the Biltmore Herbarium was destroyed after only 21 years, it left a significant impression on American botany. Luckily, due to their collections trading policy, many specimens collected for Biltmore still exist. The New York Botanical Garden holds over 2,500 Biltmore specimens, including 118 type specimens.
