By Amy Weiss
Apr 25 2025
The bombing of the military complex at Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1941, was a wake-up call for all Americans during the Second World War; including American museums. If the Japanese managed to cross thousands of miles over the Pacific Ocean to bomb Hawaii, it seemed just as likely that they could do the same to West Coast cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles. The Eastern Seaboard seemed equally vulnerable, with the successes of the German U-boat fleet in the Atlantic Ocean and the rapid German occupation of western Europe (Nicholas, 1994; Aikin, 2007). George L. Stout, then the chief of conservation at the Fogg Art Museum of Harvard University and future member of the Monuments Men, recalled that “everybody thought we were going to be bombed any moment the way London had been” (Lambert, 2014). With visions of Pearl Harbor and London’s Blitz on people's minds, American museums started to take steps to protect their collections.
Much has been written about the steps taken by American art museums (Nicholas, 1994), the threats faced by European herbaria (Merrill, 1943; Shetler, 1967; Hiepko, 1987; Till, 1994; Lotzof & Davis, 2018), and the threats faced by herbaria in the Pacific theater (Sleumer, 1949; Schultes, 1957; Howard, 1994). Here, I will focus only on the herbaria of the continental United States, a story that is less often told. While in hindsight, the mainland United States was not in danger of a large-scale attack, the disaster preparedness steps taken by American herbaria are still of great interest; as both a learning exercise and a guide in uncertain times.
Natural history specimens were not considered the same as works of art. In 1941, the Committee for the Conservation of Cultural Resources for Southern California summarized their priorities, including that: "the protection of treasures in history and art museums, being irreplaceable, should take precedence over the possessions of natural history museums, whose collections generally can more readily be replaced" (Harrington, 1941). Herbarium specimens in particular are often collected as duplicates—pieces of a single gathering of a taxon made by the same collector(s) at a single location at the same time—and these duplicates are often sent as gifts or exchange to other individuals and institutions. But if we set aside a debate over the value of natural history specimens, what these collections did agree on was that their type collections were the most valuable. For example, Clinton G. Abbott, the director of what is now the San Diego Natural History Museum, wrote in February 1942 that natural history collections were "not so irreplaceable as those of art and history museums" but that types are "our most valuable specimens" (Abbott, 1942). The botanist F. R. Fosberg, in December 1942, thought it was beyond belief that only three herbaria in the United States were taking steps to get their types out of bombing range, “considering that types are irreplaceable and that they are one of the basic assets of the science of botany” (Fosberg, 1942).
New York Botanical Garden
My interest in this story began when I was checking the type status of a herbarium specimen of Distylium lanceolatum, R. C. Ching 5512, that is held here at the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG). Reading an article written by E. H. Walker, I was struck by the statement that while a specimen of Ching 5512 is held by the Garden it was “unfortunately in safe storage for the duration of the war and is not available to study" (Walker, 1944). When I asked long-time herbarium and library staff what they knew about our war-time storage, no one had any additional information. Since I manage the vascular type collections in the William and Lynda Steere Herbarium at NYBG, I had to learn more and this story is the outcome of my investigation into this safe storage.
After the United States entered World War II, the Committee on Conservation of Cultural Resources recommended that cultural institutions should plan now for dangers from both enemy action and those arising from the pressures of emergency activities at home (demands for paper and floor space, depletion of staff and budgets). They cautioned that while evacuation is an extreme measure that may not have to be undertaken, preparations should be made "if your depository is located within 150 miles of either coast or near important military objectives" (Committee on Conservation of Cultural Resources, 1941). It seems that the New York Botanical Garden heeded the recommendations from the Committee and “with a view to shipping them inland for storage until the end of the war” (Gleason, 6 Mar 1942), the herbarium staff started pulling out type specimens at the beginning of March 1942 (Robbins, 1943). At the time, the herbarium filed their type specimens in with the general collection; so the types needed to be segregated before they could be boxed and shipped. Henry A. Gleason estimated that they were pulling two or three hundred specimens a day (Gleason, 6 Mar 1942). It should be noted that despite having a sizable cryptogamic collection, only types of vascular plants (seed plants and ferns) were pulled for safe storage during the war (Robbins, 1943).
The Garden started segregating type specimens before they knew exactly where they were going to store them “inland” (Gleason, 6 Mar 1942). Henry A. Gleason, head curator at the New York Botanical Garden, wrote to Perry D. Strausbaugh, head of the Department of Botany at West Virginia University (WVU) in Morgantown, West Virginia, on March 6, 1942 asking if WVU would be willing to store the Garden’s specimens during the war. Gleason outlined that the specimens would be wrapped and boxed (not in herbarium cabinets), would only require a dry place to stack the boxes, and that NYBG would pay for shipping (Gleason, 6 Mar 1942). Gleason’s archival papers housed at NYBG do not contain any letters about this wartime storage (S. Sinon, pers. comm., 2018), so we can’t read Strausbaugh’s exact reply, however, Gleason wrote back to Strausbaugh on March 16, 1942 accepting Strausbaugh’s offer to store the specimens with “thanks and alacrity” (Gleason, 16 Mar 1942). By examining other archival letters, the details can be filled-in regarding this storage arrangement. Strausbaugh coordinated the storage and care with Friend E. Clark, head of the Department of Chemistry at WVU, to store NYBG’s specimens in a dry, fireproof storage space in the Chemistry Hall, without cost, for the duration of the war (Robbins, 29 Apr 1942; Lawall, 1942; Lawall, 1945).
As to why West Virginia University was chosen, besides being inland, it seems there was frequent communication between botanists at both institutions. Earl L. Core (WVU) and Harold N. Moldenke (NYBG) were both grad students at Columbia University in the 1930’s (Fairey, 1985; Smith, 1996). Moldenke wrote to Strausbaugh (WVU) on January 20, 1942 shortly after he found out that he was to be drafted into the army “for the duration” (Moldenke, 1942). In the letter Moldenke, who registered as a conscientious objector, agrees with Strausbaugh that “the whole situation is so hopeless” and goes on to lament, “when, oh when, will Homo sapiens [sic] learn the utter futility of war! War never settles anything. All war does is breed more war.”
The first boxes of specimens arrived at WVU by May of 1942. In addition to herbarium type specimens, the Garden also sent various rare books and the papers of John Torrey and Nathaniel L. Britton, prominent New York botanists whose specimens are a cornerstone of NYBG’s herbarium (Robbins, 13 May 1942). Altogether 38 boxes of specimens and books, containing over 41,000 specimens, were stored in West Virginia (Robbins, 1943; Robbins, 1944). The director of the Garden, William J. Robbins, wrote to Clark at the end of September 1944, saying that it was time to return the collections to New York—and Clark did so at no cost to NYBG (Robbins, 1944; Clark, 1944).
As thanks for the safekeeping of the irreplaceable specimens and books, NYBG commissioned a plaque to be sent to WVU. Due to a shortage of bronze after the war, the plaque did not arrive at WVU until December 1948 (Lawall, 1945; Robbins, 1948). The Chemistry Hall at West Virginia University, where the specimens were stored, is now called Clark Hall, in honor of Friend E. Clark. The plaque is mounted to the side of the building and reads:
Through the hospitality of the Board of Governors, President & Faculty of the West Virginia University, irreplaceable books and herbarium specimens belonging to The New York Botanical Garden were graciously given shelter in this building during the war years of 1942, 1943 and 1944.
The story continues, follow the links below to read about how other American herbaria responded to the war and learn more about the curation and segregation of type specimens.
