Next Meeting: Saturday June 23, 3:00 PM

Jamie Whitacre
Ethnobotanic Museum Collections from
the Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico

For the last two years, the Departments of Anthropology and Botany at the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History have collaborated on a project entitled "The Ethnobotanical Diversity of the Border Regions of the U.S. and Mexico”. The mission of this project is to preserve the ethnobotanical heritage of the American Southwest and Mexico by re-uniting plant specimens and cultural materials collected by Edward Palmer (1831-1911).

This talk will provide a behind-the-scenes look at the research behind the project and explain how these ethnobotanic materials were used to develop the Museum's North Lobby exhibit.