An exhibition entitled “Botany: Our Heritage, Our Future” has begun at the de Beer Gallery, Special Collections, University of Otago. It runs through 5 December 2014. The exhibition was mounted to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the formation of the Botany Department at the University of Otago, which remains the only university Department of Botany in New Zealand. The Department is very proud of its heritage and in looking ahead considers Botany to be essential to society’s needs more than ever. Indeed, knowledge about plants is fundamental to our survival.
Although botany was taught at the University of Otago from the outset, it was in 1924 that the Botany Department was established, with the appointment of Dr J. E. Holloway. After his retirement in 1944, a number of dedicated staff kept the department functioning until 1946 when Geoff Baylis arrived as Head of the Department (HoD). He became the first Professor of Botany in 1952. Baylis was replaced by Professor Peter Bannister in 1979, who was HoD until 2003, when Associate Professor Paul Guy took over. Professor Bastow Wilson replaced Guy as HoD in 2008. Professor Jim Simpson became HoD in 2010, and Professor Katharine Dickinson in 2011.
Since 1924, students have been exposed to all aspects of the life of plants, algae, fungi, and other closely related organisms. Today’s student engages in a subject that is now multidisciplinary, covering the gene to the ecosystem, and from the mountains to the sea. Of course the Department’s achievements are due to all staff: the technicians, the administrators, current academics, Emeritus and Honorary Professors, and other research associates. Each have contributed greatly to the excellence in teaching and research that has been afforded to students, and more broadly to the general public, over many years.
Notable items on display include a copy of Daniel Solander’s Primitiae Florae Novae Zelandiae [1770], one of the first European documentations of flora in New Zealand, Captain Cook’s A Voyage towards the South Pole (1777), Mrs Featon’s colourful New Zealand Flora album (1889), a sample sheet of flax paper made in Dunedin in 1866, a pōhā with tītī (muttonbird) inside blades of kelp (2009), a colourful edition of T. Kirk’s The Forest Flora of New Zealand (1889), and plant specimens from the University’s Regional Herbarium, including Pennantia baylisiana (1965), Hypopterygium setigerum [Mosses], and Celmisia markii. Also on display will be some colourful Botany teaching posters, numerous 19th century Brendel Plant Models, and a number of Banks’s Florilegium (1769; 1980-1989) prints on loan from the Hocken Library.
Exhibition dates: 11 September to 5 December 2014. Venue: Special Collections, de Beer Gallery, 1st Floor, Central Library, University of Otago Hours: 8.30 am to 5.00 pm, Monday to Friday
For further details contact Dr Donald Kerr, Special Collections Librarian, Donald.kerr@otago.ac.nz