JAMES MADISON UNIVERSITY HERBARIUM

The JMU Herbarium, as it is known today, had it's beginning in 1962 when Norlyn L. Bodkin was invited to teach a field botany course at then Madison College. Two years later, in the fall of 1964, he joined the Department of Biology as a permanent member. During the next 36 years, he taught a variety of courses including General Botany, Plant Taxonomy, Plant Pathology, and Natural History Studies in the Galápagos Islands. In addition to his teaching duties, he took on the responsibility of Herbarium Director and Curator. At the time he was hired, the herbarium consisted of only two cabinets and, at most, 2,500 specimens. At the time of his retirement, the herbarium comprised 20 cabinets and approximately 17,000 specimens! In addition, it was during his tenure that the herbarium was officially recognized in Index Herbariorum, an international listing of the world’s significant herbaria; and received the acronym JMUH. The growth of the herbarium may be attributed in large part to Dr. Bodkin’s own collections, as well of those of several of his undergraduate and graduate students. Representative flora survey theses completed under the tutelage of Dr. Bodkin include those for Bath County, Orange County, Rockingham County, and the James River Tidal Section. JMUH presently houses a teaching and research collection of bryophytes, ferns and fern allies, gymnosperms, and angiosperms; as well as a small collection of algae. These collections are predominantly from Virginia (particularly the Shenandoah Valley) and West Virginia.

In addition to its plant collection, JMUH houses the James Madison University Herbarium Library, which was presented by the Class of 1980 in memory of William Andrew Wood, a former student in the Department of Biology. This small library now contains a variety of Floras (including the Flora of North America), botany textbooks, identification keys, and journals. The latter include the American Fern Journal, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, Castanea, Rhodora, and Systematic Botany).

The results of Dr. Bodkin’s love for botanical fieldwork are also evident in the Edith J. Carrier Arboretum, upon which construction began in 1985. Dr. Bodkin was not only the first Director of the Arboretum, but the initial driving force behind its conception. The arboretum is now one of the major attractions on the JMU campus. Due to Dr. Bodkin’s vision, tenacity and hard work, we are able to experience many different facets of the botanical sciences here at JMU!

In 2005, JMUH was upgraded by the installation of shelving on two walls, redesigned table space, and a new plumbing system. Each of these modifications helped make for a much more user-friendly and efficient teaching and research facility. In addition to 20 full-size herbarium cabinets, JMUH features 13 half-size herbarium cabinets, a full-size drying oven, upright specimen freezer, three swing-arm dissecting microscopes, and 20 complete plant presses.