October 24, 2024

Reshaping the historic tale of Lewis & Clark through Indigenous perspectives, collaborative exhibition to inspire civic dialogue and elevate Indigenous scientific practices through plant specimens hand-collected on the renowned journey

PHILADELPHIA, October 24, 2024—The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University (“the Academy”), alongside co-curator and ethnobotanist Enrique Salmón, PhD (Rarámuri /Tarahumara) and the Indigenous-led nonprofit Local Contexts, today announced a new exhibition: Botany of Nations. Open March 28 – September 13, 2026 against the backdrop of the United States’ 250thanniversary, the exhibition presented at the Academy will inspire civic dialogue and reshape the historic Corps of Discovery (1804 – 1806) tale of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark with Indigenous perspectives.

The exhibition will center around plants, including those hand-collected by Lewis, many of which were given to the American Philosophical Society by Thomas Jefferson, and on long-term deposit in the Academy as part of the Lewis and Clark Herbarium. These plants will act as “portals” to the undershared stories, cultures and sciences of the Nations who Lewis and Clark met on their journey. The announcement of Botany of Nations comes ahead of the October 26, 1804, anniversary of Lewis and Clark’s first collection of tobacco and cedar – both important plants celebrated by Indigenous communities and used in ceremonies. These plants will be among roughly 10 specifically spotlighted in the exhibition to share the relationship between people and plants.

Botany of Nations is an exhibition focused on collaboration, with guidance from the Botany of Nations Steering Committee composed of ethnobotanists, Indigenous knowledge keepers and scholars including Salmón and Local Contexts’ Founding Executive Director Stephany Runninghawk Johnson, PhD (Oglala Lakota). The exhibition will marry botany – the study of plants – with ethnobotany – investigating the direct interrelationships between plants and people, to reshape the way our nation interprets the colonial journey. Overlooking the Native Nations who inhabited the lands and shared cultural knowledge of the plants with the explorers, the journey of Lewis and Clark is often characterized as an expedition of “discovery.” These Nations were in North America long before Lewis and Clark arrived and are still here today.

“Many of the plant specimens gathered along the journey include labels and connected journal entries that share context of the plant, where it came from, when it was collected and how Native Nations used the plant,” said co-curator and ethnobotanist Enrique Salmón, PhD (Rarámuri /Tarahumara). “The journey tells of the plants’ ‘discovery’ by Western science, but importantly puts them in the larger context of their homelands with Indigenous people who have known, traded, cultivated and used these plants for millennia.”

An expert in Indigenous studies and how agricultural and botanical history intersect with cultural narratives, Salmón will serve as co-curator of the exhibition alongside the Academy’s Vice President of Experience and Engagement, Marina McDougall, and Emeritus Curator of Botany Richard McCourt. Salmón is also a leading expert in ethnobiology, agroecology, ancestral ecological knowledge and the connections between climate change and Indigenous traditional foodways and land management practices. Salmón’s belief that these foodways are connected to every element and process of sustainable bio-cultural diversity and that all facets including cultural expression, landscapes, education, leadership development, networking and policy should be understood and supported. He is the author of “Eating The Landscape,” a book focused on small-scale Native farmers of the Greater Southwest and their role in maintaining biocultural diversity, as well as most recent ethnobotanical book, “IWÍGARA: The Kinship of Plants and People.”

Supporting Indigenous communities’ ability to safeguard and control their data through digital technologies, Botany of Nations will elevate scientific Indigenous practices which are equally as important to Western scientific methods to provide an understanding of the interconnectedness of people and plants.

“Since 2023, Local Contexts has had the pleasure of working with the Academy to support Indigenous data sovereignty. This means asserting the rights that Indigenous communities have to share their knowledge and data, as well as govern and make ongoing decisions about its future use,” said RunningHawk Johnson. “This exhibition will take the critical step in connecting with Indigenous communities to uplift their knowledge through digital tools to allow communities to express local and specific conditions for sharing and engaging in future research. Visitors to Botany of Nations will find Local Contexts’ Traditional Knowledge (TK) Labels reflecting Indigenous cultural perspectives throughout interactive displays and in the Academy’s digital databases.”

Founded in 2010, Local Contexts grew from the needs of Indigenous and local organizations who wanted a practical method to deal with the range of intellectual property issues that arise in relation to managing cultural heritage materials. Local Contexts provides strategies for managing, sharing and protecting digital heritage with the Traditional Knowledge and Biocultural Labels and Engagement, Disclosure and Collections Care Notices. The Academy website and digital databases currently include Local Contexts Notices to communicate the museum’s interest in partnering with Indigenous communities and scholars working with Traditional Knowledge (TK) systems through the Local Contexts Hub. The Hub works in tandem with already existing information/collections management systems and tools. It generates Labels and Notices so these can be added to already existing catalog and collections management systems.

Beautifully designed by internationally renowned Casson Mann, Botany of Nations will integrate interactive digital media experiences created by the New York-based design studio Schoooool and trace the journey of Lewis and Clark through 50 tribal territories, geolocating the plants among the sites where Meriwether Lewis collected the plants for Western science. Supporting Indigenous data sovereignty through digital technologies, Botany of Nations will include four distinct themes: 1. Nations Meet; 2. Our Land, Continuity of Tradition; 3. Interrelatedness of People and Plants; 4. Shared Futures. Throughout the exhibition and special programming, visitors will learn about the plants collected along the journey, discover their journal passages, and understand how the Indigenous people they met respected and celebrated the plants, animals and land around them.

President Thomas Jefferson commissioned the Corps of Discovery expedition with funds from Congress upon signing the Louisiana Purchase. He asked Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to set out to explore the lands west of the Mississippi River. Jefferson sent Lewis to Philadelphia to study under Benjamin Smith Barton at the American Philosophical Society, of which Jefferson was also president at the time, and gain the knowledge and tools of Western science that he would need to appropriately collect, catalog and preserve the plant specimens gathered along the trail. The 8,000-mile journey took place between May 14, 1804 and September 23, 1806. It has since been commemorated with trails and monuments and is also widely taught as an American history lesson.

The Botany of Nations exhibition will be presented in the Academy’s William B. Dietrich Gallery, opening on March 28, 2026. More details on Botany of Nations public programming to be announced.

Major support for Botany of Nations has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, with additional support from The Arcadia Foundation, The Goldsmith Foundation and The Marshall Reynolds Foundation.

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About the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University
Founded in 1812, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University is a leading natural history museum and scientific research organization dedicated to understanding the natural world and inspiring everyone to care for it. The Academy is a constant source of innovation, education and engagement with environmental justice. It is home to more than 19 million scientific specimens in its world-class collections. Learn more at ansp.org and follow the Academy on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn. 

Contact:

Kaitlyn Haney, Signature 57
On behalf of the Academy
khaney@signature57.com

Sinead Murray, Signature 57
On behalf of the Academy
smurray@signature57.com