Botany of Nations, a groundbreaking exhibition that provides a new perspective on the legendary Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery, which was open from March through September of 2026.

Co-curated with Enrique Salmón, PhD, an ethnobotanist and author of IWÍGARA: The Kinship of Plants and People, and developed with contributions from Indigenous cultural historians, Botany of Nations offered a culturally layered view of the plants of North America.

Collected on the famous expedition, some of the oldest plant specimens in the country today are housed in the Academy’s own Lewis and Clark Herbarium. Botany of Nations explored how the Native Nations Meriwether Lewis met on the trail shaped America’s plant knowledge long before Western scientists claimed these “discoveries.” The exhibition centered the voices of Native Nations who have protected and cared for the lands for thousands of years, presenting plants as portals to Indigenous storytelling and knowledge.

The exhibition allowed visitors to:

• See 18th and early 19th century scientific instruments, original journals, maps and herbarium sheets that illuminate the role of natural science on the Corps of Discovery.
• View Native American peace pipes as well as Corps of Discovery peace medals.
• Navigate prairie, plains, plateau and Pacific coast landscapes within a model of the trail as you learn about the importance of plants such as tobacco and chokecherry through film, interactive media, cultural artifacts, sensory experiences and contemporary voices.
• Watch a newly produced film about how Indigenous traditional land practices and cultural systems surrounding food provide contemporary solutions to today’s biodiversity and climate challenges.
• Experience a native plant garden on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway that detailed how you can grow heritage plants that foster biodiversity.

About Enrique Salmón

Professor and Chair, Department of Ethnic Studies, California State University, East Bay

Enrique Salmón is a Rarámuri (Tarahumara). He has dedicated his studies to Ethnobiology, Agroecology and Ancestral Ecological Knowledge to better understand his and other cultural perceptions of culture, landscapes and place. Salmón is the author of Eating the Landscape, which focuses on small-scale Native farmers of the Greater Southwest and their role in maintaining biocultural diversity, and the ethnobotanical book Iwigara: The Kinship of Plants and People. He is currently authoring a new book focused on Kincenteric Ecology and Indigenous plant foods. Salmón has a B.S. from Western New Mexico University, an MAT in Southwestern Studies from Colorado College, and a PhD. in anthropology from Arizona State University. Dr. Salmon is the tribal liaison for CSUEB and the NAGPRA coordinator.

Botany of Nations was generously supported by The Arcadia Foundation, The Connelly Foundation, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, The Marshall-Reynolds Foundation, and The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage