Herbarium Collection

The Lehman College collection, housed at the New York Botanical Garden, comprises several hundred dried and pressed plant specimens dating back to the 1880s, the formative years of botanical education in New York City. They offer a tangible record of the teaching and research that helped lay the groundwork for the Garden.

The collection, originally housed at the Hunter College campus, captures the flora that students and scholars encountered in and around the region more than 140 years ago. In the early part of the 20th century, it found its way to Hunter’s Bronx campus—now Lehman College. After residing there for nearly 100 years, it was moved to the New York Botanical Garden.