New Brunswick Scientists in the Formative Period of Paleobotany
Dr. Debra Lindsay, Associate Professor of History, UNB Saint John
Analyses of the ways in which Saint John has been (and is) served by the New Brunswick Museum are important to the CURA research project on “Cultural Representation of Greater Saint John.” Assessments of interaction between the museum and the public are, however, facilitated by knowledge of the museum as a research institution. The New Brunswick Museum emerged as part of a larger museum and scientific community, and it is important to study the early scientific work of the museum, specifically the role that people in the region played in this were members of the Natural History Society of New Brunswick (and by extension the NB Museum) were drawn into the bigger scientific community of North America and beyond. Specifically, men such as George Matthew, L.W. Bailey, and William Dawson, Charles Doolittle Walcott, Thomas Sterry Hunt, and others. These individuals were participants in a scientific community that was local, regional, national, and transitional, and through them the New Brunswick Museum received specimens, field notes, and publications on research done in Saint John, the Maritime region, and around the world.
The geological sciences are particularly well represented in the 19th century collections of the Museum, as the guides and inventories prepared by archivists and librarians illustrate. One area that warrants further study however, is the sub-specialization of paleobotany and I would like to establish an annotated inventory of publications (as well as unpublished research) on this topic, with special emphasis on work done by New Brunswick scientists. Building on earlier research into the methodology of paleobotany (see “JOHN WILLIAM DAWSON v. WILLIAM CARRUTHERS: Geology v. Botany,” Earth Sciences History, forthcoming 2005) I would like to delve deeper into the formative period of this science, focusing the New Brunswick connection with the first North American paleobotanists – John William Dawson, Lester Ward and Charles Doolittle Walcott.