The world-class herbaria, maintained by the Botany Department, have been built since the 1934 fire in Morrill Hall destroyed the original herbarium of more than thirty thousand specimens. The original herbarium, started by Frank Lamson-Scribner, was one of the best in the nation. It was begun in 1875 with contributions from the collections of state botanist Dr. Augustin Gattinger who, trained as a doctor, had collected many plants on his travels throughout the state.
Following the fire, Harvard University and the US Department of Agriculture sent specimens to the department to serve as a nucleus for the new herbarium. The UT Herbarium (TENN) now houses over 470,000 specimens of fungi, bryophytes, lichens, and vascular plants. It is the largest collection in Tennessee and is ranked within the top 25 in the nation. It houses the largest collections of fungi, bryophytes, lichens, and vascular plants from the state of Tennessee and the southern Appalachians. Other noteworthy collections include fungi from China (one of the largest collections outside Beijing) and New Zealand; mosses from Mexico, Guatemala, Japan, and Alaska; and an excellent representation of worldwide pteridophyte genera. In 2012, because of its collection of more than twelve thousand species of North American mosses, UT’s herbarium received a National Foundation Grant to study biodiversity and environmental change. Algae and mosses are among the most sensitive indicators of environmental change.
The herbarium was housed in Hesler Biology Building until the wing of the building in which it was located was taken out of service for renovation in 2003. The original building program for the renovation included returning the herbarium to the building, but requirements for space for building systems and modifications to meet fire and safety codes made that impossible. It was moved as a temporary location to the main and part of the lower floor of Hoskins Library, with the permanent location to be the White Avenue Biology Annex (now Senter Hall), the floor of which was designed to bear the load of the herbarium cases and also to serve as a location for materials from the Special Collections unit of the UT Libraries.
When the renovation of Hesler was finally completed in 2009, a critical need for science research laboratories required that Senter Hall’s laboratories be upgraded and continue to be used as laboratories. The herbarium remained in Hoskins, but the weight of the cases, especially following installation of a compact shelving system for some of the collections, was greater than the designed weight-bearing capacity of the first floor of Hoskins, and a second NSF grant had been received to purchase additional compact shelving, which the floors could not accommodate. With the decision to build a new Student Health Center, space on the ground (load-bearing) first floor of the former Student Health Clinic (now Temple Hall) was allocated for the Herbaria, and the space was renovated to provide a state-of-the art facility for the Herbaria. The herbarium opened in its new location in March 2014.