In 1902, botany professor John A. Anderson of Dubuque High School assigned his pupils a foundational project for the discipline – preserving plant specimens. Each boy was to press twenty-five examples of wildflower species, and the top ten students who proved themselves earned a field trip to camp at Pine Hollow, near Luxemburg, Iowa. This area, later designated as White Pine Hollow State Forest and Preserve in 1934 and a National Natural Landmark in 1967, is a rare example of old-growth white pines in the Driftless Region.
One student, Henry Herrmann (1888-1978) gathered and pressed over one hundred before the project’s end. Henry recollects the origin of the herbarium in his book Land of Promise and Fulfillment (1972) that over the next four years, he produced over 600 “exsiccata” (herbarium sheets) of native, non-native and naturalized plants from Dubuque County. He dried, pressed, adhered to a paper sheet, and labeled each specimen with their two-part scientific name as well as their common name. Henry placed specimens into marked folders according to plants’ Family or Genus. The herbarium includes Amorpha fruticose (false indigo), Melilotus albus (white sweet-clover), Physocarpus opulifolius (ninebark), Cephalanthus occidentalis (buttonbush), Lycopus virginicus (sweet bugleweed), Monarda fistulosa (wild bergamot), and many more.
This herbarium came to Dubuque County Historical Society as part of our founding collection – the Herrmann Collection. Henry was the youngest child of Richard H. Herrmann (1849-1941), prominent citizen of Dubuque. Richard started collecting fossils from Illinois and Iowa while surveying for the Illinois Central Railway during his youth. His collection expanded over the decades, and his family opened the Herrmann Museum of Natural History. Each of his four children also became interested in history and the natural world. Beyond botany, Henry joined the Bird Club (which became the Dubuque Audubon Society), Dubuque County Historical Society, Dubuque County Conservation Society, and Dubuque County Park Board.
In the August 24th, 1947, edition of the Telegraph Herald, Henry discussed the reason for his interest in birding and nature in general:
It’s that kind of activity which relieves the monotony of life. . . It gives one something to look forward to. It broadens the vision and enables one to see outside of one’s self [sic]. Life has a tendency to settle down to the more prosaic activities, like listening to the radio or going to the movies, but this is something different – and much more exciting.