Department of Botany

The Department of Botany was officially initiated in October 1896, with the appointment of Dr. John Merle Coulter as Head Professor of Botany. Among the students in the first botany courses offered in 1894 was Charles J. Chamberlain, late distinguished morphologist and Professor of Botany. He was the first Ph.D. alumnus of the department, receiving this degree in 1897. Under Professor Coulter's leadership, at the beginning of the century, a strong and young faculty was soon recruited. These men rapidly attracted many students and their work led to an early recognition of the department as one of the best in the United States. By 1925 it was almost universally so considered.

Professors pose for formal photograph.
Faculty and Students, Botany Department, University of Chicago, 1917

From the Photographic Archive, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library. Available at: http://photoarchive.lib.uchicago.edu/. Identifier: apf1-05414

Botany faculty from left, first row: Sophia Hennion Eckerson, George Damon Fuller, Henry Chandler Cowles, John Merle Coulter, Charles Joseph Chamberlain, William Jesse Goad Land, and William Crocker