Exhibition exploring the botanical research of the Lewis and Clark expedition through the Academy's Lewis & Clark Herbarium, featuring 3D-printed plant models and Indigenous perspectives.
Botany of Nations is on view at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia from March 28, 2026, through February 14, 2027, with an opening event on March 27. The exhibition centers on one of the Academy's most iconic collections, the Lewis & Clark Herbarium—the plants pressed and documented in journals by Meriwether Lewis during the 1804–1806 Corps of Discovery expedition.
The Academy houses and stewards 222 of those plants, many on behalf of the American Philosophical Society, while another ten are kept at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew outside London. The show was co-curated with ethnobotanist and agroecologist EnrĂque Salmon, and it re-frames the Corps of Discovery by foregrounding Indigenous voices and perspectives, pairing Western scientific history with Indigenous ethnobotanical knowledge.
A Steering Committee chose seven plants for the exhibit based on their importance in food, medicine, crafting, and ceremony, and for how they reflect the terrain of the expedition trail. One of those is camas (Camassia quamash), which the Nez Perce fed to the famished party in September 1805. To bring the pressed specimens back to life, the exhibition includes 3D-printed and hand-painted models of the plants.
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It's a long run—nearly a year—so you've got plenty of time to catch it. The Academy of Natural Sciences is in Philadelphia, and the show runs from March 28, 2026, to February 14, 2027.
