Guide to the John Donnell Smith (1829–1928) items, 1880–1909

Taxonomist John Donnell Smith (1829–1928) of Baltimore, Maryland, was a trustee of Peabody Institute in Baltimore (1888–1915) as well as a captain in the Confederate Army. In 1906 he donated his herbarium of more than 100,000 mounted specimens and his botanical library of over 1,600 volumes to the Smithsonian Institution. The herbarium is now kept as a historical collection in the U.S. National Herbarium.

This collection contains Smith's partial catalog of 32 volumes of reprints of botanical publications; 2 letters (possibly copies) from Smith to William A. Kellerman (1850–1908) and Joseph N. Rose (1862–1928); and 4 letters to Smith from Nathaniel L. Britton (1859–1934), Jesse M. Greenman (1867–1951), Harlan P. Kelsey (1872–1959) and Andrew P. Morgan (1836–1907) about the collection, exchange and identification of plants.

This finding aid was created by Nancy Janda in 2022. This finding aid was placed online by J. Dustin Williams in 2022.

The Hunt Institute Art Department also has 32 pencil drawings by Faxon, which are the originals for new species described by Smith in his series of 36 papers, "Undescribed plants from Guatemala," for the American journal, Botanical Gazette (1887–1916, nos. 12–61). For additional Smith items, see HI Archives collection nos. 41, 92 and 370.