Artifacts & Documents: Artifacts

Dr. Stephen West Williams' Herbarium

zoomable artifact image here

Dig Deeper

In the summer of 1816, Stephen West Williams (1790-1855), a doctor in Deerfield, Massachusetts, gathered plant specimens from throughout the area surrounding Deerfield in the company of another local doctor and Edward Hitchcock. Williams stated that he intended to investigate the medicinal properties of the plants he collected. In a volume accompanying the herbarium, he described the uses of plants that could be prepared into medicines.

Creator:
Stephen West Williams
Date:
1817
Dimensions:
18" x 10.5"
Materials:
Dried plants
Courtesy of:
Historic Deerfield Library, Deerfield, Massachusetts