Information compiled by Carol Ann McCormick
The University of North Carolina Herbarium
has catalogued more than 900 specimens collected by Robert M.
Downs. As only about 10% of the collection is currently databased,
no doubt many more will be found.
Most of Mr. Downs' specimens at NCU date
from 1966-1987. Many were collected along the Potomac River in
Virginia and West Virginia. He frequently noted the geology of
the collection site on the label. These specimens were collected
during graduate work at the University of North Carolina. A typescript
draft of a thesis (M.A.) submitted to the Department of Botany
in 1976, "The vascular flora of the Upper Potomac River Valley,"
is in the Couch Botany Library at UNC-Chapel Hill. Mr. Downs did
not complete the thesis.
From 1970 to 1973 Downs was the botanist
for the North Carolina Museum of Science. The specimens collected
during his tenure there were transferred to NCSC.
Mr. Downs was was the Assistant Curator
of the Jesup
Herbarium at Dartmouth College (HNH) for many years, then
became its curator in 1984 upon the death of James Poole. The
Jesup Herbarium's holdings from the Southeastern United States
were transferred to NCU in 2000.
