Page 2 - The Herbarium of John W. Van Cleve v2

John Whitten Van Cleve, the son of Dayton pioneer

Benjamin Van Cleve, was a prominent citizen of early

Dayton. Van Cleve lived a life of public service and

scientific study, particularly geology and botany. He served

as Recorder in 1824 and 1828, three terms as Mayor in

1830, 1831, and 1832, and several terms as City Engineer.

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He compiled and lithographed a map of the city in 1839.

He envisioned and planned the City’s beautiful Woodland

Cemetery

In 1832 Van Cleve purchased a copy of botanist John

Torrey’s book Compendium of the Flora of Northern and

Middle States for $1.25 and commenced a botanical

inventory of the Dayton area. His copy of the

Compendium, now in the Dayton Metro Library’s Van

Cleve-Dover Collection, is full of his notes in the margins of

the book, which documents the species found in the area.

Van Cleve also made an herbarium of 212 artistically

mounted plant specimens. Upon his death, the herbarium

was donated to the Cooper Female Seminary. When the

school closed in 1886 the herbarium was acquired by

Professor William Werthner, a noted teacher and botanist

at Dayton’s Central High School. Werthner donated the

herbarium to the Dayton Public Library Museum, later the

Dayton Museum of Natural History, where it was stored

and forgotten.

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