Window display in Edgar Fine Arts lobby created by artist Lee Emma Running in 2018, which was inspired by C. C. Parker's herbarium specimens.
Upper Iowa University Herbarium
Upper Iowa University
P. O. Box 1857
605 Washington St.
Fayette, IA 52142
United States
Web: https://cdm17238.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p17238coll4
Dr. Scott Figdore
Tel: 1-563-425-5223
Email: figdores@uiu.edu
C. C. Parker Herbarium, Upper Iowa University
Upper Iowa University was established in 1857 in Fayette, Iowa. Dr. Charles Coleman Parker, the first physician to reside in the town of Fayette, was a founding member of Upper Iowa’s Board of Trustees, serving from 1858 to 1895. Dr. Parker collected some of the first herbarium samples in Fayette County, Iowa, from about 1860 to 1876. He donated his collection of approximately 500 specimens to the university in 1900. Dr. Bruce Fink, Professor of Natural Sciences at Upper Iowa from 1892 to 1903, used Parker’s collection as a springboard to amass his own collection of approximately 700 specimens. In 1897, Fink published a checklist of flora from the surrounding Fayette area. The Parker and Fink collections formed a foundation for the first Upper Iowa University herbarium.
Upper Iowa’s herbarium collection has been used primarily for teaching purposes throughout the history of the university. Renewed interest in these early collections sparked relatives of C. C. Parker to support faculty efforts to review and update historical specimens in the university’s herbarium for archival purposes. In 2018, the university’s herbarium was renamed the C. C. Parker Herbarium of Upper Iowa University. Work has been ongoing to update and archive the approximately 5,000 specimens in the total herbarium collection.