Spamer provides a systematic catalog of the botanical specimens collected by Meriwether Lewis during the expedition, focusing on the surviving herbarium sheets held at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. The article traces the collection history from Lewis’s field gathering through the specimens’ journey to Philadelphia, where they were studied by botanist Frederick Pursh and others. Spamer documents the approximately 226 plant specimens that survive, many still pressed on their original sheets with Lewis’s handwritten labels, and discusses the dozens of species that were first described from these collections. The article addresses the complex history of the herbarium, including Pursh’s controversial removal of some specimens to London and the eventual recovery of others. Spamer also evaluates the expedition’s botanical contributions in the context of early American natural history and the scientific networks connecting Philadelphia, London, and the American frontier.
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