HISTORY OF THE PALEOBOTANICAL COLLECTIONS OF THE MUSEO DE LA PLATA DURING THE 19TH AND 20TH CENTURIES

Historia de las colecciones de paleobotánica del Museo de La Plata durante los siglos XIX y XX

Abstract

Two collections are housed in the División Paleobotánica of the Museo de La Plata, one of megafossils and the other of microscopic preparations. Both are nationally and internationally recognized. The collections began modestly with the fossil plants collected by Santiago Roth in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. From 1933, it had a great development with the donation of the personal collection of Joaquín Frenguelli. During the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, the materials housed in the division acquired world renown thanks to the work of Frenguelli, fundamental in the knowledge of the flora of Gondwana. However, the División Paleobotánica did not exist at that time. In the 1960s when, with Sergio Archangelsky as chief, it became independent. As the Museo de La Plata is a university museum, since the middle of the 20th century, the collections have maintained a very close relationship with the educational field, both because of the objects that are used as teaching material and because of the people who have carried out theses, internships, and scholarships in the division. The objects of the collections served for the undergraduate training of the students who later, during their postgraduate studies, incorporated many specimens into the collection. In this way, the institution’s relationship with university education functioned as a positive feedback process that made the collections grow significantly and continuously into the early 21st century.