Research

For the first time Muir’s collection of plants has been studied and reproduced in both a book and as a print collection. In September, 2003 Bonnie J. Gisel, author of Kindred & Related Spirits: The Letters of John Muir and Jeanne C. Carr and an internationally recognized Muir historian, began traveling across the United States in search of Muir’s plant specimens. With a list of plants she drew from Muir’s writings, she sought to match each name with a specimen, searching through thousands of plant specimens to locate those Muir had found. While Gisel undertook research and wrote the account of Muir’s life as a botanist, Stephen J. Joseph, a fine art landscape photographer and printmaker, whose specialty is Bay Area panoramic views, scanned and prepared artistically composed prints of the flora Muir collected, bringing to life the landscape Muir saw. Together Gisel and Joseph have recorded the discovery of John Muir’s North American herbarium.

Bonnie and Stephen in the basement of the Muir House