The website houses over 5000 digitized objects, including Davidson's herbarium sheets, lantern slide collection, field notes and speech texts, as well as oral history interviews and contextual narratives. Botanyjohn.org is an invaluable resource for students and researchers interested in the history of botany in both Scotland and northwestern North America. We particularly invite your participation in the online forum to discuss photographs from the collection.

This digital resource tells the story of 'Botany John' Davidson (1878-1970). Davidson was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, and was active in the Aberdeen Workingmen's Natural History and Scientific Society. He emigrated to Vancouver, Canada, in 1911 and popularized nature study through illustrated public lectures. He created the Vancouver Natural History Society and the University of British Columbia's herbarium and botanical garden. Today, many consider Davidson an environmental folk hero for his conservation efforts.