Historical Lebanon County plant samples are housed in the Smithsonian collection

Botanical samples taken from Lebanon County are being cared for by the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History, with the collection dates going back to the 19th century.

The most prominent collector of these samples is Amos Arthur Heller, who is cited as A. Arthur Heller throughout the Smithsonian website. His samples are from Penryn Park, and some are specifically from the south mountain.

Heller, according to his Wikipedia page, was born on March 21, 1867, in Danville, Pennsylvania. He received a bachelor of arts and a master’s degree in botany from Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster. A story about his death and funeral was published in a California newspaper following his death in May 1944, mentioning his botanical teaching career in the area.

Penryn Park, like much of Lebanon County’s history, is connected to the Coleman family, which created and ran Cornwall Iron Furnace and expanded railroads and community infrastructure. The park opened in 1885 at a railroad station just inside the Lebanon border with Lancaster County.

“Here nature seems to have bestowed her choicest gifts in wild profusion,” a July 11, 1885, column states. “A visit to this park cannot fail to please anyone, as its many attractions will linger in memory as long as life lasts.”

After years of use, the park was abandoned in the early 1930s and sat neglected for another two decades following a sale to Bethlehem Steel Co., along with the Cornwall Railroad and all its properties.

In 1949, 62.35 acres of property were deeded to the Lebanon Valley Family YMCA, which fixed it up and transformed it into a youth camp. The organization purchased another 222 acres in 1967. That park is now known as Camp Rocky Creek.

Heller collected the Smithsonian artifacts in 1892 and 1893 in Penryn, while it was still a maintained park.

E.G. Halbach was the other person credited as a collector during the May 1893 adventures.

Much of Heller’s and Halbach’s specimens have since browned, but they remain cared for in the Smithsonian’s collection.