James L. Reveal was on the faculty of the Department of Botany at the University of Maryland from 1969 to 1999. Reveal served as director of the Norton-Brown Herbarium of the University of Maryland between 1979 and 1999. He was a member of the Smithsonian Institution's Endangered Species Committee from 1974 to 1982. Reveal was instrumental in attaining the addition of endangered plant species to the original Endangered Species Act. His papers consist of research materials and notes, publication reprints, newspaper clippings, and photographs spanning his entire career from 1965 to 2000. Major topics include Dr. Reveal's academic and professional pursuits; botanical exploration of colonial America and the American West; Maryland plants; plant taxonomy; and the Polygonaceae subfamily Eriogonoideae, commonly known as the wild buckwheats.
