Curated by Cate Johnson and Rebekah Gooding with edits by Andrea Hofstra and Betty Belanus

Ginseng has captured the imagination of artists for centuries.  Still, relatively few people have ever heard of or understand the significance of this plant, so we must start our exploration of art depicting the plant with a "ginseng primer"!

American Ginseng is a perennial plant that grows in the Eastern hardwood forests of the United States and Canada. It is a relatively small and unassuming plant, about a foot tall with three to five leaf stalks or “prongs," but it inspires the utmost love, fascination, and respect in those who know it. Ginseng is a very slow-growing plant species; its seeds take about two years to germinate, and it will be at least five years before a seedling matures into a plant capable of reproduction. Ginseng is also surprisingly long-lived and, though the green top dies back every year, the root continues to grow and sends up new shoots each spring.  Like a tree with growth-rings, Ginseng displays visible markers of its age: stem scars on the rhizome, or root-neck of the plant, record each year of the plant’s life. In the wild, ginseng may grow to be at least sixty years old, but a few roots have been found that are believed to be a hundred or more. ​

Closely related to its Asian cousin (Panax ginseng), American Ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) is native to the rich, loamy, leaf-littered understory of Appalachian and Ozark forests. It is a keystone species, meaning it is an important indicator of the overall health of the ecosystem in which it grows. The taproot (similar in appearance to a small, forked parsnip), berries, and leaves of American ginseng can all be used medicinally, but the root is considered the most potent and valuable part of the plant in Traditional Chinese Medicine. American Ginseng has been successfully cultivated commercially, most notably in Ontario, Canada, the world's largest producer of ginseng in North America, and Marathon County, Wisconsin, which accounts for about ninety-five percent of all ginseng production in the United States. ​

In Canada, the collection of wild ginseng is currently illegal, but, in the United States, there is a long and storied history of ginseng hunters who have relied on the plant for supplemental income in times of need. Indeed, ginseng history stretches back into the early years of the United States, touching the lives and fortunes of such historical figures as Daniel Boone, John Jacob Aster, and George Washington. In his 1916 book, A Thousand-Mile Walk To the Gulf, John Muir wrote of ginseng and its importance to the people of rural North Carolina: “... coffee was the greatest luxury which these people knew. The only way of obtaining it was by selling skins, or, in particular, “sang,” that is ginseng, which found a market in far-off China.” 

While many still hunt the mountain slopes for the elusive ginseng plant, it- together with the deciduous forests of the Appalachian Mountains which is its habitat - is now under increasingly greater threat from overharvesting, poaching, invasive species, logging, and mountain-top removal mining. Yet, ginseng is more than a statistic recording the decline of our native forests and commons; there is an often misunderstood and overlooked cultural network of farmers, hunters, dealers, and traders whose livelihoods and histories are irrevocably intertwined with this plant. ​

With each image and artist, this exhibition aims to show visual traces of American ginseng found throughout this country’s history; from the early botanical illustrations that helped the root gain global fame and value, to various artistic explorations of the human-like visual qualities of dried ginseng roots. The exhibition also traces the international connections of ginseng harvesting in American. Here, the ginseng plant is a lens through which to appreciate a unique heritage of growing and gathering in the Eastern United States and Canada, particularly in the Appalachian Mountains where the plant has had a long impact on economy, culture, and ecology.