Normally “on the side,” the potato is finding itself front and center as the focus of a new exhibition at the Missouri Botanical Garden.
Opened just in time for Thanksgiving, the exhibit at the Garden’s Stephen and Peter Sachs Museum is called “Potato (Solanum tuberosum): Apple of the Earth.”
In addition to being a favorite Thanksgiving side dish, the potato is the most important non-cereal food crop in the world and is a significant part of the diet of more than 1.5 billion people. The exhibition at the Sachs Museum highlights botany, history and contemporary art focused on this underestimated tuber around the globe.
“It has such an interesting story,” Sachs Museum curator Nezka Pfeifer said. “It’s gone from being an American plant to being ubiquitous around the world.”
Its story continues today as the potato’s pervasiveness ties it to global issues including climate change, food insecurity and food sovereignty.
The Sachs Museum show includes 40 specimens from the Garden’s herbarium representing a variety of potato species found in different parts of the world. The exhibit will also showcase tools used for farming and cooking potatoes, including antique agriculture tools and more than 100 potato mashers from many different countries. Other items, like Mr. And Mrs. Potato Head, highlight the potato’s role in pop culture.
The museum’s south and lower level galleries feature work from contemporary artists Seamus O. Hames, Dornith Doherty and Corina Kennedy. Each artist has interpreted the unique story of this food crop in their artworks, especially the historic impact of the late potato blight that devastated the potato crop in Ireland in the mid-19th century.
“Potato (Solanum tuberosum): Apple of the Earth” will be on display through March 17.
A visit to the Stephen and Peter Sachs Museum is included with Garden admission. For more information, visit mobot.org/museum.
