Davidson becomes a minor celebrity

In 1916 political drama surrounded Davidson’s employment status. Government officials wanted to close the Botanical Office and lay Davidson off, but many letters to newspaper editors convinced them to keep Davidson and his staff. The government still closed the Botanical Office, but Davidson and his staff had new jobs at UBC. While the Botanical Office’s fate was being debated in the newspapers, Davidson continued his teaching at the mountaineering club. Two years after his employment situation was settled, at a point when the botany section’s membership outnumbered that of the climbers, Davidson increased his followers’ activities. He renamed the botany section “the natural history section” and expanded it to include those interested in geology and entomology.

This move went against the day’s trend toward increasing scientific specialization. Local newspapers reported Davidson as a “specialist in botany” and an “authority on some branches of entomology,” also noting that he was “well versed in geology.” Natural historians did not recognize Davidson’s expertise in these areas as much as they recognized his incredible success in teaching and organizing others to explore the natural world.

John Davidson became highly prominent in the press through the controversy over his botanical office and he went on to become a unifying force for all Vancouver natural historians.