More than 20 years ago, Elio Schaecter, Ph.D., began compiling a list of paintings with mushrooms in them, something he called, “a sort of fancy form of stamp collecting.” He and a German mycologist, Hanns Kreisl, decided to combine forces and create an Internet-based Registry of Mushrooms in Works of Art, which is hosted on NAMA's website.

Elio will discuss the origin and purpose of the registry in understanding the relationship between mushrooms and people as reflected in works of art from different historical periods. We will learn how many artists express appreciation of fungal beauty and broaden our awareness of the symbolic (and gastronomic) roles mushrooms may have played in various cultures through time.

Moselio "Elio" Schaecter was born in Milan, Italy in 1928. At age 12, his Jewish family relocated to Ecuador to escape Nazi persecution. Reading Paul de Kruif's Microbe Hunters inspired his interest in microbiology, eventually leading him to pursue graduate studies higher education in the subject at the University of Kansas and University of Pennsylvania. He was drafted into the U.S. Army, performing microbial research at Walter Reed Medical Center and later spending time in Denmark in postdoctoral study. Eventually, he made his way back to the United States and became a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Tufts University, where he chaired the Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology from 1970 to 1993, conducting research into microbial growth physiology and bacterial cell organization. Elio also developed and maintained a profound interest in field mycology through the Boston Mycological Club. Besides coauthoring numerous microbiology textbooks, he wrote In the Company of Mushrooms, (Harvard Press, 1997). Relocating to San Diego in 1994, he continued his teaching as Adjunct Faculty at San Diego State University and is a Visiting Scholar at UC San Diego. In 1997 he helped found the NAMA-affiliated San Diego Mycological Society, where he remains active to this day.