The EKU Herbarium was founded by Dr. J. Stuart Lassetter, a member of the EKU Department of Biological Sciences, in 1974, and he acted as curator until 1981. During this time the collection grew to 9,700 specimens. Dr. Ronald L. Jones was hired as a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences in 1981, and part of his charge as a faculty member in the Department was to oversee the maintenance and growth of the herbarium. This duty was considered part of his service to the department, and no release time was provided. After Dr. Jones accepted a tenure track position in 1983, he continued to work as a curator. The collection at that time was housed in Moore 109, a long, narrow work room with only 300 sq ft. By 1986 the collection had grown to 15,000, in 8 full-sized, metal cabinets and 4 wooden cabinets in Moore 109.

In 1987-88, as part of the renovation of Memorial Science, the EKU Herbarium was moved to Memorial Science 170, which included a room of about 950 square feet, along with two storage rooms and a faculty office. Renovation funds also allowed for the purchase of several new herbarium cabinets. After this move the EKU Herbarium underwent a period of rapid growth, stimulated by active research by several faculty and staff (Jones, Clark, Weckman), as well as other factors (see below), reaching 28,000 in 1993, 42,000 by 1998, and 55,000 by 2002. In the late 1990s, two important changes occurred---Dr. Jones began to receive 2--3 hours of release time per semester for herbarium curation, and a databasing project was initiated using software developed by Mr. Charlie Lapham of Glasgow.

In Fall, 2001, the collection was reaching its spatial limit, and the Department of Biological Sciences put forward a proposal to the Administration to split the herbarium operations, moving the main collection to Coates 15, and converting Memorial Science 170 to a processing area. This proposal was accepted and the collection was moved in Fall, 2002. A near-disaster occurred in the winter of 2003, when a radiator pipe broke in the upper floor (for the second time) and flooded Coates 15 with about 4 inches of water. Although a significant number of books were water-damaged, including some master's theses, no major damage was suffered by the collections (the water level came within 1 inch of the lower shelves in the cabinets). As a result of this flooding event, it was decided to move the main collection back to Memorial Science 170 (considered to be at lesser risk-although occasional small leaks continue to occur in both rooms) and locate the processing area in Coates 15. Since 2002 the collection has grown by another 10,000 specimens, and is projected to reach 70,000 by end of 2006. Memorial Science 170 now contains 43 cabinets, and 8 more are located in the adjacent hallway; 4 more cabinets are kept in Coates 15 for processing specimens. About 24,000 specimens have been databased as of April, 2006.