[1] Frank Lamson-Scribner (1885-1891) and Franklin S. Earle (1891-1896) were the first two directors, followed by Flora Wambaugh Patterson in 1896.
Patterson vastly increased the size of the collection from approximately 19,000 reference specimens to almost 115,000.
[2] Patterson and other mycologists at the collection during Patterson's tenure, including Vera K. Charles, identified numerous commercially threatening fungi, including the bubble disease of mushrooms (1909), the potato wart disease (Synchytrium endobioticum), and chestnut blight.
[1] The National Fungus Collection also hired a number of other scientists all of whom did significant work on economically important crops.
These included Anna E. Jenkins, hired in 1912, who became the "foremost authority" on spot-anthracnose fungi.