Streptomyces aureofaciens strain A377, the bacterium from which aureomycin originated, was isolated by Dr. B.W. Duggar from soil collected in 1945 from Sanborn Field, Plot 23, which had been planted to continuous timothy grass without soil amendment since its establishment in 1888. The sample was one of a dozen sent to Lederle Labratories in Pearl River, New York, by University of Missouri soil microbiologist Dr. W.A. Albrecht. The bacterium cultured in 1948 from Plot 23 became the type species based on the original description and the ancestral parent of all improved strains used by the American Cynamid Company to produce aureomycin. For decades, aureomycin, the first tetracycline antibiotic, was widely used around the world to treat many human diseases and therapeutically in livestock production. A reference soil sample from Plot 23 was displayed at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., in the exhibit "Antibiotics: the Wonder Drugs" on the tenth anniversary of the announcement of aureomycin's discovery, October 15, 1958.