#plant specimens

[tiny-glued-things]

Equisetum hyemale subsp. affine (scouring rush / horsetail) pressed specimens [1:24 scale]

[wapiti3]

The arctic plants of New York City

By Walsh, James, 1961- , author 

Publication info New York City :Granary Books,2015.

Holding Institution:

Columbia University Libraries (archive.org)

BIODIV LIBRARY

[tattooed-alchemist]

The South London Botanical Institute was one of those funky things I found online that sounded good, and turned out to be a complete treasure.  This is the lesser-known legacy of Allan Octavian Hume, his more noted history being his work on the Great Hedge of India.

They have about 100,000 pressed floral specimens (hey, botanists, they are not overwhelmed with research requests unlike Kew...) and do all sorts of educational programs.  I found and photographed their saffon sample.

[carnegiemuseumnaturalhistory]

Hidden Treasure of Pittsburgh Found

by Bonnie Isaac

Recently I received a call from a woman who had bought an estate and discovered a hidden treasure in the basement. The basement contained 28 boxes of herbarium specimens. These boxes contained the private herbarium of Charles Boardman. Boardman was a research associate of Botany here at the museum from 1951 until his death on January 5, 1983. He had built his own herbarium space in his basement. These specimens are already mounted and in remarkably good shape for having been stored in a basement unattended for over 30 years.

Herbarium space built in the basement of Charles Boardman’s house with boxes of specimens.

Amazingly enough, there was also a letter with the collection with some details about his life. Charles Boardman was born in Buffalo, New York in 1903. Mr. Boardman attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and became a professional engineer. Charles was especially interested in mosses which led to his affiliation with Carnegie’s own Otto Jennings. Boardman accompanied Jennings on many field trips and collected specimens for the Manual of Mosses of Western Pennsylvania written and illustrated by Jennings. Boardman’s moss collection was donated to Duke University at his request shortly after his death. His vascular plant collection remained hidden in his basement until just a few weeks ago.

Water lily specimen found in Boardman’s personal herbarium.

Most of the specimens are from the 1930’s and 1940’s collected from Pennsylvania and beyond. In the coming weeks and months, we will process this amazing gift to see how many specimens are in this hidden treasure and put them into the main herbarium here at the museum for researchers to use in the future. You never know where a historic treasure may be lurking.

Bonnie Isaac is the Collection Manager in the Section of Botany. Museum employees are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences and knowledge gained from working at the museum.

[tiny-glued-things]

A miniature herbarium specimen that has a postcard, letter, Western Union telegram, and a packet with fern fragments.

A mini reproduction of an actual herbarium specimen (below). Images courtesy of the New York Botanical Garden (https://sweetgum.nybg.org/science/vh/). 

[tiny-glued-things]

Miniature fern herbarium specimen with illustration. I'm pretty happy with the tiny staples.

A mini reproduction of an actual herbarium specimen (below). Image courtesy of the New York Botanical Garden (https://sweetgum.nybg.org/science/vh/).

[tiny-glued-things]

Took one of my favorite herbarium specimens (of birch bark, Betula papyrifera) and made it both mini and 3-dimensional. Even added the linen tape used the strap the pieces down.

Original below (Image courtesy of the C.V. Starr Virtual Herbarium of the New York Botanical Garden):

[tiny-glued-things]

The little glass bottles I ordered just arrived, so I decided to create this Cinchona bark specimen. So pleased that I could modify the cap to make it look like a frosted glass stopper. I filled it with actual bark strips from a twig.

Here's my reference jar: