Why Historians Need Herbaria

• In Event: HSS Poster Session

English Abstract

Herbaria are collections of preserved plant specimens. The oldest date to the mid-16th century, and over the years they have become essential to botanical inquiry. They not only serve as the ultimate record of a species’ traits but also document what was growing at a particular time and place. Recently, there has been renewed interest in these collections because they are records of plant biodiversity, can be sources of DNA for studying how species are related, and provide information on flowering and fruiting times employed to track changes due to global warming. Because of their usefulness in biological research, millions of specimens have been imaged and their label data digitized making this information more equitably available, especially in species-rich tropical areas where there are fewer and smaller collections. I will argue here that not only can biologists benefit from this trend, but historians as well. Each specimen is a historical document containing information about a plant and its environment, as well as about the person who collected it and the institution for whom they collected. In addition, many collections have related supporting documents such as collecting logs, fieldnotes, reports, and correspondence. Often these are housed not in herbaria, but in libraries or archives that may or may not be associated with them. Finding and using these resources is the work of historians, who can thus not only support scientific inquiry but enrich it by unearthing information about colonial practices, women’s role in botanical inquiry, and the development of plant science.

Author

• Maura C Flannery, St. John's University, NY