It’s been a long haul, but the day has finally come:
digitization of the CMC Herbarium is fully complete! I am glad that I was here
to see the end of this massive project, but there were many who came before me
who made this possible. Thanks must go out to Dr. Monfils, Michael Giddens of
SilverImage technology, Adriane, Emilie, Sascha, David, Heather, and everyone
else who has worked tirelessly so that we could reach this point. It feels good
to be done, albeit surreal, and it will feel even better once all of the
high-resolution photos are pushed onto the online database for everyone to
enjoy and use. I hope that the CMC Herbarium’s efforts will in turn aid the research
and learning at other Universities and Herbaria, big and small.
It’s been too long since I blogged, so beyond the
epic completion of digitization, much has happened. A few weeks ago myself,
Heather, David, and some of CMU’s BUMP students volunteered to help the Chippewa
Nature Center with their annual Chippewa River cleanup. It was fun racing each
other in our canoes to see who could spot and pick up the most garbage—and it
was shocking not only how many tires we found (about six!), but also how many
tires one canoe can hold without missing a beat. In addition to the river
cleanup, I found this epically cool Boxelder (now Acer negundo var. negundo L.) from 1878. Look at that beautiful handwriting!
"Sapindaceae, Soapberry Family. Negundo aceroides. Ash-leaved Maple, or Box Elder."
"By Father Pierce's side gate. 1878 Ypsilanti Mich."
I also created a “Master List of Species”
spreadsheet based on our pre-organization databases. Now we have a (mostly)
accurate estimate of how many of each species are in our collection. In
addition, there were four shelves of “Ask Anna” specimens to contend with.
These were specimens that had strange problems, and so had been pulled during
the organization process to be dealt with at a later date. They had such
maladies as multiple accession numbers, no collection data, or sometimes no specimen
attached to the mounting at all. There was also what was clearly a mullein but
had been identified as a skunk cabbage. I still haven’t figured that one out. One
by one I figured out how to fix what I could on my own, and consulted with Anna
concerning the rest. I then accessioned, name verified, annotated, databased,
barcoded, digitized, organized, and filed them with their brother and sister
specimens. I have also finished writing and compiling a detailed binder of CMC
Herbarium protocols, which Sascha had begun before leaving for her adventures
in England.
Hillary and Rachel trying to get work done amongst the carnage of "Ask Anna" specimens
Finally, I have been working mostly on aesthetics. I
myself am not trained in mounting, so I have begun making the Herbarium look
pretty and organized. This includes proper cabinet labels (goodbye sticky notes…you
have served us well!), detailed cabinet contents sheets, and most importantly,
replacing the old, scribbly specimen folders with dual-layered, properly
labeled genus and species folders. I will also be double-checking organization
as I go. Hopefully soon we will be getting fancy internal shelf labels. For
now, the faithful sticky notes and the outer cabinet content sheets will have
to do.
My attempts to neaten up the Herbarium labels. Unfortunately I'm still working on devising a way to prevent wrinkling. They also start out perfectly flat when I put them up and somehow attempt contortions over time...
Until next we rendezvous through words,
Abigail H.
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