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13. The Role of Digital Specimen Images in Historical Research
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13 The Role of Digital Specimen Images in Historical Research Stephanie C. Haas, Kent D. Perkins, and Michael Bond In 1999, an article by Vincent Kiernan in the Chronicle of Higher Education addressed the value of the “International Plant Names Index,” a joint Web database project of Harvard University Herbaria; the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, England; and the Australian National Botanic Gardens in Canberra. In that article, Kiernan touched on the possibility that the database’s function of providing an authoritative record on the names of every flowering plant on earth could be expanded to include digital photographs of each plant. Kiernan pointed out that “a researcher who wants to determine if a plant specimen belongs to a known species faces a big task in resolving the issue. The researcher must compare the newly found plant with a ‘type specimen,’ a preserved sample of the older plant, collected by its discoverer. But that sample could be in a herbarium halfway across the globe. The researcher either has to travel to the herbarium or persuade officials there to send a sample by mail.”1 Dr. David Boufford of the Harvard University Herbaria expressed support for digitizing specimens:“Having the images could save a lot of time and effort . . . [and make for] less wear and tear on the specimens.”2 A decade later, botanic gardens and herbaria across the globe are digitally capturing their specimens and making them available over the Internet. Field photographs and line drawings of plants are excellent resources for study, but specimen images offer a number of advantages: • The specimens these images are based on are permanently preserved in museums and may include details on plant form, locality, habitat, flowering and fruiting period, frequency, and distribution. The individual specimens may be part of a set of specimens with added historical context. • The images of voucher specimens offer particular potential in resolving taxonomic discrepancies and can be used as a stable reference for ongoing scientific discussions. 214 Haas, Perkins, and Bond • Specimen images generally depict diagnostic characteristics better than photographs. Typically, the specimens are pressed with attention to appropriate features. Images reveal aspects of the plant not discernable in drawings ; textures, for example. • Digitized images provide researchers the opportunity to study specimens from multiple collections. • Costs associated with taxonomic projects may be significantly reduced because initial screening of plants can be done on-line. • Multiple researchers can discuss taxonomic issues related to a specific displayed specimen. In addition to the advantages for current botanical research, the use of digital images offers substantial assistance to historical research. In 2000, the University of Florida Digital Library Center developed a pilot digital project entitled The Bartrams’Florida (http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/digital/ collections/bartram/Default.htm). The purpose was to create an integrated digital portal to the Bartrams’ travels in Florida by digitizing and linking text, maps, aerial photography, specimen images including botanical specimens , and manuscript transcriptions. John Bartram’s travel in 1765–1766 established an East Florida route later traversed by the most notable European and American naturalists in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries including his son William. Digital representation of John’s travels provided the content focus for the pilot project. According to Francis Harper, John Bartram “was probably the first botanist to examine and report on the flora of Florida and the greater part of Georgia. In South Carolina he had apparently been preceded only by Mark Catesby and Dr. Alexander Garden.”3 To digitally enrich John’s travels, textual references were linked to specimen images and other digital objects.The passage below, including Harper’s extensive annotations, is taken from John Bartram’s Diary of a Journal through the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida, from July 1, 1765 to April 1766. It records the botanical sightings made on a trip from St. Augustine to Fort Picolata on November 15, 1765: [November 15[.] A lovely cool day[.] wind N. West[.] never was A finer day to travail[.] fine clear morning[.] therm[.] 65[.] set out for picolata[,] sun one hour high[.] rode over much poor ground[.] about one half way crossed severall narrow bay swamps mixed with some small Cypresses[,] ye higher ground being generally white sand[.] many shrubs of evergreen oaks[,] vacciniums[,] andromedas of several kinds[,] chinquapins [,] small stragling pines[,] & some oakes very scrubby[,] of ye black Jack kinds[,] & A few scrubby white oaks[;] but ye country generaly open[,] so as to se[e] round for several miles[,] & very little grass but [44.210.78.150] Project MUSE...