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The harmonious regularity of the inflorescence of this #Earina valida #orchid from #NewCaledonia is beautiful, even in a #herbarium specimen. The plant must look spectacular in nature. #HerbariumLife #CuratorLife

Part of herbarium collection of Earina valida orchid from New Caledonia. On the left is the inflorescence with harmoniously regular arranged side branches.

Finding herbarium specimens in a large collection is not trivial. Specimens are stored under a scientific name, often called filed-as name, and arranged according to their higher taxonomy, i.e. families and orders. The filed-as name is preferably the correct name (under taxonomic rules and according to the latest taxonomic treatments). However, changes happen(ed) often and quickly, and it is impossible to keep large collections always up-to-date. Some plant groups need to be looked at by specialists, some plant groups are heavily disputed by taxonomists so a curator cannot make a consensus. An Index that lists the genera of all filed-as names and also known synonyms is therefore necessary to guide visitors and curators alike to the specimen in demand.

After around ten years, the Index to the General Herbarium at the NHM London received a major update. It now includes the gymnosperms (pines, junipers, Welwitschia, ephedras etc.) that were forgotten before, and reflects major recuration projects, such as the complete overhaul of the Asparagales (asparagus, lilies, snowdrops, smilax) and the Vitaceae (wine), and many many small updates, corrections, and additions.

#CuratorLife #HerbariumLife

Printed Index to the General Herbarium of the Natural History Museum London

Q&A Spotlight: Anne Collins Smith on Antiques & the Art of Collecting

...#NewOrleansMuseumOfArt #AnneCollinsSmith #ArtCurator #MuseumLeadership #NOMA #ArtExhibitions #CulturalHeritage #ArtHistory #VisualArts #CuratorLife #ArtCommunity #HaywardOubre #WillieBirch #CuratorsInterlocutors #CathedralThinking #ArtEngagement The New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) welcomed Anne Collins Smith as its new chief curator on February 11, marking a significant addition to its leadership…

https://pussygaloresemporium.com/qa-spotlight-anne-collins-smith-on-antiques-the-art-of-collecting/

Unveiling Treasures: Q&A with Elizabeth Kathleen Mitchell in Antiques And The Arts Weekly

...#McNayArtMuseum #CuratorLife #PrintsAndDrawings #ArtCurator #ElizabethKathleenMitchell #SanAntonioArt #ArtExhibitions #PrintFair #ArtHistory #ModernArt #ContemporaryArt #ArtAcquisitions #ArtEducation #TexasArtScene #ArtMuseumLife Dr. Elizabeth Kathleen Mitchell has recently been appointed as the curator of prints and drawings at the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas,…

https://pussygaloresemporium.com/unveiling-treasures-qa-with-elizabeth-kathleen-mitchell-in-antiques-and-the-arts-weekly/

This is a #grass‽ From giant bamboos to maize and the common lawn ryegrass, #Poaceae can be quite variable. #Panicum cupressifolium from #Madagascar has minute leaves, making it look like a #cypress (hence the name).
#IAmABotanist #HerbariumLife #CuratorLife

Partial photo of a herbarium specimen of grass from the collections of the NHM London. The minute leaves of the Madagascan grass Panicum cupressifolium creates the look of a cypress.

In the past, #herbaria were bound volumes. Some had beautiful arrangements and even drawings of vases from which the plants would appear to be in.
At the NHM London, we have bound volumes by the Liberato Sabbati, curator of the Rome botanical garden in the mid 1700s. #CuratorLife #HerbariumLife

Front page of Sabbati's bound volumes with a margin of colourfully painted flowers.

#Herbarium specimens often lose their colours and turn brownish. But sometimes colours persist, especially when material was dried quickly.
This #Anemone sends a colourful spring greeting from the NHM London on a grey February day.
#HerbariumLife #CuratorLife

Herbarium specimen of an Anemone with originally scarlet crimson but faded to pink flowers.

Some of what I do as an entomology curator is Chrysis management.

#CuratorLife #Collections #Insects #Wasps #Entomology

Microscope photograph in side view of a brilliant metallic blue wasp with black wings, dead and pinned through the thorax. The photo shows tremendous detail of the fine hairs and pits on the insect's body.

Wide angle photograph of a glass-topped museum drawer filled with little white trays full of small insects. The trays are labeled "Chrysis spp." and other various species names in the genus Chrysis.

What a massive #poppy #flower on a new specimen from the NHM London 😳 This #Papaver orientale is huge with 16 cm/7" in diameter.
#CuratorLife #HerbariumLife

A scientific request to search for specimens in the genus #Cinnamomum couldn't have come at a better time. Even after decades since collecting, the specimens still have a slight scent of #cinnamon and #clove. 🤩 #PumpkinSpice and #gingerbread are in the air! #HerbariumLife #CuratorLife

Slowly but surely I’m working on funding my exhibition about mental health. Sometimes I’m overwhelmed by what I want to do. Then I remember I’ve been researching this for about 6 years and I know the project backwards. Also I’m surrounded by amazing support from collaborators and people who believe in the project. #curator #curatorlife #exhibition #mentalhealth #funding

Surreal! The red folders are #type specimens at #NaturalHistoryMuseumLondon. [Type specimens are the very definition of a species and therefore really important]. The red shelf contains the NHM's collections of #Stelis #orchids from the region 23 (Tropical South America).
#HerbariumLife #CuratorLife

Shelf from the herbarium of the NHM London full with red folders. Red folders contain type specimens, which are the very definition of a species. The shelf in the image is the NHM's collection of Stelis orchids from Tropical South America.

This morning's mystery: a label on a series of rare streblid bat flies from sometime in the 1940s-ish. What's the third line say?

#Entomology #CuratorLife

Photograph of a small, yellowed square of paper with messy handwriting that says "Dynamite Cave, 5 mi W, [something unintelligble], Texas"

#Herbaria are not just about #plants but also about #history. #CuratorLife is also about learning about collectors. Today, I solved the mystery of a collector from India, "Col. R.S. Vine". It's Roland Stephen Vine (1910-2003). He was with the #RAMC, the Royal Army Medical Corps, and stationed in India between 1936 and 1939. That's when we have his collections from India from. But he also collected in the UK and Greece but those collections are in Kew #Herbarium.

@cgbrooding I love love love a good puzzle!! I can’t wait till we move into our house and we have the space for me to do all the puzzles I’ve been saving up to do! I might have a cheeky puzzle collection 🙃🤣👌🏻 #actuallyautistic #autisticcollections #itsnotaproblemok #curatorlife

Last summer, Dr. Adrian Smith joined me in the field to capture video of the excavation of an undescribed species of burrowing crayfish. Three hours of digging (we were in the middle of a dry spell), untold numbers of mosquito bites, and a wee bit of caked on mud later I got one. And Adrian’s footage of it was magical; check out the video on his AntLab YouTube channel here:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rBnRKcpK8Rs&feature=youtu.be

#crustmas #crayfish #crustacea #fieldwork #curatorlife

Bronwyn covered in mud, sitting on the ground in a field, staring down a hole she dug in search of a burrowing crayfish

Woke up this morning into a bleak new world where the wasp family Pteromalidae has been split into 24 families and I am somehow going to have to learn them, and then find two weeks somewhere, to update the collection I curate.

https://jhr.pensoft.net/articles.php?id=94263&journal_name=jhr

#CuratorLife #Entomology #Hymenoptera

A tiny dark wasp with yellow legs sits on a big fluffly scale insect.

One wouldn't mount #herbarium specimens like this anymore, but this one from #NHMLondon does have an artistic appeal.
#MastoArt #ModernArt #HerbariumLife #CuratorLife @museum

Herbarium specimen from the NHM London with a grass-like plant mounted in a spiral.

Mistakes happen, even in a great #herbarium. It is a bit unfortunate though if specimen labels were switched accidentally and both specimens are types. 😬😳
But great if one can figure that problem out. 😁

#HerbariumLife #CuratorLife

#CuratorLife

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