Value of a herbarium specimen

[Harvey E. Ballard, Jr.]

I was talking with Sue Thompson, Collections Manager at Carnegie Museum,
when I was doing research there a few weeks ago, about how much a single
herbarium specimen cost to mount, accession, computerize and maintain it,
apart from any inherent value of the collection itself.  They calculated
approximately $13 apiece for the sheet with specimen(s), if I recall our
conversation correctly.  The value of the specimen itself would then be
added to the cost of the specimen, of course.  A modest-sized but certainly
respectable herbarium of 100,000 specimens, each of which might be assumed
to have an inherent scientific value of ca. $7 on average (hence a total
value of $15 per sheet) would be hypothetically worth around $1,500,000.
How should the department and higher-level administration treat and support
such an investment, Hmmmm?

Harvey Ballard

*********************

Harvey E. Ballard, Jr.
Postdoctoral Research Assistant, Agricultural Research Service, USDA
Horticulture Department, 1575 Linden Drive, Madison WI 53706
Tel: (608) 262-0159; FAX: (608) 262-4743
and
Honorary Fellow, University of Wisconsin Herbarium, Botany Department
132 Birge, 430 Lincoln Drive, Madison, Wisconsin 53706
Tel: (608) 262-2792
email: hballard at students.wisc.edu