17th and 18th century collections online

[Rob Huxley]

17th and 18th Century Herbarium Collections On-line

The Natural History Museum, London UK, has launched two new collections
image websites dedicated to important 17/18thth century botanical
collectors: the Jamaican collections of Sir Hans Sloane
(www.nhm.ac.uk/botany/databases/sloane) and Paul Hermann's collections from
Ceylon (Sri Lanka) (www.nhm.ac.uk/botany/databases/hermann).
These new sites, which are accompanied by background information on the
collectors and their significance, enable scientists, historians and the
general public to view these collections which are housed in bound volumes
to which access is normally restricted due to their age, importance and
fragility. Both collections contain a high proportion of historically and
nomenclaturally important specimens and drawings, Sloane's by association
with his "Natural History of Jamaica" (1707-1725), and Hermann's as the
basis for Carl Linnaeus' Flora Zeylanica (1747). Accompanying databases
allow the specimen images to be readily correlated with these works, and
more recent identifications.
The work involved in preparing these sites was supported by a generous
grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (UK) and is part of a larger programme
to conserve and renovate historical plant collections and rehouse them
under appropriate environmental conditions, while also increasing access to
them.
These new sites complement that of the Museum's John Clayton herbarium
(www.nhm.ac.uk/botany/databases/clayton) which went on-line in 1999. A
similar site, dedicated to George Clifford's herbarium, will be launched
later this year.


Dr Rob Huxley
Head of Collections Division
Department of Botany,
The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK

Phone (44) 020 7942 5118
Fax   (44) 020 7942 5529
E-mail: r.huxley at nhm.ac.uk
Museum Home Page URL: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/