Blog
The Art and Science of Herbarium Specimens
Herbaria, or historical collections of pressed and dried plant specimens, serve as physical records of how plants change over time. As the climate crisis continues, herbaria have become increasingly relevant to the study of plant responses to climate change and...
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Herbarium Supports Art Exhibition
Digital images from Vassar’s herbarium have been included in “Changing Forms - Metamorphosis in Myth, Art and Nature 1650-1700,” an exhibit on display now through December 19 at the Francis Lehman Loeb Art Center. The exhibit includes a print based...
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Mobile Imaging Team Presents at URSI Symposium
This summer, our EMMA mobile team travelled to four different Hudson Valley herbaria and digitized 6,400 specimens. Two members of our team, Allison Carrenza ‘23 and Garrett Goodrich ‘23, participated as Fellows in Vassar’s Undergraduate Research Summer Institute (URSI). On...
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URSI Student Researchers Help Expand Access to Important Botanical Data
BY LARRY HERTZPhotos by Karl Rabe. Video by Damian Zapien and Jim Sulley.For more than a century, researchers at the 8,000-acre Mohonk Preserve, located about 15 miles west of the Vassar campus, have been documenting the changing ecology of the region,...
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Professor Schlessman Talks About “NOT Average” Specimens
This summer’s Botanical Society of America “Botany 2021” virtual meeting included a special session hosted by the Society of Herbarium Curators called “NOT Your Average Specimen.” Presentations highlighted noteworthy specimens that help to engage stakeholders and contribute to a broader...
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Digitizing the Daniel Smiley Research Center Herbarium
Our second stop of the summer was at the Daniel Smiley Research Center (DSRC), of the Mohonk Preserve in New Paltz, New York. We were fortunate enough to work alongside Jordan Williams, a Digitization Technician working towards the digitization of...
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Digitizing Highstead Arboretum’s Herbarium
This past week, we had the opportunity to work in Connecticut digitizing Highstead Arboretum’s herbarium. Implementing all of the changes we made to our procedures at Mohonk, we finished imaging over 1,400 specimens representing 323 genera in just four days....
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Digitizing the Edmund Niles Huyck Preserve Herbarium (and More)
Our first stop as a mobile digitizing team this summer was the Edmund Niles Huyck Preserve, located a little over 75 miles from Vassar’s campus in Albany County, New York. The Preserve was founded through gifts from the Huyck family...
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A New Day For Vassar’s Herbarium
The Botanist, c. 1875. Alfred Ronner,Belgian, 1852-1901.Oil on canvas. Gift of Rezin A. Wight. Courtesy of the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center. The Vassar College Herbarium is almost as old as the college itself. It was established in 1865 by...
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NSF Grant Will Help Vassar Share Botanical Data
Herbaria, catalogued collections of pressed and dried plant specimens, enable scientists to learn about ecosystems of the past. But the data on where and when the plants lived and died can also provide vital insights about the future. Thanks to...
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