Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum

The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum will digitize its herbarium, a collection of 22,000 botanic specimens. An estimated 60% of the herbarium was collected prior to 1900, documenting Midwestern landscapes prior to the urban and agricultural development that destroyed much of the region's natural flora. Currently, the herbarium is largely inaccessible online and there is a significant backlog of unprocessed specimens. The project will catalog, clean, and migrate specimen data into an online collection management system. The open digital access to this historic collection will provide the scientific community with data and specimens to be used in research. The museum also will use project content to develop specimen-based educational curricula and online resources for use in its education programs.