[NHCOLL-L:1822] News from the Yale University Herbarium (YU)

[Tim White]

News from the Yale University Herbarium (YU)

The Botany Division of the Peabody Museum of Natural History, which
includes the Yale University Herbarium (YU) was recently relocated on the
third floor of the new Class of 1954 Environmental Science Center (ESC).
This state-of-the-art facility, with new compactorized cabinetry, provides
an optimum controlled environment for the conservation of specimens.  The
YU Herbarium was founded in 1864 by Daniel Cady Eaton, and is the
repository of many important historical collections.  Eaton himself was
primarily interested in ferns, which is reflected in the number of North
American fern holdings (ca. 15,000).  Alexander W. Evans, Eaton's student
and successor, was an avid field botanist and prolific scientist interested
in mosses, liverworts, and later lichens.  YU holds an estimated 35,000
bryophyte specimens, including many types.  Overall, the YU collection
contains about 350,000 specimens from throughout the world, although
emphasis is on North America and New England.  Among vascular plants,
grasses represent an additional area of strength owing to the work of John
Reeder from 1947 to 1968.  James Rodman served as Curator from 1973 to
1983, after which Leo Hickey oversaw both the Botany and Paleobotany
collections.  In 2000 Michael Donoghue joined the Department of Ecology and
Evolutionary Biology at Yale and was appointed Curator of the Division of
Botany, and since January 2003 he serves as Director of the Peabody Museum.
 In August 2002 Nico Cellinese, formerly at The Field Museum, was hired as
the first Collections Manager of the Herbarium.  She carried out the
relocation of the collections, and reorganized the arrangement of specimens
to reflect current knowledge of plant phylogeny.  In addition, after 55
years of separation, the collections of the Connecticut Botanical Society
(CBS), comprising approximately 35,000 specimens, have been merged with the
YU collections, although mantained in separate folders.  Plans to digitize
and database all collections are underway.  For more information about the
collections, loans, and visits contact Nico Cellinese (Tel.: 203-432-3537;
Fax: 203-432-7907; nico.cellinese at yale.edu), or visit the website at
http://www.peabody.yale.edu/collections/bot/.  The address for
correspondence is: Yale University Herbarium, Botany Division, Peabody
Museum of Natural History, Yale University, 170 Whitney Avenue, P.O. Box
208118, New Haven CT 06520-8118, U.S.A.

***********************************************
Nico Cellinese, Ph.D.
Collections Manager
Peabody Museum of Natural History
Yale University
170 Whitney Avenue
P.O. Box 208118
New Haven, CT 06520-8118, U.S.A.
Tel. 203-432-3537
Fax 203-432-7907