Museums and integrity of types
Michael Gochfeld
gochfeld at eohsi.rutgers.edu
Mon Sep 29 12:09:00 EDT 1997
Even museums in developed nations have to make substantial investments
and commitments to maintaining the integrity of specimens (all specimens
including types). I hear from some of my museum colleagues that
curatorial budgets are always an issue and sometimes compete withe
educational missions.
However, there is another dimensions---the risk of war---which has
certainly resulted in the destruction of museum collections and types in
Europe. I don't know whether the wars in the Middle East, Africa or
Eastern Europe have hit museums, but the risk is always
there---particularly since museums are often among the strongest
structures in a town, hence likely to be used as fortifications and
thus be targetted. That's why paratypes distributed to other museums
are important (but never quite replace the holotypes, I guess). I
anticipate that electronic and molecular documentation of types is going
to become increasingly important to assure the security of types
(particularly as more and more sibling species that differ only
biochemically are discovered).
M. Gochfeld
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