[Nhcoll-l] Ranking of largest collections -- HELP

Tue Jan 27 21:11:58 EST 2015

I guess it depends on how you are lumping "institutions".  The UMMZ has
about 15 million specimens.  However, the University of Michigan also has
separate anthropological (N/A), archaeological (~100,000), paleontological
(~2.2 million), and botanical collections (~1.7 million).  These
"institutions" all are separate administrative units.  So collectively, the
UM collections are probably closer to the 20 million range.

I hope that helps!

Take care,
Cody

Cody W. Thompson, PhD
Mammal Collections Manager
& Assistant Research Scientist
University of Michigan
Museum of Zoology
1109 Geddes Avenue
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109
Office: (734) 615-2810
Fax: (734) 763-4080
Email: cwthomp at umich.edu
Website: codythompson51.wordpress.com

"Conservation is a state of harmony between men and land."
-Aldo Leopold

From:  James Boone <jamesb at bishopmuseum.org>
Date:  Tuesday, January 27, 2015 6:50 PM
To:  "nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu" <nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
Subject:  Re: [Nhcoll-l] Ranking of largest collections -- HELP

The Bishop Museum¹s Research and Collection page -
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.bishopmuseum.org_research_&d=AwIFAw&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=pbN6Q4LQuz8Gtvj4ZUJbBYoEAaVNAkYeSNb2zw1kAz4&s=lkvzsv2IToynlNa5HEGiG5a008LXVptI280z0J2ocFw&e= 
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.bishopmuseum.org_re
search_&d=AwMFAg&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NV
lo3fXNoRNzI&m=DuNDmGrhP6AMG_Il5balvQzlqCilKVSDnqM2Nm0E4C8&s=myCfFp4xwtT_fhzY
WmZPs0aObwjFRJN3Odf_BZ61km8&e=>  states that the museum has 24.7 million
items.

Cheers/Jim

James H. Boone
Entomology Collection Manager
Bishop Museum 1525 Bernice Street
Honolulu. Hawaii
(808) 848-4196
jamesb at bishopmuseum.org

From: nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu
[mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Doug Yanega
Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2015 1:14 PM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Ranking of largest collections -- HELP

On 1/27/15 12:50 PM, Christopher Kemp wrote:
> 
> I don't know if this is empirically known or somewhat debatable, but I'm
> trying to make a list of the top 5 natural history collections in the US, and
> in the world. So, two lists. And I mean in terms of size, or number of
> specimens. Please weigh in. I'm assuming NMNH, AMNH, the Field for the US, but
> who's next? And in the world, I just don't know: the NMNH, the BMNH, the AMNH?
> I don't know. Share your thoughts. I'm at cjkemp at gmail.com, or respond on the
> listserv.
The numbers are empirically known, though lists tend to be compiled by
discipline. Using absolute numbers will be very misleading, and heavily bias
your list towards arthropod-containing collections (e.g., our collection of
3 million places us around #20 in terms of the size of North American insect
collections, for example; however, you won't find very many collections that
have no insects but still have over 3 million specimens). Number of types
will also be highest in insect-containing collections, as well.

I'm trying to recall the last time I saw a printed ranking of collections,
and drawing a blank; however, the NMNH, AMNH, FMNH, LACM, and CAS are what I
recall as the largest US collections, but there are others like the MCZ,
Peabody, Carnegie, Bishop, and ANSP. You can look up virtually all major
collections in Wikipedia for very up-to-date counts of holdings
(https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__en.wikipedia.org_wiki_List-5Fof-5Fnatural-5Fhistory-5Fmuseums-5Fin-5Fthe-5FUnited-5F&d=AwIFAw&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=pbN6Q4LQuz8Gtvj4ZUJbBYoEAaVNAkYeSNb2zw1kAz4&s=XgBUAbGsBKJlWGMLFy3tWDKwX0AiUwZUI4UVgLC35M8&e= 
States 
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__en.wikipedia.org_wiki_L
ist-5Fof-5Fnatural-5Fhistory-5Fmuseums-5Fin-5Fthe-5FUnited-5FStates&d=AwMC-g
&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=my
vO-IsV_QaaN3EHvqE5Bx2De42llbeBeyYTzvumYJU&s=szR9bCje6egBBC1qphUuVAaNn0GQu45n
so8-7-RDoKs&e=>  for the US, and
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__en.wikipedia.org_wiki_List-5Fof-5Fnatural-5Fhistory-5Fmuseums&d=AwIFAw&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=pbN6Q4LQuz8Gtvj4ZUJbBYoEAaVNAkYeSNb2zw1kAz4&s=T_MD_kyen80c2kzARndObNHIpgYRJ3Bq4oaoj_OmP6w&e= 
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__en.wikipedia.org_wiki_L
ist-5Fof-5Fnatural-5Fhistory-5Fmuseums&d=AwMC-g&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=C
LFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=myvO-IsV_QaaN3EHvqE5Bx2De42llbe
BeyYTzvumYJU&s=ida5A6DumJmZHvhtnrqdNeMMZhCE9DCNmO9w0XG2JqY&e=>  for
worldwide), and derive rankings yourself.

I just checked the museums I recalled above, and they are indeed all quite
large: NMNH - 126 million; LACM - 35 million; AMNH - 32 million; CAS - 26
million; FMNH - 24 million; Carnegie - 22 million; MCZ - 21 million; ANSP -
17 million; Peabody - 12 million. The Bishop Museum entry doesn't give their
entire holdings, but their insect collection alone is 13.5 million. If all
of the University of California's collections were housed together (UC
Riverside, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, primarily) we'd also be on that list, with
between 15-18 million as a group. I am not sure if any stand-alone herbaria
qualify for inclusion, though many of the collections above include plant
specimens. I believe that Paris is the all-around largest, by a significant
margin, but the Wikipedia entry gives no estimate of their collection size.
The NHM in London claims only 80 million, which seems lower to me than I
would have supposed.

Hope this helps,

-- 
Doug Yanega      Dept. of Entomology       Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0314     skype: dyanega
phone: (951) 827-4315 (disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
             https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__cache.ucr.edu_-7Eheraty_yanega.html&d=AwIFAw&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=pbN6Q4LQuz8Gtvj4ZUJbBYoEAaVNAkYeSNb2zw1kAz4&s=Mug3tAtvnkORXgHpz4MmIbpA2JmLH966sNl0Nng_bqE&e= 
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__cache.ucr.edu_-7Eheraty
_yanega.html&d=AwMC-g&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_
h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=myvO-IsV_QaaN3EHvqE5Bx2De42llbeBeyYTzvumYJU&s=WgQG8FoSu-e
p4dNTC11Q7XttcfVxmy9gt3CSuQoiPno&e=>
  "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
        is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82

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