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Herbarium Collections
The Brooklyn Botanic Garden Herbarium includes about 250,000 specimens of preserved plants. The collection is worldwide in scope, with concentration on plants of the greater New York area and cultivated plants.
About the Herbarium
The original collection was formed by uniting the herbaria of the Brooklyn Lyceum, the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, and the Long Island (NY) Historical Society. Among these collections are specimens collected by J. Torrey, W. Darlington, A. Gray, and C. S. Rafinesque.
The herbarium also incorporates a number of historically important collections including:
- The personal herbarium of A. A. Heller, rich in types from the western United States.
- The personal herbarium of Camillo Schneider, which formed the basis for his monograph on woody cultivated plants, Handbuch der Laubholzkunde.
- A rare bound set of Australian algae and useful sets from the Whitney South Seas expedition and the Mulford expedition.
The collection is housed in a new facility, designed to incorporate the best ideas in collection conservation. With support from the Institute of Museum Services, William Lull, an environmental conservator, identified critical design features for the new herbarium and provided specifications for the climate control system. Architect Bernard Rothzeid designed the facility to meet two goals: providing a safe, clean and stable environment for the Garden's collections and comfortable and efficient workspaces for staff.
The Herbarium collection forms the basis for the Garden's two major research projects: a detailed survey of the local flora whose goal is to document the effects of urbanization on the vegetation of the New York metropolitan region, and a study of the systematics and taxonomy of cultivated plants.
Contact the curator:
Kerry Barringer718-623-7318
kerrybarringer@bbg.org