I don’t think I’ve yet mentioned the newly created “Why Archives Matter” tumblr.
Its creation was thus:
[This was all Twitter exchanges]
Me – Here’s a link to cool old ads
Alexis – We should start a site for things like that to show Why Archives Matter
Me – That sounds great
Noah – You could use Tumblr!
Me – Ok! Done!
Alexis – Cool!
Check it out, there’s some cool stuff from a variety of places there.
And the best part – YOU CAN SUBMIT!
So please do! Here! Do it!
After creating the site and browsing online collections to find neat things to share, I came across this flier on the Library of Congress’ American Memory website from the 1800′s that I promptly sent to my bosses at the Herbarium.
Oyster says:
I intend to publish a catalogue containing the names of all plants of North America, which will be numbered so it will be handy to use as a check-list.
&
The catalogue I intend to publish will also embrace the names of all botanists of North America so far as can be obtained.
He asks:
Friends of science, please give the above your personal consideration.
To my delight, my boss at the herbarium followed up with this. He found a reference to Oyster that called him a “Little Known Kansas Botanist,” checked with University of Kansas & this is what we found out:
Oyster personally published his catalogue in 1885 (second ed. 1888): Catalogue of the phaenogamous and vascular cryptogamous plants of North America (exclusive of Mexico). The second edition listed 174 families, 1665 genera, and 10123 species. Most of Oyster’s library and personal collections appear to have been lost in fires in 1886 and 1893. KANU has just a handful of his specimens.
I’m incredibly sorry to hear that he lost so much work in a fire – he clearly went through a lot of time and effort to collect and document specimens, especially now that I’m cataloging specimens at the herbarium, I have a better appreciation to the thoroughness and attention to detail and time it takes to collect.
I hope you enjoyed that nerdy narrative as much as I do.
To close, here’s an herbarium poem:
TO MY HERBARIUM
Yu dry and dead remains!
Poor, wrinkied remnants of a beauteous prime!
Why, from your final doom, should I take pains
To stay the hand of time?The worid would pass you by:
For beauty, grace and fragrance all are gone.
Your age is homeliness to evesy eye,
And prized by me alone.Not beautiful, but dear,
Your wrecks recall to me the happy past.
Wandlike, your stems can summon to appear
The days that could not last.I breathe the summer air!
I wander in the woodland paths once more!
Again the copse, the dell, the meadow, wear
The loveliness of yore.Turned to the God of day,
Your little lips come, prayerfully, apart.
With the soft breeze your leaves, reviving, play
Sweet music to my heart.The friend who in those years
Shared warmly in my rambles far and wide,
Back, with the same old fondness re-appears,
And trudges at my side.These are your charms to me!
While such dear recollections ye awake,
Your ruins, blackened, crumbling though they be,
I treasure for their sake.May I, like you, dry flowers,
When in young life I can no more engage,
A dear memento be of happy hours
To those who tend my age.
