Unique seashell reference collection digitized by UH Museum Consortium

The University of Hawaiʻi Museum Consortium has completed the digitization of a unique natural science specimen collection from UH Mānoa's Anthropology Department's Archaeology laboratory.

"The collection is fairly comprehensive for much of the archeological shell midden material commonly found in the Hawaiian landscape," said Dr. Michael Thomas of the UH Museum Consortium. Beachcombers and citizen scientists will also find the digital collection useful for identifying more than 190 species of seashells found throughout the Hawaiian Island beaches.

The collaborative project was cross disciplinary and involved several curators, students, community volunteers, and the University photographer. Thomas added, “This initiative is an excellent demonstration of how digital technologies can be applied to increase public access to university collections and to add-value to an underutilized reference collection."

The Anthropology Department's Marine Shell Collection began decades ago as an avocational pursuit of Bertell E. Davis. In 1985 Mr. Davis bequeathed the collection to his son, Bertell D. Davis, then an archaeology graduate student in the department. The younger Davis (PhD, Mānoa, 1990), who was interested in documenting the impact of humans on the environment, further developed the shell collection as a reference and comparative resource for identifying shell midden from Hawaiian and Pacific archaeological sites.

The collection, which includes nearly 200 species of marine mollusks, was donated to support undergraduate education through various courses of the Anthropology Department's Archaeology program in 2005. The specimens are currently curated by Archeology Lab Manager Jo Lynn Gunness and housed in UH Mānoa's College of Social Sciences Anthropology Department's Archaeology Program.

The University’s Virtual Museum, established in 2008, offers a single web portal to various university Natural Science and Humanities collections. Currently, the University’s Joseph F. Rock Herbarium, Insect Museum, and the Historic Clothing Museum have digital collection initiatives underway.

For more information, visit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/uhmuseum/sets/72157616090546606/

Fiji Herbarium (Univ. of the South Pacific) digitizes plant specimen collection

The University of the South Pacific herbarium (SUVA) is collaborating with the development of a regional herbaria consortium in partnership with the Department of Botany of the University of Hawaii. The new regional network is funded by the National Science Foundation for 3 years ($1.4 million) and is assisting regional plant collections with digitally photographing and databasing plant and algal collections from the Polynesia-Micronesia biodiversity hotspot region.

The Polynesia-Micronesia hotspot is a center of plant biodiversity that harbors approximately 5350 native plant species. In addition to Fiji, other collaborating partners include institutions in American Samoa, Hawaii, Guam, Palau, Samoa, and Tonga. We are also working in collaboration with the National Tropical Botanical Garden and the Bishop Museum both in Hawaii,” said Dr. Michael Thomas, Curator of the Joseph F. Rock Herbarium, University of Hawaii.

Marika Tuiwawa, Curator of the USP herbarium added, “he looks forward to providing increased access to the collection by delivering content to the Internet for students, researchers, and the general public. Increased access to the digital data for plants and algae of the Pacific Basin through the Consortium of Pacific Herbaria will create new regional research opportunities to discover and use specimen collection data,” Thomas added. The project will help the public understand the various plants that grow not only here in Fiji but also throughout Micronesia and Polynesia.

The project is providing several USP students with employment opportunities as museum curatorial assistants and the staff at the South Pacific Regional herbarium have received training on specimen digitization.

In addition, the project will develop an authoritative plant checklist of latin and common names that will facilitate the research of biologists and work of land managers who monitor invasive and endangered species throughout the Pacific. For more information about the collaborative project, visit the web site www.pacificherbaria.org