digitizing engelmann's legacy

Digitizing Engelmann’s Legacy:

Chris FreelandDirector, Center for Biodiversity InformaticsMissouri Botanical Garden

Mapping Plant Specimens that Document the Great American Frontier

ESRI Education User Conference – July 13, 2010 – San Diego, CA

http://www.tropicos.org/Project/Engelmann

Project objectives

• Select, database & image 8,000herbarium specimens frompioneering expeditions into theAmerican frontier

• Digitize 100 volumes of fieldliterature

• Integrate geospatial analysis tools into Tropicos (http://www.tropicos.org)

• Make all data openly available at http://www.tropicos.org/project/engelmann

Agave wislizenii Engelm.

http://www.mobot.org

MOBOT: Now

• Founded by Henry Shaw • Opened to the public in 1859• Public display + education + science

MOBOT: Then

MOBOT Science: Now

MOBOT Science: Then

George Engelmann Asa Gray Wm. Jackson Hooker

George Engelmann (1809 – 1884)

• Physician & amateur botanist• Founder of St. Louis Academy of Sciences• Founding member of National Academy of Sciences

Thanks, Wikipedia! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Engelmann

US botanical exploration post-Lewis & Clark

Josiah Gregg

FreidrichWislizenus

FerdinandLindheimer

St. Louis: Gateway to the West

? X

Engelmannmore

…

Heuchera sanguinea Engelm.

Plant specimens document occurrence

Collection Information

Collectors: A. Wislizenus

Collection Number: 210

Collection Date: 06 October 1846

Location: Mexico, Chihuahua

Elevation: 7,000 ft

Description: Crimson flower

Locality: Mountains, rocks, at Llanos near Cosiquiriachi.

Data origin & annotation over time

^ 2.Herbarium label: synthesized data

< 1.Field label: origin of data

^ 3.Annotation: locality

4.Annotation: revision >

Data Storage: Tropicos.orghttp://www.tropicos.org/Specimen/1700971

Tropicos: http://www.tropicos.org

• MOBOT’s botanical information system– 3.8 million specimen records– 1.2 million plant names– 98,000 collectors / authors– 140,000 images

• Maps via ESRI tools & other technologies…

– ArcIMS in 2000, just recently taken offline– ArcGIS Server 9.3 & JavaScript API in 2009-2010

http://www.tropicos.org/project/engelmann

http://www.tropicos.org/project/engelmann

http://www.tropicos.org/project/engelmann

Geocoding legacy collections = hard, skilled work

< Geocode? Read??

Field notebooks & historic printed literature can help

http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/91553

Neat-o! But…why is this important??

• First documented occurrence of plant species in the American frontier– Westward expansion brought invasive plants,

habitat loss, other pressures on native plants

• Base data for secondary analyses– Can do things with the data after “unlocking”

them from physical storage

• American scientific & cultural heritage

These specimens represent:

Heuchera sanguinea = Coral bells

Common Name: coral bellsZone: 3 to 9 Plant Type: Herbaceous perennialFamily: SaxifragaceaeNative Range: Western United StatesHeight: 1 to 1.5 feet

Acknowledgements• ESRI• Institute of Museum & Library Services• Tropicos Development team:

Jay Paige, Heather Stimmel, Craig Geil• MOBOT Herbarium staff• MOBOT Library & Archives staff

• Botanists, scientists, students, explorers• And of course, George Engelmann!

Links & Resources

• Engelmann Project: http://www.tropicos.org/project/engelmann

• Tropicos: http://www.tropicos.org

• Biodiversity Heritage Library:http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org

• Missouri Botanical Garden:http://www.mobot.org

• MOBOT Images:http://www.mobot.org/mobot/archiveshttp://www.flickr.com/photos/mbgarchives

Thanks! Questions?

Chris FreelandDirector, Center for Biodiversity InformaticsMissouri Botanical Garden

Email: chris.freeland@mobot.org

Twitter: @chrisfreeland

Blog / info: chrisfreeland.com

Flickr: http://flickr.com/photos/chrisfreeland/

http://www.tropicos.org/Project/Engelmann