Compactorization, Reorganization, and Electronic Cataloguing of the Peabody Museum Paleobotany Collections

Yale University, New Haven CT

Investigators

Abstract

The Paleobotany collection of the Peabody Museum of Natural History (Yale University) is one of the largest and most historically important in the United States. WIth over 150,000 specimens, it comprises four separate units: the original Yale Collection, the New York Botanical Garden Collection, the Princeton Colletion, and the more recent field collections of Peabody curators and students. This project will focus efforts on the reorganization, compactorization, and completion of the electronic cataloguing of the Paleobotany Collection in Yale University's new Environmental Science Facility, currently under construction. Purchase of a compactor system and of a standard size of cabinetry, both conforming to the collections equipment standard of the ESF, will optimize space, and the move will allow a unique opportunity to reorganize and integrate the four collection units. Specimen data that have not yet been electronically catalogued will be entered into the Peabody's museum-wide relational database system, Argus, and will be available over the Peabody Museum website.