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DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY
The Plant Press
From The Plant Press, Vol. 28, No. 3, July 2025.
Converging messages from two professional meetings
Community and collaboration are key for the future of natural history collections
By Erika M. Gardner
There is an urgent need for natural history collections to engage broader audiences. This was the clear message delivered at the 40th annual meeting of the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC), held at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, from May 27-31, 2025. While outreach has traditionally prioritized classroom engagement, the digitization of collections has increased online visibility. Now is the time to make new groups aware of these resources. Jocelyn Corella (KU Biodiversity Institute), one of the three plenary speakers, emphasized in her talk, “Natural History Collections, A One Health Nexus,” that “adult education is where we need to focus our efforts.” Professionals, policymakers, administrators, and registered voters represent untapped audiences with influence. Expanding their engagement is crucial. Orphaned collections loom at many institutions due to a lack of administrative knowledge about their holdings. Case in point, after Duke University announced plans to close their herbarium, the science community was outraged. Other long-standing challenges to existing collections persist, such as limited time, space constraints, and diminished funding. Added to these, staffing levels are at an historic low.
Overlapping themes and topics were expressed a week earlier at the 22nd National Botanical Symposium in Washington D.C. on May 16, 2025. According to Lúcia G. Lohmann (Missouri Botanical Garden), in her presentation, “Biodiversity and Innovation: Bringing Herbaria to Their Full Potential,” she stated, “we need to find creative and engaging ways to distribute data…virtual data and tools are creating space for collaboration.” As AI paves the way forward, opportunities for collaboration in natural history collections will expand. Rebecca B. Dikow (Yale University) mentioned in her talk, “Connecting the Dots: People, Data, and Natural History Collections,” that “As we’re in this very uncertain time in science, focusing on the community aspect is really energizing.” Not only is it energizing, but it is also crucial for a collection’s survival.
Reaching wider communities and stakeholders will help build the support needed to preserve collections for the future. Collections will need to pivot outreach efforts and find novel collaborative approaches. This summer, the US National Herbarium will offer hands-on specimen preparation lessons, open to the public. The timing couldn’t be any more perfect. The mission of this new public program reinforces the core themes conveyed at recent meetings. Collection management and outreach approaches will need to be refined to fulfill the needs expressed at these meetings.