The National Museum of Natural History celebrates 192 years of life with a new Digital Herbarium

The ceremony to be held next Wednesday, September 14.The instance will also serve to publicize the latest initiative of the MNHN: the digitization of the collections that make up the SGO National Herbarium.

The National Museum of Natural History, an institution dependent on the National Service of Cultural Heritage, of the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage, is the oldest in Chile and this Monday, September 14 celebrates 192 years since it was founded in 1830 by the French naturalist Claudio Gay.

The commemoration will be held in the Central Hall of the museum, and it will highlight the careers of its oldest officials and officials, in addition to publicizing the Digital Herbariumwhich will make available to the public digitized collections from the SGO National Herbarium, which is housed in the Botany Area of ​​the MNHN.

The Director(s) of the MNHN, Christian Beckerpoints out that «celebrating a new anniversary of the MNHN is always something special, on this occasion we can do it with great news for citizens, our Digital Herbarium, an initiative that makes the treasures that our centenary National Herbarium protects available to anyone.

As is the case with our digitized collections that are on the Sketchfab platform, those who enter the Digital Herbarium will be able to review in detail the botanical specimens that are kept in the National Herbarium and to which there was no access to the general public until now. We are very excited about this, as it is a way of bringing Natural Heritage to everyone, freely and free of charge».

The Digital Herbarium, a new tool to access Natural Heritage

On the occasion, the Digital Herbarium of the MNHN (https://herbario.mnhn.gob.cl), a digital repository that houses specimens deposited in the SGO National Herbarium, of the Botany Area of ​​the National Museum of Natural History, which can be freely accessed from anywhere in the world.

Likewise, this repository allows precise searches of the specimens housed in it, and these specimens can be seen through high-resolution and quality images. Another relevant feature of this new MNHN platform is that the specimens that are available have information on the geolocation of their collection.

In this initial stage of the Digital Herbarium, one hundred samples of type specimens from the Collection of Type Vascular Plants of the SGO National Herbarium can be reviewed.to which new digitized specimens will be progressively added, as is the case, for example, with the MNHN’s digitized collections repository hosted on the Sketchfab platform. This collection is one of the most important in the SGO Herbarium and one of the oldest in South America..

Its origins date back to the beginning of the Republic of Chile and it is composed of about 6,800 copies. Also, this collection of botanical types preserves 90% of the original specimens that served Rodulfo Amando Philippi to name nearly 3,800 plant species over almost half a century of research.

Víctor Ardiles, Head of the Botany Area of ​​the MNHN, highlights this new tool, «A digital collection that we have waited for a long time and that has been developing in the Museum for a year. Today, after several tests and validations of the data, we are very happy to deliver this information to both the general public, as well as those interested in the study of plant diversity at the country and world level.”

Ardiles also highlights that this Digital Herbarium, in addition to being a resource for researchers, academics and teachers, is also useful for those who want to resolve doubts about a species, want to know the original specimens reviewed by botanists from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, or study historical data collected, among many other possibilities.

The general public will be able to use this Digital Herbarium in a simple and precise way, understanding the historical and patrimonial value of the MNHN collections, pieces that constitute a testimony of classic botanical science, which in some cases go back to plant collections long ago. 194 years.

tributes

On the other hand, as is traditional on each anniversary of the National Museum of Natural History, officials who reach a certain number of years of service in the institution are highlighted, as is the case of María Elena Muñoz, who has been working for 40 years in the MNHN, in the Human Resources area, as well as those who retire, as is the case of Lucy Gómez, who is retiring from the Museum’s Management and Administration Area.