Herbarium Histories: Connecting and Sharing Collections Online
The Danish national herbarium contains 400 years of shared global histories of nature in the form of preserved plants: what are its cultural meanings and colonial pasts? How can this be uncovered and understood, and what does it mean today, both in Denmark and in the societies and nations where Denmark has left a mark? ‘Field/Work in the Archive - Herbaria as Sites of Cultural Exchange’ asks these questions. Funded by the Augustinus Fonden, this is one of the first humanities research projects to take place at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, investigating its historical collections from India, West Africa, the Caribbean and Greenland in all their complexity.
A Herbarium is a collection of dried plants mounted on paper. It is usually cared for, organised and managed by botanists who are specialists in plant taxonomy and systematics: the identification and naming of plants and the study of their environmental biology. In larger collections, the plants originate from all over the world.
But how did all these plants get there? What has driven the collection of these specimens, and what are their histories and cultural meanings, both in their places of origin and the locations where they are kept and used? Plants and people have deep connections, and each herbarium holds a key to both global and local meanings, pasts and futures of these critically important relationships.
Herbarium Histories brings together 18th, 19th, and early 20th century herbarium specimens, plantlists, letters, treatises and publications about Danish colonial botany. For much of this material, it is the first time in hundreds of years that it has been possible to consult related materials together in one place. The aim of this curated collection is to invite you into a virtual herbarium and to enable you to ask and begin to answer your own questions about the extensive – but underresearched – relationship between colonial history and botany.
Explore the Collections
Our digital collection provides a multifaceted exploration of the Danish national herbarium's rich history and its intricate web of cultural, scientific, and colonial narratives. The documents that we have brought together bridge the gap between past and present, inviting us to understand the power dynamics and evolving nature of scientific inquiry and emergent global knowledge in this period. To facilitate a deeper understanding of these narratives, we have curated and organized our source materials in several different ways.
You can search and study:
- People, Places and Plants by using our Search Everything page
- Different Colonial Contexts, viewing the wide range of herbarium sheets, correspondence, manuscripts and publications relating directly to specific Danish colonial settings.
- Different types of documents curated for the collection:
- Herbarium Sheets: These preserved botanical specimens not only showcase the biodiversity encountered by Danish explorers and scientists but also encapsulate stories of cultural exchange and scientific endeavor across centuries.
- Correspondence: The personal letters and official communications provide a glimpse into the human experiences, scholarly discussions, financial drivers and administrative logistics underlying the creation and expansion of the Copenhagen Herbarium. These documents reveal the personal voices and societal contexts of those involved in the herbarium's history.
- Manuscripts: Field notes, personal scientific journals, and unpublished studies offer insights into the methodologies and thought processes of the botanists and explorers who contributed to the herbarium.
- Publications: Plant descriptions, botanical treatises, environmental accounts and social histories of Danish colonial spaces contribute to an understanding of how knowledge was made in this period. More recent secondary publications offer methods for thinking about and researching these complex contexts.
… or simply Browse the entire collection, starting below!
The Herbarium Histories website is an open access research resource of the Natural History Museum of Denmark. It is created and managed by the Field/Work in the Archive: Herbaria as Sites of Cultural Exchange project team, funded by the Augustinus Fonden.
The Natural History Museum of Denmark:
Our vision is to empower connection between people and nature.
