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Collections of Ethno- and Economic Botany (CEEB) are important
for scientists, students, the conservation and development communities, and
the general public. These collections include the most valuable and potentially
valuable food, fiber, medicines, and other useful plants. However, these collections
are poorly or un-curated, -indexed, and -databased, making them largely inaccessible
for research and reference.
Including everything from Abaca to Zucchini, botanical and ethnographic collections
of ethno- and economic botany are found around the world. These collections
consist of specimens, products (medicine, food, fiber, oil, latex, etc.), and
cultural artifacts (clothing, baskets, weaponry, tools, etc.) pertaining to
plants and people.
Research of many ethno- and economic botanists depends heavily on these collections.
Yet these collections have no standards of curation, nor any organization to
facilitate collaboration among scientists.
Our common objective is to identify curators and collections, identify common
needs, and prepare collaborative proposals for funding ethno- and economic botany
collections around the world. To this end we invite curators of ethno- and economic
botany collections to join us in this forum.
The immediate and long-term goals of this CEEB proposal are multiple: to index
CEEB, to organize and coordinate among CEEB and among the institutions in which
they are housed, to set standards of curation, to database these collections in
such a way that they are available online and can be inter-linked in the future
as a specimen-based, searchable database for researchers and the general public.
CEEB Forum
Add-hoc Members - NYBG
| RBG, Kew | Missouri
Botanical Garden | Chicago
Field Museum
Planned collaborating institutions include a growing network of smaller, neglected,
or teaching collections;
we are building international collaboration at Kew (K), Edinburgh (E), Leiden
(L), Paris (PAT), Aarhus (AAU), Padova (PAD),
Kunming (K), Bogor (BO), Bangalore (FRLH), Kirstenbosch (NBG) Museu Goeldi (MG),
UNAM (MEXU), and elsewhere.
Previous Workshops
Saturday 12 June - 2004
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK
A CEEB workshop is held each year in association with the Society
for Economic Botany’s annual meeting (Hawaii 2001, New York 2002, Arizona
2003). It is an opportunity for those involved in curating or researching ethno/economic
botany collections to compare notes, network, and to view practice at other
institutions. Such collections are not of living plants, but are typically of
ethnographic artefacts, and pharmacological and industrial materials. The format
of the meeting is informal and all are welcome to attend. The 2004 workshop
is being held at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, immediately before the joint
ICE/SEB/ISE meeting at the University of Kent at Canterbury.
3rd Annual Meeting - 2003
Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, Tucson, 2003
Workshop was held recently highlighting living collections at
the museum. The NSF - CEEB collections proposal was the major theme of discussion.
2nd Annual Meeting - 2002
Monday, June 24, 10:00 am, American Museum of Natural History
Monday, June 24, 10:00 am, American Museum of Natural History
Meet 8:45 am, Mosholu Gate, New York Botanical Garden to take train, OR meet
10:00 am inside AMNH main entrance, Central Park West
Including everything from abaca to zucchini, botanical and ethnographic
collections of ethno- and economic botany are found around the world. These
collections consist of specimens, products (medicine, food, fiber, oil, latex,
etc.), and cultural artifacts (clothing, baskets, weaponry, tools, etc.) pertaining
to plants and people. Research of many ethno- and economic botanists depends
heavily on these collections. Yet these collections have no standards of curation,
nor any organization to facilitate collaboration among scientists. So, our
1st Curatorial Workshop at the SEB meetings in Hawai'i last year began to
remedy our needs; the Natural Science Collections Alliance invited us to present
this year; and this 2nd workshop will carry on.
Initially, we enumerated the kinds of collections (herbaria,
cultural artifacts, seeds, paleoethnobotany, DNA, archives, maps, etc.), the
components of those collections (databases, libraries, websites, images, plants,
artifacts, etc.), the purposes of collections (research, education, conservation,
development, etc.), and the activities within collections (acquisition, curation,
research, support, exchange, disposal, etc.). We began defining common needs,
which will be the dominant theme this year.
Our long-term goals are to identify curators and collections,
identify common needs, and prepare collaborative proposals for funding ethno-
and economic botany collections around the world. To this end we invite curators
of ethno- and economic botany collections to attend the 2nd CEEB workshop
held at the American Museum of Natural History in conjunction with the SEB
meetings, 24 June 2002. For those staying near The New York Botanical Garden,
we will meet at the Mosholu Gate at 8:45 am to catch the train into the city;
for those staying downtown, go straight to the AMNH and meet us at 10:00 am
just inside the main entrance, Central Park West (behind Teddy Roosevelt on
horseback) - bring water, no food. The AMNH will display selections from their
varied ethnobotanical collections, thanks to Dr. Paul Beelitz, Director of
Collections and Archives, Division of Anthropology.
1st Curatorial Workshop for Ethno and Economic Botany Collections
Bishop Museum, Hawai'i, 2001
Including everything from abaca to zucchini, botanical and ethnographic
collections of ethno- and economic botany are found around the world. These
collections consist of specimens, products (medicine, food, fiber, oil, latex,
etc.), and cultural artifacts (clothing, baskets, weaponry, tools, etc.) pertaining
to plants and people. Research of many ethno- and economic botanists depends
heavily on these collections. Yet these collections have no standards of curation,
nor any organization to facilitate collaboration among scientists. So, our
1st Curatorial Workshop at the SEB meetings in Hawai'i this year began to
remedy our needs.
With an initial participation of 20-odd botanists and anthropologists
from 5 countries, we enumerated the kinds of collections (herbaria, cultural
artifacts, seeds, paleoethnobotany, DNA, archives, maps, etc.), the components
of those collections (databases, libraries, websites, images, plants, artifacts,
etc.), the purposes of collections (research, education, conservation, development,
etc.), and the activities within collections (acquisition, curation, research,
support, exchange, disposal, etc.). We began defining common needs. We recognized
the economic botany database standards being addressed by the International
Working Group on Taxonomic Databases for Plant Sciences (TDWG, see Cook 1995
).
Our longterm goals are to identify curators and collections,
identify common needs, and prepare collaborative proposals for funding ethno-
and economic botany collections around the world. To this end we invite curators
of ethno- and economic botany collections to contact Jan Salick (below) with
your name, institution, kind of collection, components of collection, activities
within the collection, and needs. We especially invite you to attend the 2nd
Curatorial Workshop for Ethno- and Economic Botany at the SEB meetings in
New York, June 2002.
Jan Salick, PhD
Curator of Ethnobotany
Missouri Botanical Garden
PO Box 299
St. Louis MO 63166-0299
314-577-5165
314-577-0800 fax
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