Accessioning Illustrations into the Herbarium Collection
Accessioning (cataloguing) illustrations into the herbarium collection required establishing a numbering system, assigning a number to each illustration and noting identifying information for each illustration. The following is an example of an accessioned illustration:
| Accession No: | F500 |
| Artist's Name: | Hamilton, LB |
| Date of Illustration: | 1977 July 19 |
| Medium: | Pen and Ink |
| Description: | Stems with roots and leaves. |
| Enlarged flower, fruit, seed. | |
| Current binomial (species name): | Pedilanthus macrocarpus |
| Publication: | Plants That Poison, p. 188 |
| Comments: | None |
On the back of the illustration, Pedilanthus macrocarpus, the artist, Lucretia B. Hamilton, wrote the scientific and common name of the plant, the name of illustrator and date of the illustration. Her notations include a description of the plant, its flower and fruit; its flowering time; where the plant was collected; as well as identifying Euphorbiaceae as the family in which Pedilanthus macrocarpus is classified.
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| Pedilanthus macrocarpus | Back of illustration |
Click on images to enlarge
The light, medium and dark brown areas seen below on the illustration of Distylium sinaloense show deterioration. What caused the deterioration is not known.
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| Distylium sinaloense | Castilleja species |
Often when accessioning an illustration, all of the important information is not available. For example, the identity of the illustrator of Distylium sinaloense, Salgado, is unknown. The signature includes two initials preceding the surname but because of the ornate script, it is difficult to identify the initials. Often the current scientific name, site of publication, date of illustration, and species identity are not noted on either the front or back of the illustration, as seen above with the illustration of Castilleja. Future detective work is needed to thoroughly document an illustration lacking this information.
Additional illustrations in the University of Arizona Herbarium Collection can be seen here.