Herbarium specimens tell not only stories of scholarly botanists on formal collecting expeditions; they also hint of epic travels of adventurers and nature-lovers, serving as small glimpses into past scenes of beauty and wonderment.

While transcribing online through Notes from Nature, an online volunteer by the username "lofl" discovered one such delightful example in the elegant script and delicate flowers and leaves mounted on 100-year old paper. Looking more closely, this volunteer recognized that the specimen represented, in fact, two separate expeditions in 1910 and 1912 to similar, but not identical locations.

The specimens were collected by Winona Bailey, an avid outdoorswoman and member of an outdoors club of Seattle, Washington called The Mountaineers. Still running today, this club leads hiking and mountaineering trips throughout the rugged Pacific Northwest. Winona Bailey was a Latin teacher by profession but adventurer by nature. She traveled the world, explored, and climbed mountains (even falling 75 ft. off of a mountainside at one point, receiving only minor injuries!).

In the 1910 mountaineering expedition, Winona Bailey joined forces with Dr. Cora Eaton to describe the botanical observations of the trip in the Mountaineers' regular publication The Mountaineer. Dr. Eaton was a strong, independent woman and herself a champion of the outdoors. She became the first woman to practice medicine in North Dakota in 1892 and was an active advocate for women's suffrage, even carrying a pennant proclaiming "Votes for Women" to the top of Mount Rainier on one expedition of the Mountaineers.

Eaton and Bailey reported over 60 species of tree, wildflower, and shrub in this Mountaineer article, frequently commenting on the stunning beauty of each. "[N]othing more frequently claims the attention of the Mountaineer and calls forth his expressions of delight than the flowers that carpet the hillside, or hide modestly under cliff or brush" (18-19). Apparently, they and other botanists also collected voucher specimens during their journeys, allowing us to scientifically verify their observations. Perhaps more poetically, they enable us to peek into the past, perhaps catching a glimpse in our mind's eye of the glorious sights these adventurers and scientists beheld. Herbarium specimens tell us real stories of the people, places, and plants of historical times and hopefully help us preserve them for the future.

The California Phenology Network kicked off the new year with another herbarium digitization internship course for students at many of our collaborating institutions. This winter quarter, 30 students joined from 9 universities and colleges: Cal Poly, CSU San Bernardino, Pacific Union College, San Francisco State University, UC Irvine, UC Los Angeles, UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara, and UC Santa Cruz. The students learned a variety of digitization skills, including transcribing herbarium labels and identifying and converting different coordinate systems into decimal degrees. All students learned to use CCH2 to edit and curate data, as well as how herbarium specimens are used for vital scientific research. Each student read and presented a poster about a primary research article during class, and they participated in a virtual herbarium tour and virtual collecting demonstration.

Not only did the students learn valuable, transferable skills, but they also accomplished a lot in the process. Together the students transcribed and converted coordinates for 675 specimens, and they completed over 2700 Notes from Nature transcriptions and 491 transcriptions in CCH2. Because specimens require three transcriptions in Notes from Nature to be complete, this amounts to nearly 1,400 specimens transcribed overall—but that's only counting transcriptions completed during class time! Many students went above and beyond to transcribe specimens outside of class time, sharing fun discoveries and asking questions via a student-led GroupMe.

In a final reflection assignment, students were enthusiastic about the course and shared that they gained much deeper understandings about herbaria and the uses of herbarium specimens.

​"I learned they [herbarium specimens] are useful in taxonomy, systematics and so much more!" wrote one student.

​​Another student related their experience to their plans beyond the internship: "Now, I realize just how helpful herbarium collections can be in my future career."

Many students enjoyed the course so much that they will be returning to the internship for the spring 2021 quarter. In the upcoming course, students will learn how to georeference specimens using locality information from specimen labels​—potentially even the labels they transcribed during the winter quarter! The CAP Network is committed to involving the next generation of scientists in this important work, and we look forward to leading more classes across and within institutions throughout the network.

For more information about how to involve herbarium specimens and digitization into your own courses, visit our Educational Materials page. Do you have students interested in participating in a future digitization course? Email the project manager, Katie Pearson, for details.