Holy Cross Junior Restores Valuable Herbarium Collection

As part of her internship through the Center for Interdisciplinary and Special Studies, Holy Cross junior Carolyn (Carrie) Pucko has spent the last four months cleaning and organizing a valuable plant collection belonging to the EcoTarium in Worcester. Under the direction of the museum's manager of collections and exhibits, Russ Handsman, and Professor Robert Bertin of the biology department, Pucko has begun to uncover Worcester's rich floral history and has even come across many plant species that had never been documented to exist in this area before.

The Collection

One of the most important plant collections covering central New England, the herbarium consists of approximately 4,000-5,000 specimens. It includes old records of many plants that are now extremely rare in the Worcester area, as well as early records of many introduced species.

Most of the local specimens contained in the collection were accumulated between the 1870s and 1920s - though some date back as far as the 1830s. Fortunately, many of the herbarium sheets include information about when and where specific plants were found, which makes them useful in tracking historical occurrences of species. Pucko says that some of the most unusual specimens were imported in wool, which was then cleaned and the waste was used as a fertilizer on "war gardens." Many exotic specimens were collected from these gardens that have never been found elsewhere.

Assembled by the Worcester Natural History Society - which later became the EcoTarium - the collection suffered insect damage during the 20th century and had not been reorganized during that time. Handsman credits that "Carrie's work with Robert Bertin to reorganize, update, and clean this significant natural history collection is an extremely valuable contribution to the museum and to the historical documentation of ecological change in the local area."

In fact, the need for reorganization and cleaning was so great that it was very laborious for Bertin to use the collection in his research work. A botanist, whose current research involves the flora and natural history of central Massachusetts, Bertin said his work was "very difficult, since the collection was not organized. Some specimens were in bad shape and some of the identifications were incorrect."

"Nevertheless," he said, "it was clear that there were some valuable specimens."

The Restoration

So, Bertin floated the possibility of reorganizing the collection to Pucko after having her as a student in his field botany class. Pucko jumped at the opportunity.

Conducting the majority of her work on campus, where she has easier access to science labs, microscopes and reference materials, Pucko had the collection of plant species - consisting of 60 boxes - moved to campus in January through a formal loan agreement between the museum and the College. Since then, she has cleaned all of the specimens and separated them by plant family. She is now identifying each specimen by name and organizing them by species. So far, she has recognized about 40 plants that were previously unknown to have ever grown in Worcester, including some species of orchids such as the Yellow Lady Slipper.

Handsman says that the restoration work "will allow [the EcoTarium] to begin to build a database and find aid for the herbarium this fall - important next steps in our ongoing explorations of how the city's ecosystems have changed and continue to change."

Pucko, who is just finishing her internship, said that her work was "like looking at a snapshot of the late 19th century Worcester environment and being able to see the impacts that industrialization had on local plant life through the decades." Helping color this snapshot were the photographs, articles and advertisements found in the old newspapers protecting some of the specimens.

A great admirer of Bertin and Handsman, Pucko credits that "without their help, thousands of pieces of Worcester's floral history may have waited another half-century to be available for public and educational use."

Carrie Pucko is majoring in biology and environmental studies. She is from Rochester, N.Y., and expects to spend the fall semester at a field station in Kenya.

For additional information contact Kristine Caputo at 508.793.2419.



Photos courtesy of John Buckingham.