Biodiversity Heritage Library

This post originally published on the Museum Victoria blog to welcome the "Art of Science" exhibit to the museum and introduce audiences to BHL. Explore the latest BHL Australia developments in this past post. See the Museum Victoria collection in BHL here.

The Art of Science exhibition presents the finest examples from Museum Victoria's remarkable collection of natural history artworks. These include rare books from the 18th and 19th centuries, field sketches from early colonial exploration of Australia's wildlife, and contemporary scientific photographs.

The books on display contain some of the most beautiful and significant illustrations of flora and fauna ever produced. The exhibition's curators must have had a torturous task selecting which page from each book to display. Because that's all they could display – a single double page spread from each precious volume.

Major Mitchell's Cockatoo, illustrated by Elizabeth Gould for John Gould's A synopsis of the birds of Australia, and the adjacent islands, 1st edition, London, 1837-38, on display at Melbourne Museum. The entire book can now be viewed online.
Image: Nicole Kearney
Source: Museum Victoria

The Art of Science has only just opened at the Melbourne Museum. Before coming home, it toured Mornington, Ballarat, Adelaide, Mildura, Sale and Sydney. Visitors to the traveling exhibition were awed by the stunning illustrations, but they were also a little frustrated. They wanted to turn those beautiful pages. They wanted to see more.

Wombat, from An account of the English colony in New South Wales, from its first settlement in January 1788 to August 1801, David Collins, 1804. The entire book can now be viewed online.
Source: Biodiversity Heritage Library

And so, before the books went on display for this final time, we asked the exhibition's curators if we could borrow them. Each page of every book was carefully photographed and the images color matched to the originals. This work was meticulously performed by a group of dedicated museum volunteers, supervised by Museum Victoria's library staff.

Ground Parrot, illustrated by James Sowerby, for George Shaw's Zoology of New Holland, volume 1, 1st edition, London, 1794. The entire book can now be viewed online.
Source: Biodiversity Heritage Library

We then uploaded the scanned volumes into the world's largest online repository of biodiversity literature and archival materials – the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL). BHL is a global consortium of natural history libraries working together to make biodiversity literature freely and openly available to everyone.

Museum Victoria coordinates the Australian component of this giant online library, and we are thrilled that the books displayed in The Art of Science exhibition are now part of it.

So if you too would like to turn those tantalizing pages, now you can (whether you're in Melbourne, or not):

Visit the BHL website to view The Art of Science books in their entirety.
Visit The Art of Science exhibition at Melbourne Museum to view a selection of the scanned pages on an interactive screen.

Nicole Kearney
BHL Australia Project Coordinator

American Archives Month celebrates the importance of archives and the work of archivists as they seek to collect, organize, and make accessible unique materials from our nation’s history. The Smithsonian Field Book Project is an exciting example of such work, an effort across SI departments and divisions to increase accessibility to field book content. Field books are important because they are the primary source records of flora, fauna, and ecosystem biodiversity research. They hold the first observations, thoughts, and reflections of scientific researchers when they venture out to observe, document, and collect specimens of the natural world.

A field book can contain everything from grass specimens to weather observations to recipes for native foods, and at the Smithsonian, document almost 200 years of history, going back to 1815! Field books not only provide invaluable access to species and habitat data, but also contain surprising insights and observations into the history of science and history in general – see Edward Chapin’s mention of the Panama Disease in banana plantations in Jamaica in 1941, for example, or Leonard Shultz’s observations during the Bikini Atoll nuclear tests in 1952, or Devra Kleiman’s notes on how financial instability in Brazil in 1990 was affecting her project to save the Golden Lion Tamarin from extinction (she was successful!).

Rafinesque, C. S. Notebook kept by Rafinesque on a trip from Philadelphia to Kentucky, 1818. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/45995976

The first part of the Field Book Project focused on discovering, documenting, and preserving these invaluable records, using customized cataloging and description standards to better suit materials that are not just historical, but that also function as museum and library reference materials for present-day researchers. Catalog records for the field books have been created and made available on several public, online platforms (such as Smithsonian Collections Search Center) in order to engage with as wide an audience as possible. Thus, field books that might have been previously scattered, stored amidst other materials, and unknown to any but those in their department can now be found and used by researchers across and beyond the Smithsonian Institution.

The next phase of the Project will focus on continuing to discover, catalog, and preserve Smithsonian field books, while expanding the goal of digitization and online availability. A selection of field books (2600) will be digitized using dedicated scanning equipment, and the fully digitized records will be published to both the Smithsonian Collections Search Center website and to the Biodiversity Heritage Library web portal. The renewed focus on not just discovery, but also digitization stems from the potential for connection that these field books represent. In many cases, we’ve found that our field books relate to field books and specimen collections of other museums and research institutions across the country, and even internationally!

Moynihan, Martin. Gull Notes, 1955-56. Fieldbook from The Field Book Project in the Smithsonian Transcription Center. https://transcription.si.edu/project/6829

We’ve seen new and expanded uses of our digitized field books that make us excited to provide more opportunities to the community of researchers. The Project has contributed many of the digitized field books to the Smithsonian Transcription Center. These resources have inspired the interest of our “volunpeers” who have not only described content for machine-readability and full-text searching, but have also discovered new information in the field books that the project team can use to enrich the catalog records. Now, we are even using the documentation and guidelines from this project to help support the creation and ongoing work of similar projects at Smithsonian and Biodiversity Heritage Library partner institutions.

The more field books and similar collections we can help make discoverable, the more we can connect the content to related research, and the more we contribute to ongoing projects in both the scientific and humanities fields. The Smithsonian Field Book Project is an exciting and ongoing example of how archivists help to find, preserve, and make available fascinating historical materials that still retain great importance for present-day scientific and historical research.

Silberglied, Robert E. Field notes, Mexico, July-August, 1965. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/46042458

If you are interested in learning more about the project or in reading some of the transcribed content – or even in transcribing some yourself! – please visit the project website or our collection in the Smithsonian Transcription Center and see what you can do to help make field books, unique and invaluable archival, library, and museum resources, increasingly available and discoverable to the wider public.

Julia Blase
Project Manager, The Field Book Project

We are pleased to announce that the USDA National Agricultural Library (NAL) has joined the Biodiversity Heritage Library as a BHL Affiliate. BHL has already ingested over 845,000 pages of NAL-digitized content made openly available within the Internet Archive. This formal partnership will allow us to strengthen our collection of agricultural-related content through direct collaboration with NAL.

The National Agricultural Library (NAL) comprises one of the largest collections of materials devoted to agriculture in the world. Collection concentrations include the fields of agriculture, forestry, horticulture, entomology, poultry science, animal science, nutrition, botany, natural history and agricultural history. By statute, NAL is the primary depository of publications and information concerning the research and other activities of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

As of October 2014, the total number of individual items in the NAL collection is 8.1 million. This includes a wide variety of formats such as books, journals, audiovisuals, motion pictures, photographs, posters, maps, manuscripts (papers of individuals and organizations), and objects. A large portion of this significant collection is held nowhere else in the world and constitutes a true national treasure.

Illustrated Hand-Book: Rawson's Vegetable and Flower Seeds. 1894. An image from just one of the 1000s of seed catalogs that NAL and other BHL partner libraries have digitized for BHL.

The National Agricultural Library is committed to digitization both as a method to increase access and to prolong the life of the increasingly fragile print originals. NAL is actively digitizing historic USDA and other high demand, public domain items from its collection. Many of these items, both serial and monograph, fit within the scope of BHL, and, when the subject area is appropriate, the digital copies will be added to our collection. For example, NAL is currently digitizing non-USDA seed catalogs in cooperation with other BHL members for inclusion in BHL.

“Our approach is not to think of these activities as small discrete projects but rather as a long journey of digitization that will take many years,” explained Christopher Cole, Business Development Manager at the National Agricultural Library and NAL representative to BHL. “The BHL provides a venue for NAL to work with other institutions to pool our digital collections and enables us to cast a wider net and reach more users.”

NAL represents BHL’s fifth affiliate institution. BHL Affiliates are institutions or organizations that wish to participate in BHL outside of the membership dues-paying structure. Affiliates can contribute content, provide technical services, and participate in BHL committees, task forces, and working groups.

In addition to its affiliates, BHL currently consists of 16 member libraries. BHL Members may contribute content to BHL, participate in appropriate groups and committees, provide technical services, contribute financial support, vote on strategic directives, and generally help govern the BHL program. Visit BHL to learn more about BHL Members and Affiliates.

We are excited to welcome the National Agricultural Library to the BHL family and look forward to the valuable contributions they will make to our library. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook to receive updates about BHL Member and Affiliate contributions and events.

Oriental Scops Owl, a species found in South Asia, including Singapore. A History of the Birds of Ceylon. v. 1. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/37019175

BHL is pleased to welcome the National Library Board, Singapore as a new member in BHL Central and simultaneously as BHL-Singapore, the newest node in Global BHL. The 16th member of the BHL Central consortium, BHL Singapore will help identify and digitize historical science literature from its collections and add these to the BHL’s online holdings, where all materials may be accessed free by the public.

“The Biodiversity Heritage Library is the preeminent global repository for historic science literature,” said Martin Kalfatovic, BHL Program Director and Associate Director for Digital Services at the Smithsonian Libraries. “We are pleased to welcome our first BHL member outside of our original United States and United Kingdom circle. Singapore’s importance as a regional coordinator for biodiversity research will directly expand the reach of BHL in this area of the world.”

BHL is a consortium of major natural history, botanical and research libraries. BHL’s goal is to contribute to the global “biodiversity commons” by digitizing and aggregating the resources housed within each of the participating institutions, providing free and open access to the legacy literature that underpins the work of the natural science community.

The Biodiversity Heritage Library also serves as the literature digitization component of the Encyclopedia of Life, a global effort to document all 1.8 million named species of animals, plants and other forms of life on earth.

To explore the Biodiversity Heritage Library, visit biodiversitylibrary.org.

BHL now comprises 16 member and 5 affiliate institutions. View the list of our current members and affiliates here.

They just look a little different in the light of day.

“HIC SUNT DRACONES.”

This phrase translates from the Latin as “here are dragons.” It is etched on the eastern coast of Asia on one of the oldest terrestrial globe maps, the Lenox Globe, dating to 1510.

Though the phrase itself is found on only one other historical artifact, a 1504 globe crafted on an ostrich egg, the depiction of monsters and mythological beasts are common on early maps. They crop up most commonly in the unexplored reaches of the oceans, warning would-be explorers of the perils of these unknown territories.

Olaus Magnus'Cart Marina. Drafted 1527-39. 2nd Edition via World Digital Library. http://dl.wdl.org/3037.png

One of the most famous of these maps is Olaus Magnus’ Carta Marina, drawn in 1527-39. A detailed map of Scandinavia-one of the oldest ever created-it depicts the Norwegian Sea as so teaming with monsters that it would seem impossible to escape these waters uneaten.

Magnus (1490-1557) was the Catholic archbishop of Sweden and a prominent historian. His travels brought him farther north than any of his contemporary European intellectuals, lending a great deal of perceived credibility to his accounts and publications. In 1555, Magnus published Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus (“A Description of the Northern Peoples”), which not only related the history, customs, and beliefs of the Scandinavian people, but also reprinted and described the creatures found on Carta Marina. His standing and reputation secured the widespread acceptance of his stories.

Physeter, or Leviathan, from Magnus, Olaus. Historia de Gentibus Septentionalibus (1555). http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/41862918

Olaus’ descriptions and drawings were copied repeatedly, with little to no modification, for centuries by such historical titans as Conrad Gessner (whose Historia Animalium, replete with Magnus’ drawings, is the first modern zoological work attempting to describe all known animals), Edward Topsell, Ulisse Aldrovandi, and John Jonstonus. Such repurposing ensured that these creatures were ingrained in the public mind as truth. And over the centuries, many new monsters were added to the mix as well.

Sea Serpent, after Magnus. Jonstonus, Joannes. Historiae naturalis de quadrupetibus libri. 1650. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/44040030.

Creating Myth from Reality

Where did the accounts of monsters come from in the first place? Were they simply fairytales invented to scare curious minds and small children?

Henry Lee, who wrote extensively on sea creatures and monsters, emphasized that many classical monsters are not simply pure myth. In his publication Sea Fables Explained (1883), he wrote, “…the descriptions by ancient writers of so-called ‘fabulous creatures’ are rather distorted portraits than invented falsehoods, and there is hardly any of the monsters of old which has not its prototype in Nature at the present day.”

Hydra, after Gessner. Aldrovandi, Ulisse. Serpentum, et draconum historiæ libri duo. 1640. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/41765441.

How did these “distorted portraits” come about? By the 1500s, extensive oceanic exploration was still limited, and the fauna that called these places home remained virtually unknown. Publications by Magnus and those who copied him represented some of the first attempts to systematically aggregate and describe these animals. More often than not, their information came not from first-hand observations, but from sailors’ accounts of mysterious encounters while at sea. Less often, the decomposing remains of a washed-up carcass also fueled confidence in the existence of these terrible beasts.

Sailors, or those unlucky beachgoers who had the misfortune to stumble upon a rotting basking shark, had no experience with such creatures. So, they explained them with what they did have experience with – myths and legends. If they enlivened their accounts with some embellishments, that simply made for a better story. And so, an oarfish became a 200 foot long sea serpent. A giant squid became a blood-thirsty kraken. A manatee became a mermaid. Olaus and others like him gobbled up the stories and published them alongside authentic species. The more the stories were circulated and published, the more likely people were to mistake what they did see for a monster. And the cycle continued.

"Sea Devil." Gessner, Conrad. Historia Animalium. 2nd ed. (1604). http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/42166652.

The atmosphere of the day also fed people’s willingness to believe such tales. The 1500s were rampant with superstition. The Scientific Revolution would not start to make headway until later in the seventeenth century. There was no division between magic and reality – the two simply coincided. Thus, there was no reason that mythical beasts could not be real. And even when scientists began to embrace the scientific method, they still struggled to reconcile previous beliefs in the supernatural with science. It would take hundreds of years of dedicated scientific study and exploration to overturn classical and common opinion. In the case of some creatures (i.e. sea serpents), sightings and questions of authenticity still remain.

Dragon. Aldrovandi, Ulisse. Serpentum, et draconum historiæ libri duo. 1640. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/41765475.

Are Monsters Real?

So what’s the moral of the story? The animals that inspired such hair-raising tales as the sea serpent, leviathans, and hydra, and authenticated stories of mermaids and the kraken, are real. They just received some creative embellishments (and sometimes blatant artistic fraudulence) along the way. And in a world just beginning to turn away from superstition, but still inclined to embrace elements of mysticism, it’s not surprising that the tales were accepted. Besides, who doesn’t love a good monster story?

Pumpkins you can carve from the BHL patterns, based on historic monster images! Get yours today!

Monsters Are Real…Learn More!

Follow our blog and #bhlMonstersRreal on Twitter and Facebook (or go directly to BHL’s Twitter and Facebook) this week as we explore the stories, people, books, and animals that inspired some of history’s most legendary monsters.
Browse the books that fueled such beliefs in the BHL Monsters Are Real collection.
Enjoy centuries’ worth of monster images in our Flickr collection.
See some of our favorite monsters come to life on the Smithsonian Libraries’ Tumblr.
Finally, get free pumpkin carving patterns inspired by some of our favorite historical drawings. See them dance on YouTube! Share your BHL carved pumpkins with us on Twitter and Facebook and we’ll reshare! They’ll make for a ghoulishly good time!

Grace Costantino

BHL Outreach and Communication Manager

The Devil Whale

In the 6th century AD, St. Brendan, an Irish cleric, and eighteen other monks, sailed out from Ireland to cross the ocean. Amidst their journey, they came upon a black, treeless island and decided to make camp for the night. Several monks set up a cooking station and lit a fire. And then the island began to move. Terrified, the monks fled back to their boat, leaving the food and fire behind. St. Brandon urged them not to be afraid; it was simply the great fish Jasconius, “which laboreth night and day to put his tail in his mouth, but for greatness he may not.”

St. Brendan atop Jasconius. Manuscriptum translationis germanicae (ca. 1460, Cod. Pal. Germ. 60, fol. 179v, Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg). http://www.hs-augsburg.de/~harsch/Chronologia/Lspost10/Brendanus/bre_navi.jpg.

Gessner describes Jasconius by another name: the Trol whale or Devil Whale, which lies asleep in the water and is often mistaken for an island by hapless sailors. Gessner was likely inspired by Magnus, who claims that the whale's skin is like sand, lending to its confusion with a beach. When the whale is disturbed by the sailors’ dinner fires, it sinks, causing such a whirpool that the ships themselves are often sunk.

The Devil Whale, complete with sailors trying to cook a meal on its back. Gessner, Conrad. Historia Animalium. 2nd Ed. 1604. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/42165750.

For centuries, men have imagined all manner of aquatic monsters. The ocean was a strange and foreign place, and even several hundred years ago, was very little explored. “If the very body of the ocean presented a fearsome aspect, with its dark, roiling waters, its threatening visage, and its intimidating vistas, its occupants were the quintessence of terror,” wrote marine biologist Richard Ellis in his book Monsters of the Sea. “The landlubbers’ only contact with the large creatures of the sea was at best sporadic and often completely incomprehensible” (Ellis, pgs. 193-194).

This sporadic contact spawned tales of horrible beasts. Quite often, these horrible beasts were, in truth, cetaceans.

The Sperm Whale: Chief Among the Leviathans

Even before sailors encountered whales in the ocean, washed up carcasses, sometimes badly mutilated, ignited a fear of the creatures of the deep. According to Ellis, “the sperm whale, with its mysterious habit of stranding on shallow beaches, was probably responsible for many of the legends and myths of sea monsters.” (pg. 194).

The record of sperm whale strandings is quite dramatic. Quite often, they are stranded en masse. For instance, in 1723, seventeen whales were stranded ashore the Elbe River in Germany. In 1784, thirty-one made landfall in Brittany. In 1888, sixteen washed up in Cape Canaveral, and in 1974, 72 were found on the coasts of New Zealand.

A variety of circumstances can result in a stranding, including rough weather, illness or age, difficulty giving birth, hunting mishaps, or even attempts to rescue another whale in distress.

Sperm Whale stranding. Jonstonus, Joannes. Historiae naturalis de quadrupetibus libri. pt. 2-6. 1650. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/44040300.

The sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) is a strange animal, even among whales. The largest toothed whale, and toothed predator, in the world, the sperm whale holds many records. It has the longest intestinal tract and largest brain in the animal kingdom. It also has the largest nose of any animal and cavities within its head hold reservoirs of liquid wax called Spermaceti. This behemoth can reach up to 67 feet long and weigh as much as 125,000 pounds!

A Sperm Whale in search of food. Scammon, C.M. The marine mammals of the north-western coast of North America. 1874. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/16226208.

A Whole Order of Leviathan Inspiration

While their strange appearance and prolific beachings likely inspired many monster stories, sperm whales are not the only cetaceans that natural history writers had contact with. For instance, a blue whale – the largest animal to have ever lived – is documented as having come ashore as early as 1692, in Scotland. A 95-foot specimen was placed on exhibit in Europe in 1827, “further enhancing the image of the whale as a gigantic monster” (Ellis, pg. 197). Interactions with right whales, bowheads, baleens, and orcas also inspired Leviathan legends.

Whales From Hell

The range of monsters inspired by cetaceans is charmingly diverse, including many varieties in addition to the Devil Whale. Most are likely the result of an amalgamation of many species, and some (like the Devil Whale) may also have been shaped by religious undercurrents.

Pristers

Pristers are found in multiple forms throughout Carta Marina and in many subsequent publications. Magnus actually identified these beasts as whales, describing them as “two hundred cubits long, and very cruel.”

Physeter, or Prister. Magnus, Olaus. Historiae de gentibus septentrionalibus. 1555. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/41862918.

The common feature among them is the presence of two blowholes, most often acting as water cannons drowning unlucky vessels. Magnus warns, “to the danger of Sea men, he will sometimes raise himself beyond the sail yards, and cast such floods of waters above his head, which he had sucked in, that with a cloud of them, he will often sink the strongest ships…Sometimes, not content to do hurt by water only…he will cruelly over throw the ship like any small vessel, striking it with his back, or tail.” If that isn’t bad enough, Magnus also claims that it has a mouth like a Lamprey, “whereby he sucks in his meat or water.”

Prister attacking a ship. Magnus, Olaus. Historiae de gentibus septentrionalibus. 1555. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/41862919.

How can such a beast be defeated? Not by cannon-fire. Magnus warns that the beast’s layer of fat is too thick for such absurdities. Instead, try sounding a trumpet, which will startle the monster, or dump some empty barrels in the ocean, with which the creature will become distracted and stop to play.

The Prister, monsters actually identified as whales in historic publications, are reported to be mighty enough to sink the strongest ships. Cannon-fire was, according to Olaus Magnus, who published three versions of them in 1555, useless against these beasts. Instead, sailors should sound trumpets and throw barrels into the water to distract these monsters. See more fantastic historic monsters come to life on the Smithsonian Libraries' Tumblr. GIF created by Richard Naples (Smithsonian Libraries), based on Gessner, Conrad. Historia Animalium. 2nd ed. 1604. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/42165750.

What species is this monster likely based on? Well, Baleen Whales do actually have two blowholes, and Magnus refers to the beasts as Physeter. The modern-day suberfamily including sperm whales is Physeteroidea.

The Ziphius

“The sword-fish is like no other, but in something it is like a whale. He hath as ugly a head as an Owl; his mouth is wondrous deep, as a vast pit, whereby he terrifies and drives away those that look into it. His eyes are horrible, his back Wedge-fashion, or elevated like a sword. His snout is pointed. These often enter upon the Northern Coasts as Thieves and hurtful Guests, that are always doing mischief to ships they meet, by boring holes in them, and sinking them.”

The Ziphius, after Magnus. Gessner, Conrad. Historia Animalium. 2nd Ed. 1604. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/42165841.

Thus Magnus describes the Ziphius, whose name comes from the Greek xiphias, meaning sword (recall Magnus’ comparison of its fin to a sword). This bizarre, owl-headed creature is depicted with a seal in its jaws. This, and the shape of the fin, suggest that the monster may be based on an Orca. A Great White Shark has also been suggested.

And the porcupine-fish attacking the Ziphius? Jury’s still out on that one…

The Case for the Leviathan

We all know whales are real, and we know that they can grow to extraordinary sizes (the largest size on earth, in fact). They have even been documented to attack and sink ships (for instance, in 1820, the vessel Essex was sunk by a sperm whale), so those crews wishing to harpoon a whale has reason to be cautious.

Physeter, or Prister. Magnus, Olaus. Historiae de gentibus septentrionalibus. 1555. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/41862920.

Does the Leviathan exist? Yes. Even within the sixteenth century writings of Magnus and Gessner, Leviathan monsters such as Devil Whales and Pristers are identified as whales. However, are you likely to mistake a whale for an island and try to cook your dinner on it? Is a whale prone to kill a human simply for the fun of it? Probably not.

As is the case with all monsters inspired by real animals, limited - and sometimes dramatic (think witnessing a breaching near your boat for the first time, or stumbling upon the decomposing corpse of a sperm whale) - contact with these mammals fueled fear and sensationalism, resulting in harrowing tales of great beasts roaming the oceans.

But, in the end, a Leviathan, by any other name, is simply a whale (or perhaps an Orca) and most definitely not a monster.

Follow #bhlMonstersRreal on Twitter and Facebook all week to learn more about monsters and the animals that inspired them.
Browse historic illustrations of leviathans and their whale counterparts on Flickr.
Browse the books that portray these historic monsters in BHL.
Carve a Leviathan in your Halloween Pumpkin this year! Share your carvings with us on Facebook and Twitter!
See some of our favorite monsters come to life on the Smithsonian Libraries' Tumblr!

References:

Ellis, Richard. Monsters of the Sea. New York: Alfred A. Knopp, Inc., 1994. Print.
Simon, Matt. "Kraken and Owl Whales: Take a Dip with History's Most Terrifying Sea Monsters."Wired. 13.09.13. Web. 20.10.14. http://www.wired.com/2013/09/carta-marina/#slideid-591797.

Grace Costantino

BHL Outreach and Communication Manager

"Soe Orm." Magnus, Olaus. Historia de Gentibus Septentionalibus. 1555. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/41862944.

In the 16th century, the ocean was a terrifying place. Creatures of unimaginable size and ferocity stalked the waters. One such beast was Soe Orm.

“A very large sea serpent of a length upwards of 200 feet and 20 feet in diameter which lives in rocks and in holes near the shore of Bergen; it comes out of its cavern only on summer nights and in fine weather to destroy calves, lambs, or hogs, or goes into the sea to eat cuttles, lobster, and all kinds of sea crabs. It has a growth of hairs of two feet in length hanging from the neck, sharp scales of a dark brown color, and brilliant flaming eyes.”

Olaus Magnus gave this gripping description of his sea serpent, accompanied by an equally formidable woodcut, in the 1555 masterpiece Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus. Magnus was hardly the first to assert that giant sea serpents existed, but his prestigious reputation (he was, after all, the archbishop of Sweden), and the subsequent recirculation of his descriptions and imagery by other notable historians, solidified a belief in the existence of such monsters.

"Sea Serpent, after Magnus." Gessner, Conrad. Historia Animalium. 2nd ed. 1604. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/42166517.

Magnus, of course, did not come up with the tale of Soe Orm on his own. The creatures he describes are based on accounts from sailors and Scandinavian locales, which in turn were based on encounters with strange aquatic creatures that became immortalized as sea serpents.

One of the earliest illustrations of a sea serpent drawn from an eye-witness account comes from Danish missionary Hans Egede, who claimed to have seen one off the coast of Greenland in 1734.

“The monster was of so huge a size, that coming out of the water its head reached as high as the mast-head; its body was as bulky as the ship, and three or four times as long. It had a long pointed snout, and spouted like a Whale-Fish; great broad paws, and the body seemed covered with shell-work.”

"Sea Serpent drawn after Hans Egede's description." Reproduced in: Oudemans, A.C. The Great Sea Serpent. 1892. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/41617356.

A drawing of Egede’s beast, and this description, was published in Det Gronlands nye Perlustration in 1741. Fourteen years later, Bishop Erik Ludvigsen Pontoppidan of Bergen published The Natural History of Norway, which relates two separate eye witness accounts of a sea serpent, one with a head that resembled a horse, and another with a snake-like body. Pontoppidan asserts that these eye-witness accounts provide “proper authorities for the real existence of this creature.”

"Sea Serpent representations based on accounts given to Erik Pontoppidan." The Natural History of Norway. 1755. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/41885141.

Descriptions of sea serpents with manes or growths of hair about their necks (like those of Magnus and Pontoppidan) are common amongst monster lore. This feature provides a clue to one of the animals commonly mistaken for a sea serpent: the Oarfish.

"Oarfish." Natural History of Victoria. Decades 11-15. 1890. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/3828708. See an oarfish on display at Natural History Museum, Los Angeles County. See a video of a real oarfish.

An enigmatic creature, the oarfish is the longest bony fish alive, possibly measuring as long as 45-50 feet. Human encounters with these fish are rare, but they do have a red cockscomb of spines on their head and a red dorsal fin running the length of their bodies. Fleeting glimpses of oarfish could easily be exaggerated into an encounter with a monstrous sea serpent, and, to an untrained eye, the remains of such a fish washed up on a beach could understandably resemble the sea serpent of legend.

Basking Sharks, the second largest living fish (behind whale sharks) measuring up to 40 feet in length, have also been mistaken for sea serpents. In 1808, a badly decomposed carcass washed up on Stronsay. At a meeting of the Wernerian Natural History Society in Edinburgh, it was asserted that this carcass was the same creature described by Egede and Pontoppidan, and it was given the name Halsydrus (“sea water snake”). Later analysis of the skin and cartilage revealed that the “monster” was in fact a basking shark, and hardly a monster. These gentle giants are passive feeders with a diet of zooplankton and small fish and invertebrates.

"Basking Shark." Couch, Jonathan. A History of the Fishes of the British Isles. v. 1. 1868. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/13419312.

One of the most infamous sea serpent episodes spanned decades. From 1817-19, a mass of people, including fishermen, military personnel, and pedestrians, reported seeing a sea monster at least eighty, but perhaps one hundred feet, long, with a head resembling a horse, in the harbor off Gloucester, MA. There were so many eye-witness reports that the Linnaean Society of New England formed a special investigating committee to examine the possibility of such a creature.

"The Sea Serpent 'baby' found in Massachusetts: Scoliopus atlanticus." Oudemans, A.C. The Great Sea Serpent. 1892. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/41617628. Learn more about the Gloucester mystery, and see a digitized letter from Francis Boott describing the events, in a post from Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, by Jon Nicholls.

Then, in October 1817, two young boys found a three-foot-long, serpent body with humps on a beach not far from where the sightings had occurred. The Linnaean Society declared that the Gloucester sea serpent had visited the harbor in order to lay eggs, and that the specimen the boys had found represented one of its young. They invented an entirely new genus and named the sea serpent Scoliophis atlanticus (“Atlantic Humped Snake”). Shortly thereafter, naturalist Alexandre Lesueur examined the specimen and reported that it was, in fact, a deformed common blacksnake (Coluber constrictor).

"Common Blacksnake." North American Herpetology. v. 4. 1840. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/3682780.

In 1819, undaunted by Lesueur’s findings, and still believing the Gloucester serpent to be valid, French-American naturalist Constantin Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz gave the creature a scientific name, Pelamis megophias, but admitted that it might constitute its own genus, in which case it should be named Megophias monstrosus.

Enthusiasm and belief in the Gloucester sea serpent continued, with repeated sightings throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (the last documented sighting was in 1962). While the identity of the creature has never been established, several candidates have been proposed, including a row of leaping porpoises, giant eels, sea snakes, whales, seals, and, of course, our good friend the oarfish. The spontaneously-created scientific name Scoliophis atlanticus is now considered a synonym of the basking shark, revealing yet another likely identity for the monster. No evidence confirming the existence of a new-to-science species off the coast of Massachusetts has been found.

Sea Serpent proponents enjoyed a brief moment of triumph in 1845 when Albert C. Koch, a German collector, exhibited a full skeleton of what he called Hydrarchos sillimani at the Apollo Saloon on Broadway. Claiming to have found the entire skeleton in Clarksville, Alabama, his sea serpent was 114 feet in length. The glory was short-lived. Harvard anatomist Jeffries Wyman debunked the skeleton as an “artfully assembled collection of bones from at least five fossil specimens of Basilosaurus, a 45-foot long ancestral whale.” (Ellis, pg. 56).

"Albert Koch's Sea Serpent." Oudemans, A.C. The Great Sea Serpent. 1892. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/41617235.

In the late nineteenth century, Olaus Magnus’ accounts were again repurposed, this time in Antoon Cornelis Oudemans’ The Great Sea-Serpent. An entomologist by training, Oudemans spent a majority of his free-time amassing a wealth of information on sea serpents, in which he fully believed. His book represents a systematic collection and analysis of the sightings supporting the sea-serpents’ existence. He claimed that all verified sightings of the beast belonged to the creature classified by Rafinesque, but that the monster was not a reptile at all but a mammal that belonged within the order Pinnipedia. Demonstrating some transformation in public opinion by the end of the nineteenth century, Oudemans’ book was highly criticized at its release. Times (London) went so far as to call it “a joke.” Nevertheless, it is an invaluable resource as record of sea serpent lore and sightings.

"The Sea Monster." Oudemans, A.C. The Great Sea Serpent. 1892. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/41617299.

Does the Sea Serpent Exist?

Accounts of sea serpents continue to this day, including the still unresolved debate regarding the Cadborosaurus. Many have been unquestionably linked to known species, while others are associated with likely candidates.

Reported specimen of Cadborosaurus willsi, an alleged sea serpent from the Pacific Ocean. Over 200 sightings have been attributed to this species. This image captures a carcass taken from a Sperm Whale's stomach and photographed in October, 1937. Researchers believe this specimen is actually a fetal baleen whale. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cadborosaurus_October_1937.jpg.

So, does a sea creature roaming the seas, seen by countless witnesses over the centuries, really exist? Yes. It just goes by the more common name of Oarfish…or Basking Shark…or Humpback Whale…or Eel…It’s just another classic case of mistaken identity flavored with some good-old-fashioned embellishment…

Then again…

…Unlike the hydra and mermaids, questions as to the existence of the legendary sea serpent still remains. It’s a favorite topic within cryptozoology. The rediscovery of the coelacanth in 1938, believed extinct for 70 million years, and the discovery of the megamouth shark in 1976, leads many proponents to insist that an undiscovered marine titan, or a surviving dinosaur, is yet to be found.

In 1976, an extremely rare deep water shark, the Megamouth, was discovered off the coast of Hawaii. See the description of the new species in Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences. 4th series, v. 43. 1983. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/15775401. See a Megamouth and Coelacanth on display at the Natural History Museum, Los Angeles County.

Does an unidentified species of untold length, serpentine in appearance, lurk in the ocean depths, waiting to be discovered? Only time will tell...though we’d venture to guess it does not come ashore at night to feast on livestock….

"The Sea Serpent." Belon, Pierre. Petri Bellonii Cenomani De aquatilibus, libri duo cum [epsilon, iota] conibus ad viuam ipsorum effigiem, quoad eius fieri potuit, expressis. 1553. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/4770301. Explore more Sea Serpent lore in the Mythic Creatures online exhibit from the American Museum of Natural History.

More Monsters Are Real fun!

Follow #bhlMonstersRreal on Twitter and Facebook all week to learn more about monsters and the animals that inspired them.
Browse historic illustrations of sea serpents and animals mistaken for sea serpents on Flickr.
Browse the books that portray these historic monsters in BHL.
Carve a Sea Serpent in your Halloween Pumpkin this year! Share your carvings with us on Facebook and Twitter!
See some of our favorite monsters come to life on the Smithsonian Libraries' Tumblr!

"Attack of the Sea Monster!" In 1555, Olaus Magnus published an image and description of the Soe Orm, which he claimed was a giant sea serpent 200 feet in length that lived near the shore or Bergen and came out at night to eat the farmers' livestock. His image and description was republished for centuries. See more fantastic historic monsters come to life on the Smithsonian Libraries' Tumblr. GIF created by Richard Naples (Smithsonian Libraries), based on Gessner, Conrad. Historia Animalium. 2nd ed. 1604. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/42166517.

Reference:

Ellis, Richard. Monsters of the Sea. New York: Alfred A. Knopp, Inc., 1994. Print.

Grace Costantino

BHL Outreach and Communication Manager

“Architeuthis, the giant squid, is the quintessential sea monster, probably responsible for more myths, fables, fantasies, and fictions than all other marine monsters combined…[It] surely is the most remarkable unscheduled arrival in the history of zoology, crypto or otherwise. An animal that was believed by many to be mythological verified its existence…” (Ellis, 122, 133-34).

Science knows it by the name Architeuthis dux. For centuries, however, it was known by an altogether more infamous one – The Kraken.

The Kraken: A History

Aristotle first introduced us to the giant squid (which he called teuthos) in 350 BCE, and then, in AD 77-79, Pliny the Elder related a tale of a “polyp” that was killed during its attempt to steal salted fish from the fish ponds in Carteia (Ellis, pg. 123). Described as having 30-foot long arms, the beast has been identified as a squid.

Giant squids have been seen throughout the world’s oceans, but they are quite common in the seas around Norway and Greenland. Indeed, the word “kraken” comes from the Norwegian “krake,” meaning “fabulous sea monsters.” The late 14th century version of the Icelandic saga Örvar-Oddr gives an account of the Hafgufa ("sea mist") and Lyngbakr ("heather-back") - beasts occurring in the Greenland Sea. While Lyngbakr is credited as the “largest whale in the sea,” the Hafgufa

“is the hugest monster in the sea. It is the nature of this creature to swallow men and ships, and even whales and everything else within reach. It stays submerged for days, then rears its head and nostrils above surface and stays that way at least until the change of tide.”

Hafgufa, it has been suggested, is a giant squid. The thirteenth century Norwegian work Konungs skuggsjá describes the beast, saying that it appears "more like an island than a fish." The 1917 translation identifies this "monster" as the Kraken.

The Kraken. Magnus, Olaus. Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus. 1555. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/41862917.

Never missing a chance to tell a good monster tale, Olaus Magnus detailed the kraken as a “monstrous fish” within Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus, describing them as having long sharp horns, huge red eyes, and “hairs like goose feathers, thick and long, like a beard hanging down.” He claims that “one of these Sea-Monsters will drown easily many great ships provided with many strong Marriners” – a characteristic reported in the earlier Icelandic work. Magnus' depiction of the beast, as a strange mix of fish and squid, is quite different from those we find later in the literature, suggesting that his monster is likely a confusion of many sightings, including not only the giant squid but perhaps whales and cuttlefish as well.

Kraken, after Magnus. Gessner, Conrad. Historia Animalium. 2nd Ed. 1604. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/42165838.

In his first edition of Systema Naturae (1735), Carolus Linnaeus classified the kraken as a cephalopod with the scientific name Microcosmus marinus. Though it was removed from later editions of Systema, Linnaeus’ 1746 publication, Fauna Suecica,describes the kraken as “a unique monster” inhabiting the seas of Norway. He does, however, include a disclaimer that he has never seen the animal himself.

Erik Pontoppidan, bishop of Bergen, in his Det Forste Forsorg paa Norges Naturlige Historie"Natural History of Norway" (Copenhagen, 1752–3), added significantly to the kraken tale. Also writing extensively on mermaids and sea serpents, Pontoppidan describes the kraken as “the largest sea monster in the world…round, flat, and full of arms, or branches.” He writes that not only is the kraken sometimes mistaken for an island, but also that it is possible of pulling the largest ships down to the ocean’s bottom. The greatest danger to sailors he claims, however, is the whirlpool created when it sinks, capable of “draw[ing] everything down with it.”

A very octopus-like Kraken. Montfort, Denys. Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière des mollusques : animaux sans vertèbres et a sang blanc. v. 2. 1801. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/35755564.

One of the most famous illustrations associated with the kraken, and one in which we see it take a definite cephalopod (if not more octopus-like) persona, comes from French malacologist Pierre Dénys de Montfort’s 1802 book Histoire Naturelle Générale et Particulière des Mollusques. Advertised as an encyclopedic description of mollusks, Montfort describes two kinds of giant octopus in the work: the Kraken Octopus, so often described by Norwegian sailors, and the Colossal Octopus, which he claims attacked a ship off the coast of Angola. The besieged sailors, he reports, prayed to St. Thomas, and were subsequently saved from the creature. He asserts that a votive picture of a ship embraced by this monster octopus was displayed in the St. Thomas chapel at St. Malo, though its existence has not been proven.

Whether or not Montfort truly believed this tale, he apparently had no qualms about publishing fiction as fact. Henry Lee, author of The Octopus in 1875, quoted Montfort as stating, “If my entangled ship is accepted, I will make my ‘colossal poulpe’ otherthrow a whole fleet.” True to his word, soon after his Histoire Naturelle publication, Montfort claimed that this same giant beast attacked and sunk a fleet of six French man-of-wars and four British ships. His reports, apparently, were influenced by Magnus and Pontoppidan’s description of the kraken’s capabilities.

"Kraken" attacking a fleet after a fashion described by Montfort. Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. 1916. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/14187069.

In the mid-1800s, the kraken took an authentic biological form as Architeuthis, passing from myth to science. Prof. Japetus Steenstrup, lecturer at Copenhagen University, introduced the giant squid in a paper that related the original description of the earliest record of a giant squid carcass washing ashore: Thingore Sand, Iceland, in 1639. The paper was read in 1849, and the official scientific name was later published in 1857.

Although the giant squid was finally taxonomically official, physical evidence of the creature remained scarce. A near-catch of a specimen in November, 1861, by the Alecton off Tenerife in the Canary Islands ended with only a detached piece of the squid’s tail as any evidence of the encounter. In 1871 and 1872, two giant squid carcasses were collected on the Grand Banks and at Coombs’ Cove, Fortune Bay, Newfoundland, respectively, the latter of which was a reported 52 feet long.

Near-catch of Giant Squid by crew of the Alecton, 1861. Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. 1916. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/14187077.

Finally, in December 1873, science caught a break. Four fishermen in Logy Bay, Newfoundland caught a giant squid in their fishing nets. The in-tact specimen was brought to Reverend Moses Harvey, an amateur naturalist, who draped it over a sponge bath for display. He then contacted Addison Emery Verrill, professor of zoology at Yale University, who conducted a full study of the specimen, which measured in at 32 feet long.

Giant Squid specimen draped over a sponge bath, 1873. Verrill, A.E. The Cephalopods of the North-eastern Coast of America. pt. 1. 1882. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/11826545.

Verrill collected information on every known specimen of Architeuthis and published his findings in a paper entitled The Cephalopods of the North-eastern Coast of America. Part I. The Giant Squids (Architeuthis) and their Allies; with Observations on Similar Large Species from Foreign Localities.

"In 1855, Danish zoologist Japetus Steenstrup proposed that the fabled sea bishop [another mythical monster often associated with mermaids] was actually a giant squid. He offered a picture illustrating how the misunderstanding could have occurred."Learn more in the American Museum of Natural History's Mythic Creatures online exhibit. This image: Gessner, Conrad. Historia Animalium. 2nd Ed. 1604. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/42166070.

The Giant Squid in Science

But while the giant squid’s acceptance into the scientific canon established the cephalopod as fact, Architeuthis’ habitat, life history, breeding habits, and even definitive size remain shrouded in mystery. It currently holds the record as the second-largest mollusk and extant invertebrate (exceeded only by the colossal squid). Recent studies have revealed that it feeds on deep-sea fish and other squids, but its hunting methods and reproductive cycle are still unknown. While it was long believed that there were many species within the Architeuthis genus, recent genetic analysis suggests there is only one: Architeuthis dux. Claims of lengths reaching 150 -200 feet have been reported, even by scientists, without evidence to justify such claims. The Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History suggests maximum lengths of nearly 60 feet.

Until recently, no images of the giant squid in its natural habitat had ever been taken. But, on September 30, 2004, Tsunemi Kubodera (National Science Museum of Japan) and Kyoichi Mori (Ogasawara Whale Watching Association) changed this, capturing 500 photographs of a 26 foot giant squid using a camera attached to a baited line. From 2006-2012, in three separate incidents, the giant squid was reportedly filmed, though two of the specimens were less than twelve feet long.

This female giant squid, caught in a net by a Spanish fisherman in 2005, is on display in the Smithsonian’s Sant Ocean Hall. Image Credit: Don Hurlbert/Smithsonian Institution, CC:BY-NC-SA. http://eol.org/data_objects/27480683. Learn more about the Giant Squid from the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.

While our knowledge about this species is increasing, we still have much to learn. Considering its size, the Giant Squid remains a surprisingly elusive creature. It demonstrates just how much we still have to learn about the ocean.

A World with a Kraken

So, does the kraken really exist? Most definitely. It is the species Architeuthis dux, the giant squid (possibly with some giant cuttlefish, colossal squid, and octopus sightings thrown into the mix).

Is it a warship-sized beast, capable of pulling entire ships to the ocean floor and indiscriminately devouring helpless sailors? No.

Yet again, inexperience and sensationalism turned reality into fiction. And to some degree, this continues to this day. Our research about this animal is still in its infancy, and much misinformation abounds. There is still much we have to learn about the “Kraken.”

Follow #bhlMonstersRreal on Twitter and Facebook all week to learn more about monsters and the animals that inspired them.
Browse historic illustrations of octopi and squid-inspired monsters and the animals that they're based on in Flickr.
Browse the books that portray these historic monsters in BHL.
Carve a monster in your Halloween Pumpkin this year! Share your carvings with us on Facebook and Twitter!
See some of our favorite monsters come to life on the Smithsonian Libraries' Tumblr!

"Release the Kraken!" In H. P. Lovecraft's short story "The Call of Cthulhu," Cthulhu (a part man, part dragon, and part octopus monster) attacks a ship. The sailors try to kill the beast by ramming it repeatedly, but Cthulhu simply turns into green mist and reassembles. See more fantastic historic monsters come to life on the Smithsonian Libraries' Tumblr. GIF created by Richard Naples (Smithsonian Libraries), based on Montfort, Denys. Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière des mollusques : animaux sans vertèbres et a sang blanc. v. 2. 1801. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/35755564.

Reference:

Ellis, Richard. Monsters of the Sea. New York: Alfred A. Knopp, Inc., 1994. Print.

Grace Costantino

BHL Outreach and Communication Manager

“…A very formidable animal, and possess[ing] such a degree of strength as to make it dangerous to attack it without great precaution. Such is the ferocity and violence with which it defends itself, that even the strongest Mastiff can hardly subdue it without a long and doubtful contest. It has even been known to attack a person while swimming, and to fasten itself with dangerous force round the body and limbs.”

Such a description conjures up images of a great behemoth, perhaps with sharp fangs, great talons, and fiery red eyes. It was given by George Shaw in a lecture to the Royal Institute and published in 1809.

It is a description of the Curled Octopus (Eledone cirrhosa), reaching a total size of 5-15 inches. Not quite the beast the description implies…

"Eight Armed Cuttle Fish" aka Curled Octopus. Shaw, George. Zoological Lectures Delivered at the Royal Institution by George Shaw. v. 2. 1809. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/21511926.

The octopus, like the squid (aka kraken), has long held an unwarranted reputation as a monster. “Their strangely repulsive appearance, and the fictional stories of their attacks, have built up in the popular mind a picture of the ‘devil fish’ which no amount of accurate description is ever likely to cut down to authentic size,” mused Frank W. Lane, author of Kingdom of the Octopus (1962).

“Ever since people started writing about such things – and probably when they only talked about them – they have never been content simply to name and describe the octopus, but have insisted on passing judgment upon it,” wrote James Artz of the American Museum of Natural History (Ellis, pg. 257).

Amazing Mollusca from the Gulf of Naples: Octopus macropus, Tremoctopus violaceus, and Ocythoe tuberculata. Jatta, Giuseppe. I Cefalopodi viventi nel Golfo di Napoli (sistematica) : monografia. 1896. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/35424286.

Accounts of the Octopus’ “vile” personality can be found throughout hundreds of years’ worth of literature, even well into the twentieth century and by respected scientists.

The Octopus as Monster

In the first century AD, Pliny the Elder positions the octopus (which he labels a polyp, along with squids) as a gruesome monster, writing, “no animal is more savage in causing the death of a man in the water; for it struggles with him by coiling round him and it swallows him with its sucker-cups and drags him asunder by its multiple suction” (Ellis, pg. 261).

Not surprisingly, Denys de Montfort, the personality behind the legendary kraken image, could not resist the opportunity to contribute to the growing octopus lore in the early nineteenth century. Within Histoire Naturelle Générale et Particulière des Mollusques, he describes an episode where an octopus attacked and nearly succeeded in drowning his dog on the beach. He and his dog were finally able to subdue the monster by tearing off its arms…Given Montfort’s demonstrated history of untruths, his account is hardly to be believed.

"The Common Octopus." Montfort, Denys. Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière des mollusques : animaux sans vertèbres et a sang blanc. v. 2. 1801. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/35755415.

Perhaps the most sensational, and damaging, account of the octopus was presented by Victor Hugo in Toilers of the Sea (1866). Within it, Hugo describes his protagonist’s (Gillat) encounter with an octopus in a cave, which does its utmost to annihilate him. Hugo writes of the beast’s attack: “The hydra incorporates itself with the man; the man becomes one with the hydra. The spectre lies upon you…the devil-fish, horrible, sucks your life blood away…Powerless, you feel yourself gradually emptied into this horrible pouch, which is the monster itself.”

Gillat's struggle with the "monster" octopus, as described in Toilers of the Sea. Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. 1916. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/14187072.

Henry Lee and Addison Verrill, both of whom wrote extensively on squid and octopus, boldly challenged Hugo’s passages, outlining the multiple fallacies included. In Cephalopods of the North-eastern Coast of America, Verrill writes, “The description of the ‘poulpe’ or devil-fish by Victor Hugo…is quite as fabulous and unreal as any of the earlier accounts, and even more bizarre. His description represents no real animal whatever.”

Graneledone verrucosa. Verrill, A.E. Cephalopods of the North-eastern Coast of America. v. 2. 1881. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/11826821.

Unfortunately, such melodramatic accounts, popular among the public, helped to further secure the octopus’ reputation as a monster, despite the counterarguments against them.

Similar descriptions of the octopus as a monster continued into the twentieth century. For instance, a 1907 fieldbook from Florence Merriam Bailey, American ornithologist and nature writer, whilst in California, deems the octopus a “horrible creature,” describing an episode where a friend was attacked by one in Bermuda. “Their strength is tremendous & they put out [[strikethrough]] au [[/strikethrough]] arms and grasp you and hold on with suction discs & then draw the object up and cut it across the back of the neck with thin knives.”

Thomas Beale, surgeon on a British whaling voyage in 1835, claimed he was attacked by an octopus on the beach on the Bonin Islands, south of Japan. Gosse, Philip Henry. The Romance of Natural History. 1864. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/23537396.

A 1919 National Geographic article by John Oliver La Gorce, called “Devil-Fishing in the Gulf Stream,” presents the mollusk as “most repulsive, having a large, ugly head, a fierce-looking mouth…two diabolical eyes…capable of sending forth a demonic glare when angered…When challenged [it] will fight to the last, doing its best to pull the object of its wrath beneath the surface of the waters.”

But while natural history has been cruelly unkind to the octopus, presenting the creature itself as a monster, this cephalopod also served to inspire one of mythology’s greatest beasts – The Hydra.

The Hydra: A Case of Mistaken Identity

The Hydra is a “mythical” beast most commonly described as having nine heads, each of which will regenerate if decapitated. The Greek hero Hercules was commanded to kill a Hydra as his second labor. The marble tablet in the Vatican depicting this exploit interprets the hydra as a strikingly octopus-like monster.

The Hydra, as illustrated by Gessner. Notice the suction-cup like spots on its body...very octopus-like. Gessner, Conrad. Historia Animalium. 2nd Ed. 1604. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/42166090.

In the book Sea Fables Explained, Henry Lee writes that the Lernean Hydra was simply a huge Octopus. Many scholars have postulated that hydra are based on octopus. After all, their many tentacles could be misinterpreted as heads, and octopus can regenerate lost limbs, possibly explaining the unending head supply of the hydra.

Hercules slaying the Lernean Hydra, as depicted on a marble tablet in the Vatican. Lee, Henry. Sea Fables Explained. 1883. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/10985663.

Well into the eighteenth century, many naturalists believed the hydra to be a real creature. Albertus Seba, a famed apothecary from Amsterdam, boasted an extensive cabinet of curiosities, filled with many magnificent biodiversity specimens. From 1734-65, Seba published an account of his cabinet in Locupletissimi rerum naturalium thesauri accurata descriptio, et iconibus artificiosissimis expressio, per universam physices historiam. This work included an image of a hydra, based on a specimen held by the Burgomeister of Hamburg. While Linnaeus later proved this particular specimen to be a fake, an amalgamation of snake skins and weasel heads with possible religious overtones, exaggerated accounts of an octopus likely inspired such monsters in the first place.

The Hydra! Seba, Albertus. Locupletissimi rerum naturalium thesauri accurata descriptio, et iconibus artificiosissimis expressio, per universam physices historiam. v. 1. 1734. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/41047754.

An Undeserved Reputation and the Monster that Isn’t

The octopus’ “monster” reputation is completely unwarranted. It is hardly necessary to emphasize the fact that the hydra, though inspired by a real animal, is not itself a real species. Debunking longstanding conceptions of the octopus itself as a terrible, vicious monster, however, has proven more difficult.

Benthoctopus levis. Chun, Carl. The Cephalopoda. 1975. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/32124297.

“The octopus is, in fact, a gentle, curious creature with a surprising ‘intelligence,’” argues marine biologist Richard Ellis of the American Museum of Natural History (Ellis, pg. 261). Around 300 species are recognized, constituting over a third of all cephalopods. They are perhaps the most intelligent invertebrate, demonstrating complex problem-solving abilities and the use of tools.

Octopus range in size from the minute Octopus wolfi, measuring about 0.6 inches in length, to the Giant Pacific Octopus (Enteroctopus dofleini), with a radial span of 20ft (and possibly as much as 32ft) – certainly large enough to inspire some fantastic monster myths. The only octopus species truly dangerous to humans are the three (or perhaps four) species of Blue-Ringed Octopus, which are some of the world’s most venomous marine animals and capable of killing humans.

Giant Octopus. Holder, C.F. Along the Florida Reef. 1899. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/23386919.

So, in the case of the octopus, it is more a story of the monster that isn’t. These cephalopods most definitely are not, as Victor Hugo asserts in Toilers of the Sea, “the concrete forms of evil,” but are in fact a wonderfully diverse, spectacularly intelligent, and reportedly shy group.

So, are monsters real? In the case of the octopus, no.

Hydra. Aldrovandi, Ulisse. Serpentum, et draconum historiæ libri duo. 1640. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/41765442.

Follow #bhlMonstersRreal on Twitter and Facebook all week to learn more about monsters and the animals that inspired them.
Browse historic illustrations of octopi and squid-inspired monsters and the animals that they're based on in Flickr.
Browse the books that portray these historic monsters in BHL.
Carve a Hydra in your Halloween Pumpkin this year! Share your carvings with us on Facebook and Twitter!
See some of our favorite monsters come to life on the Smithsonian Libraries' Tumblr!

Reference:

Ellis, Richard. Monsters of the Sea. New York: Alfred A. Knopp, Inc., 1994. Print.

Grace Costantino

BHL Outreach and Communication Manager

In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed out from Spain with a mission to find a western trade route to Asia. Instead, he found a whole “New World”…and something altogether more mysterious.

On January 9, 1493, near the Dominican Republic, Columbus spotted three “mermaids.” How did he describe them? “They are not as beautiful as they are painted, since in some ways they have a face like a man.”

The myth of a marine human extends as far back as 5,000 BCE, when the Babylonians worshipped a fish-tailed god named Oannes. John Ashton, author of Curious Creatures in Zoology, proposes that this is the first depiction of a merman. Also in classical antiquity, the goddess Atargatis, chief goddess of northern Syria, was depicted as a fish-bodied human, thus constituting the first known representation of a mermaid.

Ancient god Oannes, perhaps first representation of a merman. Ashton, John. Curious Creatures in Zoology. 1890. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/23574964.

By the Common Era, mermen and mermaids had made their way into the accepted zoological canon. Pliny the Elder, who lived in the first century CE and had quite a lot to contribute to the discussion of mythical beasts, asserted that mermaids were real. According to Edward Topsell’s 1601 translation, Pliny stated,

“And as for the Mermaids called Nereides, it is no fabulous tale that goeth of them: for looke how painters draw them, so they are indeed: only their body is rough and scaled all over, even in those parts where they resemble a woman.”

Tritons, or Nereids, the merpeople of the Greeks and Romans. Ashton, John. Curious Creatures in Zoology. 1890. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/23574966.

In the centuries that followed, many people claimed to actually see mermaids. In 1608, during an expedition to discover the Northwest Passage, Henry Hudson claimed that several crewmembers spotted a mermaid. From the naval upwards, she was like a woman, with long, black hair, but she had a tail like a porpoise.

Mermaid of the type inhabiting the Dutch East Indies. Valentijn's mermaid, after Fallours. Lee, Henry. Sea Fables Explained. 1883. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/10985600.

By the eighteenth century, many believed that mermaids inhabited the seas surrounding the Dutch East Indies. The official painter of the Dutch East India Company, Samuel Fallours, included a tantalizing mermaid within his 1718 drawing depicting the assortment of exotic biodiversity found around the islands. Francois Valentijn included a copy of Fallours’ mermaid in his publication on the East Indies, entitled Natural History of Amboina (1727). He claims that this “monster resembling a siren” was captured on the coast of Borneo.

Mermaid as Monster

Valentijn’s “monster” title alludes to the fact that merpeople were not always represented in a sensual light. Sometimes, they were just plain monsters. Within the 13th century Norwegian manuscript Konungs skuggsjá, we read of the merman:

“The monster is tall and of great size and rises straight out of the water…It has shoulders like a man but no hands…No one has ever observed it closely enough to determine whether its body has scales like a fish or skin like a man. Whenever the monster has shown itself, men have always been sure that a storm would follow.”

Sea Satyr, or Sea Demon. Gessner, Conrad. Historia Animalium. 2nd Ed. 1604. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/42166652.

And of course, we can’t omit Conrad Gessner from our discussion. His 16th century book Historia Animaliumdepicts the Sea Satyr, also calling it a sea demon. According to John Ashton, Gessner “tries to pass it off as a veritable merman.” Gessner also claims that, on November 3, 1523, a man-fish, about the size of a five year old boy, was seen at Rome.

Man-fish, about the size of a boy, seen at Rome. Gessner, Conrad. Historia Animalium. 2nd Ed. 1604. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/42166072.

Two other curious, merman-esque monsters include the Monk and Bishop Fish. Gessner, and later others including Guillaume Rondelet, Ulisse Aldrovandi, and Gaspar Schott, portray these beasts, claiming that a Monk-fish was caught off Norway, in a troubled sea, and that the Bishop-fish was seen off the coast of Poland in 1531. Despite such observational reports, these monsters were likely a commentary on the religious tension of the day, resulting in an association between cleric figures and monsters.

Monk and Bishop Fish, as republished by Schott. Not all historians accepted the full veracity of these beasts. Guillaume Rondelet, who included a picture of the bishop fish in his 1554-55 book, stated, "I think that certain details beyond the truth of the matter have been added by the painter to make the thing seem more marvelous." (Ellis, pg. 85). Schott, Gaspar. Physica Curiosa. 1662. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/41531037.

Mermaids Through Misidentification

If an exploration of historic monsters has taught us anything, it’s that most were not fabricated out of pure myth. Usually, they proceed from an attempt to categorize an unknown animal sighting.

Bernard Heuvelmans, considered the father of cryptozoology, studied the process by which unknown animals become monsters and monsters are identified as known animals. Of this transformation, he wrote, “The mythifying process can sometimes be carried to the point of altering its object beyond recognition.”

Case in point: The Manatee.

Manatees. Biologia Centrali-Americana. Mammalia. 1879-82. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/570882. Read a manatee dissection in this 1941 fieldbook by Edward Chapin from The Field Book Project.

As Heuvelmans explained,

“Since the manatee has pectoral mammae…and a body that tapers to a fishlike tail, it has always been identified, on both side of the Atlantic, with the fascinating mermaid, despite its (to our eyes) ugly face…”

The three mermaids that Columbus spotted in 1493 (or sirens as he called them), were undoubtedly manatees. He, and many explorers after him, determined that these aquatic mammals were mermaids in flesh and blood. Sightings of dugongs, a member of the manatee’s order, have also been associated with mermaids throughout history. Indeed, the order containing manatees and dugongs to this day is called “Sirenia.”

Dugong and Manatee. Craig, Hugh. Johnson's Household Book of Nature. 1880. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/39742211.

Manatees aren’t the only animals that have played the part of a mermaid. In the thirteenth century, a fisherman in Lake Constance, outside Bregenz, Austria, found a mermaid. He heard a voice call to him from the sea, saying, “Take my daughter and hang her in the Arch of Martinster. She is begat of a land woman and is of no use here.” He followed the voice’s command and hung the mermaid in the archway, after which it died in a contorted shape. The true identity of the creature? A shark, possibly a Porbeagle. The original mummified shark was replaced with a stone replica so that it could always stand guard over the city.

Bregenz Mermaid, actually a mummified shark. McCormick, Harold. Shadows in the Sea. 1963. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/10741173.

Of course, mistaking a manatee or a shark for a mermaid with breasts and flowing locks, which so many sailors vehemently claimed to have seen, seems impossible. It’s clear that some good old exaggeration (and blatant lies) contributed to the mermaid myth.

Mermaids Through Fabrication

The lies associated with the mermaid’s history are more tangible than exaggerating manatees as beautiful women. “Unlike most other monsters, which, almost by definition are very large” explains Richard Ellis in his book Monsters of the Sea, “’mermaids’ are small enough to tempt people to manufacture them.” (pg. 80). And that’s exactly what they did.

Mermaid Fabrication falls into two general categories: "Monkey" Mermaids and Jenny Hanivers.

"Monkey" Mermaid. Lee, Henry. Sea Fables Explained. 1883. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/10985610.

"Monkey" Mermaids made their way into western mermaid lore in the nineteenth century. Apparently manufactured in Japan, these twisted mermaid interpretations were created by combining a small monkey’s head and torso with a dehydrated fish. In the 1840s, P.T. Barnum made a fortune by exhibiting what he claimed, and successfully convinced many people, were the remains of a mermaid. Today it is famously known as the Feejee Mermaid.

Barnum's Feejee Mermaid. Lee, Henry. Sea Fables Explained. 1883. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/10985611.

Over time the Jenny Haniver also came to be associated with mermaids. The first known illustration of a Jenny Haniver appears in Gessner’s Historia Animalium in the mid-1500s.

A ray, mutilated to look mermaid-esque. This image is the first known depiction of a Jenny Haniver-style specimen. Gessner, Conrad. Historia Animalium. 2nd Ed. 1604. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/42166434.

What exactly are these disturbing specimens? They are mutilated elasmobranchs - either a ray, skate, or guitarfish. The fins are cut so that they resemble wings, a string is tied around the “neck” area to give it a human appearance, and the tail is twisted into a suitable mermaid-esque form. The charade is then allowed to dry in the sun and varnished for preservation.

"basilicus ex raia," another Jenny Haniver-style farce. These specimens were also sometimes associated with dragons. Aldrovandi, Ulisse. Serpentum, et draconum historiæ libri duo. 1640. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/41765368.

In the mid-1600s, Ulisse Aldrovandi published what he called a basilisk but which was created in the same fashion as Gessner’s Jenny Haniver. He includes a caption with his illustrations reading “basilicus ex raia,” indicating his awareness of the illegitimacy of the monster. Both Gessner and Aldrovandi classify these strange beasts as rays, but provide no further information.

Over time, rays mutilated to resemble human-fish hybrids came to be associated with mermaids under the term Jenny Hanivers. Ulisse Aldrovandi, who published this image in 1640, described it as "basilicus ex raia," indicating an awareness of the illegitimacy of the creature. See more fantastic historic monsters come to life on the Smithsonian Libraries' Tumblr. GIF created by Richard Naples (Smithsonian Libraries), based on Aldrovandi, Ulisse. Serpentum, et draconum historiæ libri duo. 1640. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/41765369.

Of course, by Gessner and Aldrovandi’s time, the term Jenny Haniver was not yet in use. The name does not appear in published form until 1928, when Gilbert Whitley wrote about these monsters in an Australian Museum Magazine article. The origin of the name is unknown, though it has been suggested that it is a derivative of ‘Anvers,’ the French name for Antwerp and a possible place of origin for the deception.

The Case for the Mermaid

So, does the mermaid exist? Obviously not in the form of a half man or woman, half fish, but, to quote Dr. Ellis in Monsters of the Sea, “The sirens are still with us, however, in the form of the manatees and dugongs. They may not have the sex appeal of their namesake, and they certainly are not as beautiful as the mermaid, but they differ from their historic and literary ancestors in one irrefutable respect: they exist.” (pg. 98).

Follow #bhlMonstersRreal on Twitter and Facebook all week to learn more about monsters and the animals that inspired them.
Browse historic illustrations of mermaids and the animals that inspired them in Flickr.
Browse the books that portray these historic monsters in BHL.
Carve a merman in your Halloween Pumpkin this year! Share your carvings with us on Facebook and Twitter!
See some of our favorite monsters come to life on the Smithsonian Libraries' Tumblr!

Reference:

Ellis, Richard. Monsters of the Sea. New York: Alfred A. Knopp, Inc., 1994. Print.

Grace Costantino

BHL Outreach and Communication Manager

Recent crowdsourcing initiatives are revolutionizing scientific research, allowing the public to help scientists and researchers document, identify, and better understand biodiversity.

For example, the Atlas of Living Australia’s FieldData program allows anyone to contribute sightings, photos and observational data to help researchers and natural resource management groups collect and manage biodiversity data. Birds Australia is using this data to help record sightings of Carnaby’s Black-Cockatoo to inform conservation initiatives for this endangered species.

As another example, in 2013 a new mammal species, the olinguito (Bassaricyon neblina), was discovered in South America, the first carnivore species to be discovered in the Americas in 35 years. Scientists at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History are using citizen science-contributed observational data and photos to learn more about the new species.

BHL has taken advantage of crowdsourcing’s potential, implementing several initiatives to improve access to BHL images, support OCR correction and transcription, and generate semantic metadata for the BHL portal.

Art of Life: Improving Access to Images

The Art of Life project, funded by NEH and based at the Missouri Botanical Garden, has been making active progress on its objective of improving access to the natural history illustrations within BHL. The image-finding algorithms developed by the Indianapolis Museum of Art Lab have been run across 18 million BHL pages and you’ll now notice a significant increase in the number of pages tagged as having illustrations within the BHL portal. Pages with illustrations are currently being manually classified by volunteers as belonging to one or more image types: drawing, table, photograph, map, and/or bookplate. A few examples in the BHL portal include:

Example of how metadata now displays descriptive information about the types of images found within BHL pages.

Next steps for the project are to crowdsource descriptions for the image’s content (e.g. subjects, dates, illustrator) through platforms such as Flickr and Wikimedia Commons. To follow the project, which runs through April of 2015, see http://biodivlib.wikispaces.com/Art+of+Life. If you are interested in helping classify BHL illustrations contact Principal Investigator Trish Rose-Sandler: trish.rose-sandler@mobot.org.

On a related note, we will also be crowdsourcing BHL image descriptions through another platform, Zooniverse, the premier host for citizen science projects. This opportunity came about through a partnership with Constructing Scientific Communities (aka ConSciCom). More details will be forthcoming in a future blog post but expect to see BHL content available in Zooniverse in late spring or early summer of 2015.

Purposeful Gaming and BHL: Playing at OCR Correction and Transcriptions

Another crowdsourcing BHL project called Purposeful Gaming and BHL, funded by IMLS and based at the Missouri Botanical Garden, has been making significant strides in its objective to improve access to BHL texts through gamifying the text correction process. Digital outputs of BHL text are create both through automated (OCR of published text) and manual means (transcription of hand-written text from ornithologist William Brewster). Multiple outputs of the same page are then compared and differences incorporated into an online digital game in which the public will help verify the accuracy of individual words. Those corrections will then be incorporated back into the BHL portal for viewing by users and to enable full text searching. The project’s game designer, Tiltfactor, has recently completed and beta-tested 2 initial prototypes for both gaming and non-gaming audiences. The final games are expected to go live in May 2015. To follow the project, which runs through November of 2015, see http://biodivlib.wikispaces.com/Purposeful+Gaming.

William Brewster's journals available for transcription in the ALA/Australian Museum Biodiversity Volunteer Portal.

Help us transcribe William Brewster’s journals and diaries in the ALA/Australian Museum Biodiversity Volunteer Portal (click on any of the William Brewster projects listed) and FromThePage! Find guidelines for transcribing the documents here.

Mining Biodiversity: Semantics and the Crowd

In the near future, the Mining Biodiversity Project, whose USA partners' participation is also funded by IMLS, will be crowdsourcing the creation of a gold standard annotated set of pages to train the mining algorithms that will search for named entities (ie. concepts like taxa, places, people, habitat, traits). After that, a bigger group of volunteers will help validating the pre-annotated relations through time (events) automatically discovered from our BHL corpus. Stay tuned for more information on this project and related crowdsourcing activities.

The Field Book Project: Improving Access to Researchers' Fieldnotes

The Smithsonian Field Book Project has been hard at work discovering and making accessible field book materials through cataloging, digitization, and online publication. Thanks to dedicated staff and volunteers, the Project has made huge strides in that direction. To date, 90 fieldbooks digitized by The Field Book Project have been ingested into BHL.

However, no celebration of success would be complete without a mention of the passionate “volunpeers” of the Smithsonian Transcription Center. Field books are often difficult to search and read due to their age and generally hand-written entries; pages may be faded and smudged, handwriting may be cramped or scribbled or stained by exposure to the elements, and the author may have used symbols and index marks that are foreign to modern readers. Unless a researcher knows exactly what they are looking for, they may be discouraged by the time and effort it takes to parse the archival text! Thankfully, the Smithsonian Transcription Center, which opened to the public on August 12th, has included the Field Book Project as one of its partners since the very beginning, allowing us to ask the crowd for assistance in conducting detailed readings and transcribing of field book content.

James Peter's fieldnotes from Mexico (1949-50), transcribed for The Field Book Project in the Smithsonian Transcription Center.

Each item that goes into the Transcription Center must first be transcribed and then reviewed by a volunpeer, who must create an account and can then access both the training documents on the site and also the rich community on the Center and on related social media platforms for questions and answers. Several of the volunpeers have become “super users,” transcribing and reviewing a large volume of material, and also serving as rich information sources for new transcribers on how to document tricky situations such as foreign characters, symbols, marginalia, and in field books in particular, the scientific names for observed flora and fauna.

At last count there were 84 items in the Transcription Center, 69 of which had been fully transcribed, an incredible resource for researchers and reference archivists alike! More fieldbooks are being added continuously and the eventual goal is to place those completed transcriptions into BHL alongside the original field books. The crowd of volunpeers has and is enabling the Field Book Project to offer more and better access to everyone from professional researchers to curious onlookers, and sometimes even leads researchers to information that may never have been discovered without the dedicated assistance of the volunpeers on the Smithsonian Transcription Center.

Become a volunpeer today and help us transcribe field notes to improve access to these valuable primary-source documents!

We Love Our Users!

With over 44 million pages of biodiversity literature, several million images, and a desire to continuously improve access to and discovery of these materials, leveraging the power of the crowd is a match made in heaven for BHL. With contributions from our users, we can ensure that our wealth of biodiversity information can continue to inspire discovery of the natural world. Thank you for your contributions, and if you’d like to know more about how you can contribute, send us feedback.

Trish Rose-Sandler, BHL Data Analyst, Missouri Botanical Garden
Julia Blase, Project Manager, The Field Book Project
Grace Costantino, BHL Outreach and Communication Manager

The Art of Life project is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (Grant number PW-51041-12).

Mining Biodiversity is funded in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (Grant number LG-00-14-0032-14).

Purposeful Gaming is funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (Grant number LG-05-13-0352-13).

Here's a word of the day for you: Phytogeography.

Phytogeography is a branch of biogeography that investigates the geographic distribution of plants and the effect that the earth's surface has on that distribution. To go further down the rabbit hole, biogeography studies the distribution of species and organisms now and throughout time. This research reveals important interdependencies between geology, climate, dispersal and evolution.

Wallace's map, showing the zoogeographical regions of the world. The Geographical Distribution of Animals. v.1 (1876). http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/30228507.

Alfred Russel Wallace is commonly known as the "Father of Biogeography." Although not as famously recognized as Charles Darwin, Wallace actually came up with the theory of evolution by means of natural selection independent of and simultaneous to Darwin. Wallace spent a great part of his career in South America and the Malay Archipelago. During this time, his observations on distribution, breeding, and migration tendencies helped him develop a theory of evolution incorporating the influence of geological barriers on speciation. He also argued that species abundance was directly related to food availability.

Today, biogeographers are largely interested in how environmental factors and human activities influence species distribution. Biogeographic change and insight offered by historical data are a long-time passion of Dr. Quentin Groom, research assistant at the Botanic Garden Meise, Belgium. His particular interest is phytogeography, especially as it relates to the interaction between humans and plants.

Dr. Quentin Groom, research assistant at the Botanic Garden Meise, Belgium.

Groom's interest in phytogeography began ten years ago, but more recently, his discovery of BHL expanded his research possibilities. "[BHL] is a fantastic resource, making research possible that would never have been considered in the past. I use it to find information on particular species and also to find source documents for further analysis. The ability to search by taxon name is invaluable, but having stable URLs for each page is [also] a great feature."

The ability to access this digitized literature is only part of the greater picture of facilitating efficient science and discovery. Intuitive search capabilities and the opportunity to augment existing files are other features Groom would like to see within BHL and the larger bioinformatics community.

"I feel [BHL] is just one step in the full digitization and semantic annotation of biodiversity literature. I'd like to be able to add annotations [to BHL]. [The ability to] search by location name and taxon name would be useful, even if the location names were only countries. It might [also] be useful to have the ability to add internal links within BHL to connect citations within one document to their source in BHL," mused Dr. Groom.

The Mining Biodiversity project, funded by an IMLS Digging Into Data grant, is currently working to address some of these requests. The project aims to create a next-generation digital library by enriching BHL with semantic metadata through deployment of advanced text-mining techniques. This data will be used to support a semantic search system enhanced with clustering and visualization tools. The idea is that a user will be able to search not only for species, but also filter the results for references to habitat, diet, predation, and related facets. The result will be fully interlinked and indexed access to the full content of BHL library documents, allowing users to locate precisely the information of interest to them in an easy and efficient manner.

Furthermore, the project is exploring ways to make BHL more "social", allowing for collaborative curation where users can easily share and discuss our collections. This will not only facilitate expanded reuse and discovery of our material, but will also allow us to evaluate how our content is being used around the globe and by whom, and better measure its impact on biodiversity awareness.

The Mining Biodiversity project runs through December, 2015. As we continue to improve our collections and services, you can explore our collection of over 44.8 million pages of biodiversity literature spanning over 500 years of research and discovery.

Red Deadnettle (Lamium purpureum) from one of Dr. Groom's favorite BHL books, Flora Londinensis, v. 1 (1777). http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/40966493.

Amongst all that content, what would a phytogeographer choose as his favorite items in the collection? "Linnaeus'Species Plantarum is an inspiring work. Flora Londinensis by William Curtis makes common weeds special with its illustrations. I also have a soft spot for literature from Northumberland where I used to live," mused Quentin.

Indeed, Dr. Groom recently republished the Flora of Northumberland and Durham (Winch 1831) as an online, semantically enhanced Pensoft "Advanced Book" using the scan originally taken from BHL. The Flora provides valuable insight into how biodiversity in North-east England has changed over time.

"Historic biodiversity literature is not just of cultural interest, it can be used to chart biogeographic change and help us understand the impacts of environmental change on biodiversity,"explains Quentin in an EU BON review of his republication. "Even if we are trying to predict future scenarios for biodiversity, understanding the changes of the past will help understand the changes we should expect in the future."

Dr. Groom recently submitted another paper using data gathered from BHL, entitled "Piecing together the biogeographic history of Chenopodium vulvaria L. using botanical literature and collections". The paper charts the distribution of Chenopodium vulvaria over more than 200 years and uses old literature to understand how its habitat may have changed. All of the observations extracted from the literature were georeferenced and are available on GBIF. You can view a preprint of the paper in PeerJ.

The digitization of historic literature, and its enhancement using semantic and linked data, is revolutionizing scientific research, connecting scientists to relevant information more efficiently than ever before. Through continued dedication to open access, BHL and like-minded projects will continue to inspire discovery through free access to biodiversity knowledge.

We extend a special thanks to Quentin for not only describing how BHL is currently impacting his work, but also for revealing important ways that we can improve our library. Do you have ideas about how you would like to see BHL improve? Would you like to tell us about how BHL has impacted your own research? Then send us some feedback!

The importance and need for unique, persistent identifiers for reliable access to published literature has become widely accepted, and the literature for the biodiversity informatics community is no exception. For published works, these generally take the form of Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs). BHL has been consistently assigning CrossRef DOIs to monographic publications for three years. However, the number of items in BHL with DOIs remains relatively small with just over 68,000 assigned to date. In addition to the remaining monographs, BHL now also has over 140,000 articles identified, primarily via BioStor. The current CrossRef pricing model does not scale for the full and growing BHL corpus. Which is why…

We need your input!

BHL is conducting a survey to learn more about what you would like out of DOIs in BHL and to gather recommendations for cost-effective solutions for meeting those needs.

This survey was initiated at the 2014 TDWG Conference in Jönköping, Sweden, October 26 – November 1, 2014 where the survey was distributed as part of a poster session http://www.pinterest.com/pin/42925002674475008/ on DOIs in BHL.

DOIs in BHL. Poster from 2014 TDWG Conference. http://www.pinterest.com/pin/42925002674475008/.

Missed the poster, or weren’t able to attend TDWG this year? No problem! The survey is also available online: http://surveymonkey.com/s/BHLDOIs. Your input will help guide our strategy for assigning DOIs to the literature in BHL. We hope you’ll take a few minutes to provide your thoughts and recommendations.

Thank you in advance for your time!

This post was originally published on the Smithsonian Libraries' blog. It was written by Daria Wingreen-Mason, Special Collections Technical Information Specialist in the Joseph F. Cullman 3rd Library of Natural History.

Dorsal and ventral views of specimen from Waller’s Butterflies collected in the Shire Valley East Africa.

Horace Waller was an English missionary and anti-slavery activist in the 19th century. In 1859 Waller joined the Universities’ Mission to Central Africa (UMCA). As Lay Superintendent to the UMCA, Waller befriended the famous missionary Dr. David Livingstone and botanist John Kirk who were in Africa as part of the British government-funded Zambezi Expedition. Livingstone, as head of that expedition, and Kirk, as naturalist, together navigated the Zambezi River area between 1858 and 1863. The purpose of the expedition was to chart the geography and catalogue the natural resources of the area. On 19 March 1863 Kirk wrote in his diary “Mr Waller is making a fine collection of insects, chiefly of the Lepidoptera”. Waller assembled this field book of the Butterflies collected in the Shire Valley East Africa from his time there.

Waller was an amateur naturalist, but a clearly practiced one, who shared his collection with experienced naturalists such as Roland Trimen who later thanked Waller for showing him specimens from the Shire valley.

Detail from Journal of science and annals of astronomy (v. 1, 1864, p. 651)“On the Butterflies of Madagascar”, by Roland Trimen.

The butterfly specimens in Waller’s field book were prepared by an infrequently employed technique termed lepidochromy in the 19th century. Lepidochromy involved using humidified, relaxed wings and an adhesive such as gum Arabic. By pressing the wings between two prepared papers the dorsal and ventral sides could be separated from each other and the scales, or “feathers”, would remain. Once mounted, the bodies of the insects were drawn in. This type of transfer illustration is classified as a nature print.

Detail from Scientific American: Supplement v. 27: no. 697. (May 11, 1889, p. 11138).

Ninety years before Waller ventured into Africa, George Edwards published a group of essays in 1770 that included “A Receipt For taking the Figures of Butterflies on Thin Gummed Paper.” This, or a slight derivation of it, was the method most likely employed by Waller to mount his “Flys”. By 1889, refinements in the process of lepidochromy were outlined completely in Scientific American, Supplement. It was a simple but onerous process where in the wings were transferred twice so that the brighter outer layer of scales would be right side up when mounted.

Printed volumes with nature prints were also published, but they were few. Printed editions were very labor-intensive and required hundreds and sometimes thousands of specimens. An immodest example is Sherman F. Denton’s two volume set of Moths and butterflies of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains (Boston, 1900) where more than 50,000 butterflies and moths were immortalized.

North America's largest native moth (Hyalophora cecropia). As nature shows them : moths and butterflies of the United States, east of the Rocky Mountains. v. 1. 1900. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/12726507.

The scholarship on this humble field book continues. Dr. David Clough of the Namizimu Institute Mangochi Malawi recently inquired about the volume for exhibition after seeing the blog post, “The Art in Field Books” by Lesley Parilla. Dr. Clough then shared Waller’s butterflies with his colleague Dr. Lawrence Dritsas, a historian of science at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. When the field book was acquired into the collection of Judge Russell E. Train in the late 20th century the authorship had been misattributed to Sir John Kirk. Dr. Dritsas has since properly identified the work’s creator as Horace Waller. Waller’s monogram is evident on the cover just below the title. From a book historian’s point of view, now the only remaining question is at what point was the field book’s authorship confused.

Title page/cover to Waller’s Butterflies collected in the Shire Valley East Africa.

Lepidopterists both at the Smithsonian and in Africa have also been consulted about the specimens and a complete and accurate list of the butterfly types have been identified by Dr. Clough and Smithsonian lepidopterists Dr. Robert Robbins and Mr. Brian Harris.

This book was digitized by The Field Book Project for the Biodiversity Heritage Library. It has been transcribed within the Smithsonian's Transcription Center.

Dorsal and ventral views of specimen from Waller’s Butterflies collected in the Shire Valley East Africa.

With thanks to Dr. Lawrence Dritsas from the University of Edinburgh, David Clough from the Namizimu Institute, Steve Collins from the African Research Institute, and Dr. Robert Robbins, Brian Harris, and Lesley Parilla from the Smithsonian Institution.

The Russell E. Train Africana Collection is housed in the Joseph F. Cullman 3rd Library of Natural History located the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History.

Sharks, Passenger Pigeons, Scientific Illustrations, Crowdsourcing, National Agricultural Library, GBIF, and Semantic Metadata. What do all these things have in common? They're all BHL news stories from the past few months!

Get the latest BHL project news in our latest quarterly report and newsletter! Don't get our newsletter? Sign up today!

Wilson, Alexander. The Foresters. 1838. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/42435615.

210 years ago, in an autumn not unlike our own today, Alexander Wilson set out with two companions on a 1,300 mile trek, mostly on foot, from Philadelphia to Niagara Falls. Enchanted by the natural beauty of his adopted homeland, Wilson, Scottish by birth, detailed his two-month-long adventure in an epic 2,219 line poem entitled The Foresters: A Poem Descriptive of a Pedestrian Journey to the Falls of Niagara in the Autumn of 1804.

Portrait of Alexander Wilson. American Ornithology. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/41411265.

Wilson was born in Paisley, Scotland in 1766, but he emigrated to the United States in 1794 with his nephew, William Duncan. Although today known as one of the greatest ornithologists America has ever seen, Wilson's interest in poetry was deeply rooted in his youth. During his time in Scotland, he wrote a great deal of poetry, much of which was satirical. In fact, it was after his arrest and imprisonment for writing a severely satirical poem against a local mill owner that Wilson decided to move to America.

Poetry and ornithology were not the only hats Wilson wore throughout his life. He was somewhat of a jack-of-all-trades. He earned his living as a weaver in Scotland, and upon moving to America he worked as a schoolteacher, peddler, engraver, surveyor, and editor. Nature, birds, and poetry, however, were his true passion.

In 1798, four years after they had moved to America, Wilson and his nephew William Duncan, purchased a farm in Ovid between Seneca and Cayuga Lakes, New York, securing 150 acres of uncleared land for $750. Wide-spread outbreaks of yellow fever in Philadelphia, where they had been living, and family ties in upstate New York, prompted their relocation to this rich, largely untapped land in the Finger Lakes region. After the purchase, Duncan began clearing the land for farming while Wilson resumed his teaching activities in a school in Milestown near Philadelphia and accepted odd jobs such as surveying to raise money for the farm.

A farmhouse in Genesee Country, perhaps like what Wilson and Duncan would have had. Sutcliff, Robert. Travels In Some Parts of North America, In the Years 1804, 1805 and 1806. York [England]: Printed by C. Peacock ... for W. Alexander, and sold by him, 1811.

In late October, 1804, Wilson, Duncan, and one of Wilson's students, Isaac Leech, embarked on their great adventure through the Western Frontier, leaving from Philadelphia and heading west through Pennsylvania towards Niagara Falls.

The journey was an ambitious, enlightening, and multi-faceted one. Within his Foresters poem, Wilson provides descriptions of the homes, taverns, and inns they stayed in, reflects upon the virtues of teaching (a profession he clearly believes is under-valued), and describes in vivid narrative the natural beauty and wildlife they encounter. His writings also reveal the progression of human settlement and land development along the Susquehanna, with Wilson remarking on how changed the wilderness was since last he visited it.

Niagara Falls. Dow, Charles M. Anthology and Bibliography of Niagara Falls. Albany [N.Y.]: State of New York, 1921. Vol 1. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/39062520.

Finally, in late November, the travelers reach the climax of their expedition: Niagara Falls. The Falls, a nearly inaccessible wonder of the New World in the early 1800s, is a thing of matchless beauty in Wilson's mind.

"Fixed to the rock, like monuments we stood,

On its flat face, above th' outrageous flood,

There, while our eyes th' amazing whole explored,

The Deep loud roar our loudest voice devoured.

High o'er the wat'ry uproar, silent seen,

Sailing sedate, in majesty serene,

Now 'midst the pillard spray sublimely lost,

And now, emerging, down the rapids tost,

Swept the gray eagles, grazing calm and slow,

On all the horrors of the gulf below;"(pg. 75-76)

With their purpose accomplished, Wilson, Duncan, and Leech set their sights homeward. On December 7, 1804, Wilson returned once again to Philadelphia, penniless but enthused by his adventure. Wilson published his poem in serial form in 10 issues of "The Port Folio," a leading literary magazine in Philadelphia, from 1809-10. The poem was first published in book format in 1818 and again in 1838, with little difference between the editions. The 1838 edition of The Foresters is available in BHL from Cornell University Library.

The adventure represented not only an important literary venture for Wilson, but solidified in him the desire to pursue his dream to classify, describe, and illustrate all bird species in the United States. Wilson, in fact, viewed this trip as an opportunity to collect and observe American birds. Early on in the poem, Wilson indicates that he came prepared to sketch, bringing along "colors, paper, and pencils." What's more, he frequently describes hunting various birds, including ducks, egrets, herons, eagles and geese, which he would later use as reference for his great masterpiece, American Ornithology.

Wood Thrush, Robin and Nuthatches. Wilson, Alexander. American Ornithology. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/41411340.

At the age of 40, just seven years before he died of dysentery and exhaustion, Wilson left teaching and spent the rest of his life traveling over 10,000 miles observing and collecting birds, which he chronicled and illustrated in American Ornithology. The publication included over 260 species, 48 of which were new to science, and was published in at least 10 editions over 70 years.

Ivory-Billed, Red-Headed, and Pileated Woodpeckers. Wilson, Alexander. American Ornithology. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/41424289.

Alexander Wilson was a remarkable man who laid the foundations for American ornithology. Though his formal education ended at the age of thirteen, his natural intelligence, creativity, and curiosity propelled him to explore his natural world and fueled a thirst for knowledge that rivaled the greatest intellectuals of the day. His wonderful poetic descriptions within The Foresters offer a unique opportunity to experience Wilson at a personal level and appreciate the awestruck wonder he felt within the wilds of America.

Far spreading forests from its shores ascend;

And tow'ring headlands o'er the flood impend;

These, deep below, in softened tints are seen,

Where Nature smiles upon herself serene,

O lovely scenes! In ecstasy I cried,

That sink to nothing all the work of pride! (pg. 52)

Learn more about Alexander Wilson, his Niagara adventure, and ornithological contributions in Cornell University Library's Majesty Sublimeexhibition.

Ducks. Wilson, Alexander. American Ornithology. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/41423704.

This post by Grace Costantino based on a presentation by Marty Schlabach (Food and Agriculture Librarian, Mann Library, Cornell University) entitled "Of Birds and Poetry: Alexander Wilson's 1804 Expedition to Niagara Falls," presented to the Buffalo Ornithological Society on November 9, 2005. Additional information obtained from the Majesty Sublime exhibition by Ashley Miller (Mann Library, Cornell University).

Since the mid-19^th century, seed and nursery catalogs have reflected the agricultural and horticultural landscape of the United States. These catalogs—which began as guides to medicinal herbs, and are still printed today—often contain lists of plant varieties and gardening advice. While seed catalogs are used primarily by commercial growers and home gardeners, they also represent an invaluable resource to historians, artists, and researchers of all kinds.

So, what exactly do seed and nursery catalogs tell us?

History

Seed catalogs offer a fascinating glimpse into the cultural, economic, and political history of the era in which they were published. For instance, when the outbreak of World War I halted agricultural exports from Europe to the US, American citizens planted their own “war gardens” to ease the strain on the food supply; seed catalogs of the time leveraged the economic climate to aid the war effort and increase their own sales. In 1918, Allen’s Book of Berries—a seed catalog specializing in strawberries—prefaced its annual publication with this admonition:

“Of one thing we are sure. We must not slacken our efforts to produce just as much as we can, for reasons of patriotism as well as of profit. Fruit is not a luxury; it is a necessity. As such, we should make that supply plentiful.”

Technology

In addition to offering varieties of seeds for sale, seed and nursery catalogs often included advertisements for the latest tools and gadgets. This technology reflected the materials available at the time as well as the gradual trend toward large-scale commercial growing and away from single-household plots. The hand-held implements of the mid-19^th century catalogs gave way to the combine-like machinery of the 20^th century.

A new type of sprayer to combat potato bugs, featured in F.H. Ebeling’s 1899 Catalogue

Seed catalogs themselves started to change, incorporating black-and-white photography alongside traditional, brightly-colored illustrations. The widespread availability of color film in the 1940s changed the look of catalogs yet again.

Food

As the genetic landscape of our food continues to change, many people look to historical seed catalogs to understand what previous generations were eating, and what it means for GMOs and current agricultural practices. Seed catalogs are a treasure trove of information about heirloom vegetable varieties and organic gardening. As technology continues to evolve however, they face an uncertain future: does the Internet make printed seed catalogs obsolete?

The Future

Whether the Internet means the end of printed catalogs or not, it provides some new and exciting opportunities to use them as part of the IMLS-funded Purposeful Gaming Project. Because they are printed in unconventional formats, with many tables and abbreviations, seed catalogs make poor candidates for Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology. This means that in order to make them searchable in BHL, individuals must transcribe their contents by hand.

The Missouri Botanical Garden, the New York Botanical Garden, and Cornell University are providing their seed catalogs to game developer Tiltfactor, which is working on a video game to help users compare and correct these difficult transcriptions. Once corrections are made, they will be incorporated into the BHL collection.

Stay tuned for how you can help transcribe seed and nursery catalogs, and look for Tiltfactor’s new game after the holidays! If you’re eager to start transcribing now, check out the diaries and journals of ornithologist William Brewster. And don’t forget to browse a century’s worth of horticultural history in the BHL’s Seed and Nursery Catalogs collection.

Patrick Randall
Marketing Intern | Ernst Mayr Library, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University

We are pleased to announce the release of two new BHL online exhibitions: Early Women in Science and Latino Natural History.

Earlier this year, the Smithsonian Women's Committee awarded a one-year grant to Smithsonian Libraries (SIL) to build online exhibitions to showcase the scientific and historical contributions of Women and Latino naturalists and illustrators. The project, entitled Notable Women and Latinos in Natural History, draws from content in BHL and uses the Biodiversity Library Exhibition (BLE) platform developed by BHL Europe.

The exhibitions include factoids, highlights, stories, illustrations and publications from some of natural history's most remarkable women and Latino naturalists. Some of the featured individuals, such as Maria Sibylla Merian and Louis A. Fuertes, are internationally celebrated. Others, though perhaps less famous, are equally important contributors to the world of science.

Illustration by Louis A. Fuertes from The Game Birds of California (1819). http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/8991919.

Below we present a few highlights about the men and women featured in the exhibits, extracted from the fascinating content written and curated by exhibition creators Adriana Marroquin (Latino Natural History) and Laurel Byrnes (Early Women in Science). Stay tuned for future posts from Adriana and Laurel showcasing some of their favorite stories and content (akin to Adriana's earlier post on the extraordinary naturalist and illustrator Louis A. Fuertes). Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for more exciting tidbits, and be sure to check out the exhibitions today!

Selected highlights from Early Women in Science

Mary Agnes Chase (1869-1963), a self-taught botanist awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of Illinois at age eighty-nine, served as botanical illustrator for the USDA Bureau of Plant Industry in Washington, D.C. and increased the world’s knowledge of Brazilian grasses by at least 10 percent.
Edith Patch (1876-1954), the first female head of the Maine Agricultural Experiment Station, predicted in 1936 that, should heavy use of pesticides continue, bird species and insect pollinators would be dying out by the year 2000.
Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932) was a pioneer in the field of landscaping, designing over 400 gardens in her lifetime and serving as one of the most influential people in the Arts and Crafts movement. Her younger brother inspired the name of Stevenson's protagonist in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Mary Treat (1830-1923) notably corrected Charles Darwin, with whom she shared an interest in carnivorous plants, about the mechanism by which bladderworts capture insects. Darwin acknowledged that she was correct, stating, "Mrs. Treat of New Jersy [sic] has been more successful than any other observer" in comprehending the way in which bladderworts (Utricularia clandestina) capture insects.

Photograph from Gertrude Jekyll's Lilies for English Gardens (1901). http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/33478387.

Selected Highlights from Latino Natural History

Cleofe Calderon (1929-2007), native to Argentina, spent years studying bamboo and helped lay the foundation for our modern understanding of grass evolution. One of her key contributions was the rediscovery of Anomochloa, a genus of grass that scientists had not seen living since the 19th century.
Cuban-born Felipe Poey y Aloy (1799-1891) became part of the European natural history community while practicing as a lawyer in Europe. Well-known naturalists Georges Cuvier and Achille Valenciennes based many new species in their Natural History of the Fishes on Poey's drawings and specimens. Poey dedicated much of his life to writing Ictilogía Cubana, which described and illustrated over 700 species of fish found in Cuba.
Eduardo Caballero y Caballero (1904-1974) of Mexico was noted for his work in helminthology, or the study of parasitic worms. In 1943 he was appointed the Helminthologist of the Panamerican Office of Sanitation to investigate an outbreak of Onchocerciasis, an infection caused by parasitic worms spread by black fly bites, which can lead to blindness. His work led to the establishment of Escuela Mexicana de Helmintologia, a school dedicated to helminthology.
Mexican-born José Mociño (1757-1820), originally geared to become a priest, became a botanist and explorer instead, joining the third excursion of the Royal Botanical Expedition to New Spain. However, political turmoil, in part due to the Napoleonic wars in Spain, thwarted the expedition, serving as an example of how outside forces can affect scientific pursuits.

Illustration from Felipe Poey's Memorias sobre la historia natural de la isla de Cuba, acompañadas de sumarios latinos y extractos en frances (1851-58). http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/2525313.

Explore more fascinating facts about women and Latino naturalists in our exhibitions!

These exhibitions sponsored by the Smithsonian's Women Committee.

The sixteen women featured in the “Early Women In Science” exhibition are each extraordinary for unique reasons. One trait they all share is that they were doing work in scientific fields reserved for men. They sometimes had to fight for recognition of their work—or went completely unrecognized for some of their major contributions. For instance, Maria Emma Gray (1787-1876) was a talented natural history illustrator. She not only contributed to the work of her husband, zoologist John Edward Gray, but also saw him through his nervous breakdown, eventually helping him to work again. Despite her contributions to his studies, however, she is not credited in his works.

Illustration by Maria Emma Gray, from Figures of Molluscous Animals, Selected from Various Authors. Etched for the Use of Students by Maria Emma Gray, vol. 2, 1859 | Smithsonian Biodiversity Heritage Library

Even when the male scientific community did praise the contributions of their feminine peers, many of the earliest women scientists remained resistant to any form of boasting or taking credit, since that was considered unseemly in women. Not so with bold scientists like Ynes Enriquetta, Julietta Mexia, or Alice Eastwood, who rightfully took credit for their amazing accomplishments.

Alice told her contemporary, Agnes Chase (agrostologist, 1869-1963): “the most proper [honor] is that officially the name of the Herbarium is the Alice Eastwood Herbarium of the California Academy of Sciences" since she built it herself "with no help" from 1912 to 1930.And in truth, Alice did manage this effort with little help. Furthermore, prior to the new herbarium's construction, Alice risked her life to save the Academy's collections during the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. Despite fires in the surrounding buildings and a caved-in stairwell, Alice climbed into the previous herbarium and managed to save the most irreplaceable of the herbarium specimens with a rope and pulley and the help of one other man.

Alice Eastwood collecting Festuca eastwoodae grass, courtesy of the California Academy of Sciences Archives

These women were brave. Not only did they enter their respective fields at a time when women were meant to remain in the domestic sphere, but they often solitarily braved harsh wilderness conditions to explore, observe, and collect flora, fauna and other specimens. Katherine Brandegee(1844-1920) was a botanist, and in her journeys she survived shipwrecks, seclusion with bears, wolves and coyotes, and encounters with potentially dangerous men in the uninhabited areas she trekked. All the while, collecting and preserving specimens, rather than her own safety, were her primary concerns.

Many of the women in the exhibit shared a courage, a sense of adventure, and a love of nature that allowed them to push through the difficulties—whether physical or mental—of becoming scientists.Some were self-taught, while others were accepted to prestigious schools. Most of them were given honorary degrees and other awards. Some, like Susan Fenimore Cooper (1813-1894), were multi-talented, engaging not only in scientific pursuits, but other artistic endeavors like fiction writing.Furthermore, many of these women demonstrated exceptional foresight, warning that neglect and abuse of our natural environment would result in dire consequences. They were right.

Enjoy the fascinating stories, illustrations and books from and about “Early Women In Science” in our new exhibit here.

Laurel Byrnes
Digital Exhibition Coordinator
Biodiversity Heritage Library

What can a salamander brain tell us about human behavior?

A lot more than you might think, discovered Lou Morgan, an independent researcher who has been studying the physiological underpinnings of human behavior for 30 years.

Lou Morgan

While Morgan's undergraduate education focused on mathematics, a history of familial psychological problems fueled an interest in understanding the underlying mechanisms of human psychology.

In the 1950s, Morgan began taking the first of many college psychology courses. These courses, however, focused largely on human thought and behavior subsequent to their manifestation. Morgan wanted to know about the physiological structures that led to this behavior.

Drawing from his background in mathematics, Morgan decided to approach his investigation by breaking a complex system down into more simplistic elements. “The kind of math I liked best was the deduction of complex structures from a few simple axioms,” explains Morgan. “Think Euclid's geometry. So I approached psychology looking for the basic principles which underlie our behavior.”

Morgan’s search led him to the study of neuroanatomy, which in turn led him to C. Judson Herrick's book, The Brain of the Tiger Salamander (1948).

The Tiger Salamander. Herrick, C. Judson. The Brain of the Tiger Salamander (1948). http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/5816541.

The Brain of the Tiger Salamander summarizes 50 years of Herrick’s published research on the vertebrate nervous system, “as revealed in generalized form in the amphibians.”

“Herrick's book has become central to my attempt to understand human behavior because it contains an immense amount of data which has parallels in the subcortical portion of the human brain,” articulates Morgan. “Humans can be seen as salamanders with a cortex.”

In the 1960s, American physician and neuroscientist Paul D. MacLean proposed an evolutionary model for the vertebrate forebrain suggesting that humans have a “reptilian brain” at our core. Modern comparative evolution, however, has found this theory to be outdated, given the presence of a structure known as the dorsal ventricular ridge (DVR) in reptiles and birds.

The DVR receives ascending auditory and visual projections and is present in bird and reptile brains. Though absent in mammals, the DVR has been postulated to be homologous to parts of the mammalian isocortex. In humans, the isocortex (also called neocortex) is the largest part of the cerebral cortex, and directs such functions as sensory perception, generation of motor commands, spatial reasoning, conscious thought and language. Amphibians, like humans, do not have a DVR, making their brains, and not reptile brains, a more apt comparison for human neuroanatomy.

The Tiger Salamander Brain. Details about the structures depicted on Morgan's website. Herrick, C. Judson. The Brain of the Tiger Salamander (1948). http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/5816405.

In order to help others explore early research on neuroanatomy, and provide a platform through which to discuss modern theories from the field, Morgan created a website to host a downloaded (from BHL) and partially edited version of Herrick’s book. The website, also entitled Brain of the Tiger Salamander, links to several of Morgan’s other websites detailing subcortical function, human behavior, and the endocrine system.

“I think we humans understand ourselves very poorly, and part of the problem is that we concentrate our attention on the cortical, cognitive, aspects of our behavior,” muses Morgan. “Herrick's book offers a window into the subcortical aspects of our lives.”

However, like all scientific pursuits, the field of neuroanatomy is still evolving, and while Herrick’s research provides a good foundation for understanding the basics of the vertebrate nervous system, it also has severe limitations.

“Herrick's Brain of the Tiger Salamander is a marvelous piece of work, but it's outdated. Most importantly, it does not give any consideration to neurotransmitters or the endocrine system,” Morgan points out. “Our knowledge of neurotransmitters is still evolving. The possibility of their very existence was discovered by Otto Loewi only in 1921. They were still a new concept during Herrick's time. Similarly, modern endocrinology began with Arnold Berthold in 1849 and is still a very active field of research. I suppose Herrick was aware of the current research while he was working, but there is no mention of either neurotransmitters or hormones in The Brain of the Tiger Salamander. He probably had his hands full with his neuroanatomical research.”

The Tiger Salamander Brain. Details about the structures depicted on Morgan's website. Herrick, C. Judson. The Brain of the Tiger Salamander (1948). http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/5816438.

Morgan’s newest website, Herrick Update, attempts to “supplement Herrick's presentation of salamander neuroanatomy with information which may be relevant to salamanders' neurotransmitters and hormones,” which may in turn provide insight into human behavior.

In the future, Morgan plans to concentrate his study of human behavior around addiction, and the part of our nervous system most involved in that behavior: the Nucleus Accumbens Septi (NAcc). Interestingly, this research may relate quite strongly to Morgan’s salamander research. The NAcc may in fact be the most prominent and clearly defined part of the Lamprey Basal Ganglia. The Lamprey brain is very similar to that of the amphibian, and thus Morgan began his attempt to develop a model of subcortical function with an investigation of the lamprey nervous system.

As humans continue to progress in our understanding of neuroanatomy, and the underlying physical processes that drive our actions and behaviors, Morgan’s research into Herrick’s work demonstrates once again how intrinsically tied modern science is to past discoveries. Thanks to the Biodiversity Heritage Library, this historic knowledge is available to everyone, everywhere, fueling continued understanding of life on earth and what it means to be human.

See Herrick’s original work in BHL, digitized by the MBLWHOI Library. Explore a partially edited version of the work on Morgan’s website. Learn more about how neurotransmitters and hormones affect neuroanatomy and view a model of subcortical function in Morgan’s two recent websites.

Grace Costantino
Outreach and Communication Manager
Biodiversity Heritage Library