All posts in Blog Reel

Walter Faxon’s ornithological field journals contain thousands of bird observations spanning more than three decades. Now digitized and transcribed using AI-assisted tools, these handwritten records are unlocking historical biodiversity data that could help us better understand environmental change over time.

When a handwritten entomological notebook by Carrie B. Aaron was digitized for BHL, it opened a window onto the life and work of a little-known woman in the natural sciences. Briana Giasullo explores how digitization, archival research, and linked data can help reconnect scattered traces of a person’s story and lead to new discoveries.

On Australia’s National Threatened Species Day, Nicole Kearney explores extinct species descriptions in BHL and the precious record they preserve of animals lost, threatened, and sometimes rediscovered.

When Field Museum librarian Elizabeth McKinley investigated a rare eighteenth-century work by E.A.W. Zimmermann, she uncovered a fascinating story of scientific revision, zoological nomenclature, and a surprising connection to the Field Museum. Now digitised in BHL, Zimmermann’s Geographische Geschichte can be explored alongside the earlier work it superseded and the ruling that secured its place in the scientific record.

BHL is delighted to welcome Amanda Boczar and Leora Siegel to two newly created positions on its Executive Committee, bringing new capacity, experience, and perspectives to help guide BHL through its next chapter.

Stephen A. Forbes and Charles Robertson were pioneering scientists whose groundbreaking research continues to influence our understanding of the natural world. Forbes advanced the fields of biology and ecology, while Robertson explored bees and their relationships with flowers and other insects. Their careful observations and influential publications laid important foundations for modern biological and entomological research.

Together, the BHL community helped secure our independent future. Now we are inviting supporters to become BHL Sustainers and help provide the dependable monthly support needed to keep biodiversity knowledge free and open.