The Field Notes Project collection is now over 400 items strong! We are excited by our progress and to share these field books to the global natural history community. For our feature this month, I would like to highlight some of the unexpected or eye-catching pages our digitization teams have come across so far.

Schuchert, Charles. Field Notebook: Bermuda, New Brunswick, Quebec, Vermont 1929. (1929) http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/53322443. Digitized by Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History.

This photo of a dune structure initially caught my eye because it’s a great looking photo, but then I noticed the bike for scale and it was even more impressive than it already was! The accompanying caption notes the structure is just north of Pembroke Marsh in Bermuda.

Schuchert, Charles. Field Notebook: Florida. 1911, 1912. (1911-1912) http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/53475959. Digitized by Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History.

This newspaper clipping was also inserted in one of Charles Schuchert’s field books. The other side of the page has an article about the completion of the Florida East Coast Railway to Key West, but the true star is this piece on the latest New York dance craze, The Turkey Trot.

Bryan, Edwin Horace. Chronological summary and guide to Whitney Expedition journals. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/53430449. Digitized by the American Museum of Natural History.

The cover of this summary takes advantage of the American Museum of Natural History’s pre-printed address labels. The illustrated horse and human look like the skeletal version of a 18th-century battle painting. That’s bit war heavy, so I’d like to think they are just really excited to collect in the field!

George Engelmann : botanical notebook 5 : Mammilaria, Leuchtenbergia, Discocactus, and Melocactus. Box 3: Folder 13: Cactaceae: Mammillaria: 1857-1883. (1856) http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/52030722 Digitized by the Missouri Botanical Garden Peter H. Raven Library.

George Engelmann’s field books have a number of illustrations, but I find myself coming back to this small cactus for no other reason than it’s a cute little drawing.

Grinnell, Joseph. Notebook #1: Los Angeles County, California, 1894-1895. (1894-1895) Contributed by Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley.

This notebook from Joseph Grinnell’s college years may not be initially eye catching, but considering his famed note-taking style, I knew it would be intriguing upon reading. I found he could be very expressive in style in his diary entries. In this page he notes seeing a Parkman’s wren and how it was “hollering for all it’s worth.” I wonder if the wren ever found the mate he was surely trying to attract. In the next entry he shows great pleasure in the clear, warm weather. Considering it was March in Los Angeles County, I can imagine it was “fine collecting weather” indeed.

There’s plenty more to discover in the BHL Field Notes Collection. Let us know what piques your interest!

The BHL Field Notes Project is funded by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR).

BHL member and affiliates met in New York City for the 2014 Annual Meeting (10-11 March 2014). The annual meeting is a chance for the leaders of BHL members and affiliates to learn what is happening around BHL and to give updates from their own institutions.

This year, the meeting was held jointly by the New York Botanical Garden and the American Museum of Natural History. The first day of meetings was hosted by Susan Fraser, Director of the LuEsther T. Mertz Library of the New York Botanical Garden. The morning session of the meeting included the 2014 BHL Program Director’s Report by Martin R. Kalfatovic; an update on user engagement from Carolyn Sheffield (BHL Program Manager); an overview of BHL technical activities from William Ulate (BHL Technical Director); and a report on the recent Global BHL meetings and membership committee report by Vice-Chair Connie Rinaldo. Bob Corrigan, Director of Operations for the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL), also joined the meeting to give an update on EOL activities. Gregory Long, President and CEO of the New York Botanical Garden, welcomed the BHL members.

Attending the meeting were representatives from fifteen of the sixteen BHL members, including the three most recent members, Washington University of St. Louis, The National Library Board, Singapore (BHL Singapore), and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Our newest affiliate, the Natural History Museum, Los Angeles County, also attended.

The business portion of the meeting took place the following day at the American Museum of Natural History, hosted by Tom Baione, the Harold Boeschenstein Director of the AMNH Research Library. Tom also gave the group a tour of Natural Histories: Exploring Rare Books and Scientific Illustration exhibition, based on his book of the same title.

Pictured above are the meeting attendees:

Front Row, left to right: Susan Fraser (NYBG), Chris Mills (Kew), Christine Giannoni (Field Museum), Tomoko Steen (Library of Congress), Eric Chin (BHL Singapore), Nancy Gwinn (Smithsonian Libraries), Cathy Buckwalter (ANSP), Judy Warnement (Harvard Botany Libraries).

Second Row, left to right: Tom Baione (AMNH), Marty Schlabach (Cornell), Connie Rinaldo (Harvard/Museum of Comparative Zoology), Carolyn Sheffield (BHL Program Manager), Diane Reilinger (MBL/WHOI), Richad Hulser (NHMLAC).

Third Row, left to right: Kelli Trei (UIUC), Doug Holland (Missouri Botanical Garden), Chris Freeland (Washington University).

Back Row, left to right: William Ulate (BHL Technical Director), Martin R. Kalfatovic (BHL Program Director).

NOT PICTURED: Jane Smith (Natural History Museum, London). Photograph taken at the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, New York Botanical Garden.