Miss Josephine E. Tilden (1879-1957) was an expert on algal diversity and the first woman employed at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA, where she taught and conducted research on freshwater and marine algae. Tilden travelled globally to collect algal specimens to support her scientific research and her specimens can be found in herbaria around the world.
In October 1934, Tilden conducted field work in Australia and New Zealand accompanied by 10 students from the University of Minnesota to collect algae for an exsiccatae. An exsiccatae is a collection of dried and pressed plant specimens that document the biodiversity of a geographical region. During their seven month tour the team collected approximately 20,000 specimens!
These specimens formed the basis of the South Pacific Plants exsiccatae Series One (1910,1912) and Series Two (1934-35), which includes a total of 540 herbarium specimens Sixty five sets of the exsiccatae were distributed to interested herbaria around the world by the herbarium at the Memorial University of Newfoundland (NFLD) between 1976 and 1979.
The University of Melbourne Herbarium (MELU) holds a set of the South Pacific Plants exsiccatae. The specimen data and images are now available for viewing as "Tilden's South Pacific Plants Collection" in the collection online. This collection provides a valuable record of the common species found at some important collecting sites in Australia and New Zealand during the early part of the twentieth century.
Acknowledgements: Curation work on The Tilden Collection was carried out by Margaret Brookes at MELU. Digital data for Josephine Tilden's specimens were kindly provided to MELU by the National Herbarium of Victoria (MEL).
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The marker icon indicates a single location where one or more objects were collected. Click to see more information. |
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A pink circle indicates two to nine proximal locations where objects were collected. Click on the circle or zoom to resolve the locations. |
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An orange circle indicates 10 to 99 proximal locations where objects were collected. Click on the circle or zoom to resolve the locations. |
