Restoring access to the biocultural collection at the missouri botanical garden [the biocultural collection at the missouri botanical garden includes plant-based arts, crafts, tools, foods, medicines,…

The Missouri Botanical Garden received a $314,011 Project Grant award from the National Endowment for the Humanities under the Promotion of the Humanities Division of Preservation and Access program (CFDA 45.149) to restore and increase access to its biocultural collection. Key deliverables include cataloging approximately 12,000 cultural artifacts, retaining specialized staff, and improving the Tropicos botanical database to integrate artifact information and enhance usability. Funding will support curating the collection, hosting a virtual lecture series, and hiring a research specialist and interns to catalog artifacts and ethnobotany data over a two-year period ending September 2023. No subrecipients were specified.

Activities

  a researcher and a senior staff member would be retained, a research specialist?would be?hired, and four interns?would be employed?to engage in catalog and collection curation & nbsp; of & nbsp;10,000 biocultural artifacts and associated ethnobotany data and collections.  tropicos, the?applicant?s?online botanical database, will be improved to & nbsp; better integrate cultural artifact information and catalog functionality while?improving usability.?in addition, the organization would also?host a virtual lecture series about?biocultural artifacts.?&nbsp

Expected outcomes

?the improvements should & nbsp; restore and enhance preservation of and access to & nbsp; more than 10,000 & nbsp; cultural artifacts, the creation and retention of specialized positions, the resumption of public programming, and the creation of a novel functionality to integrate a plant-based cultural collection within & nbsp; the & nbsp; botanical database,  tropicos.&nbsp

Intended beneficiaries

  researchers will benefit from the & nbsp; cataloging of the biocultural artifacts and the & nbsp; improvement of the & nbsp; tropicos & nbsp; database, one of the most outstanding research resources of its kind, averaging more than 178,000?uses?per day and,?which since 1982,?has been an essential tool to broadening public access to the garden?s research programs and?history of?science collections.  the general public will benefit from the virtual lecture series & nbsp; which will be & nbsp; available to all online.&nbsp

Subrecipient activities

?the recipient does not intend to subaward funds. ]