Contact: info@natstand.org.uk

Updates & additions - August 2026

• The Small British Herbaria Project (SBHP)
  

  An index to the contents of 24 plant collections has now been restored to the internet (see panel to the right). This may be accessed from the "Links" button on the menu bar.

The intention of this initiative is to bring together biographical data for selected British naturalists. After ten years of additions we hope that the site can now be considered useful, it will never be complete and we hope to continue adding new material as and when it becomes available.

From time to time the format and organisation of the pages may change as we respond to technical challenges and new ideas. The part that will remain constant is the modular repository of pdf files, with unique and constant names, each of which will relate to a particular aspect or event in the life of a botanist, geologist, etc. The emphasis will always be on assembling well referenced material of a biographical nature. We will supplement this with links to "stable" and reputable internet resources and archives.

The material used will be either out of copyright or reproduced with the consent of the copyright holder (which will be made clear in the documents). We encourage the use of this material in any not-for-profit enterprises but would require that the Natstand project is acknowledged. Since there will be a constant updating to the content of the documents it is suggested that links to the material are used on other websites, etc, rather than copies. The URLs of the pdf documents will not change but the content may well be corrected and expanded.

Richard Middleton & James R. Middleton

• The Small British Herbaria Project (SBHP)
  

  Almost 20 years ago a project was launched, with the support of the BSBI and University of Hull, to use the fledgling internet as a vehicle for disseminating information about the specimens held in little-known UK herbaria, many of which contain interesting and historically significant records.

  The SBHP generated an index which eventually documented 95 377 specimens spread over 24 collections. It had been hoped that technology would progress in a way which would make the simple index obsolete - as indeed it has for the larger institutions - but this has not always the case for the smaller collections. Staff changes and financial constraints eventually led to the SBHP itself fading from public view.

  All of the original data has now been restored here and may be searched freely, although the online data entry and editing facilities offered by the project is not now available. Natstand would be particularly interested to hear from anyone with a catalogued collection which they would be prepared to share in a similar way.

The unknown naturalist - an homage those who have gone before us …