'Making the Invisible Visible' Highlights an Ambitious Digitization Project at Harvard

"In museums everywhere, collections departments are troves of historical objects, art, cultural artifacts, and scientific specimens. In our increasingly digital age, it's easy to forget that in many cases, a good amount-sometimes even the majority-of records are documented in heavy, physical catalogues or accession registers. And over the course of decades or even centuries, labels can get damaged, items can go awol, or in the worst case scenario, fire or water damage can destroy these valuable resources."

"In a sense, these analog databases are just as important as the objects they document, providing information about provenance and materials. In filing drawers, cases, and archival boxes, pieces are labeled one way or another. Archaeological potsherds, for example, may be labeled right on the piece with varnish and ink. At the Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology, tiny invertebrates are preserved alongside ornate, handwritten labels that harken back to our not-so-distant pre-digital age."

"A new exhibition, Making the Invisible Visible: Digitizing Invertebrates on Microscope Slides, highlights Harvard's diverse collection comprising more than 50,000 examples. Many are well over 100 years old, including a slide containing a soft coral specimen inscribed with, "sent to James Dwight Dana by Charles Darwin." The exhibition marks an extension of an ambitious project launched in 2024 to bring the collection into the 21st century by digitizing more than 3,000 specimens."

Analog museum catalogues and accession registers record provenance, materials, and object histories and often exist as heavy, physical records. Labels on objects and handwritten entries in filing drawers and archival boxes can degrade, be lost, or be destroyed by fire or water. Some specimens carry labels written directly on the object, including varnished ink on potsherds and ornate handwritten tags on microscope slides. Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology holds over 50,000 invertebrate microscope slides, many more than a century old, including a slide inscribed "sent to James Dwight Dana by Charles Darwin." A 2024 project aims to digitize thousands of specimens to increase accessibility and preservation.

Read at Colossal