{"id":2207,"date":"2019-04-22T13:37:24","date_gmt":"2019-04-22T17:37:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sycdev.nybg.org\/science2\/?p=2207"},"modified":"2026-03-17T16:03:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T20:03:07","slug":"introducing-the-hand-lens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/introducing-the-hand-lens\/","title":{"rendered":"Introducing The Hand Lens"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For the past 25 years, The New York Botanical Garden Herbarium has been digitizing our collections and making them freely available online through the C. V. Starr Virtual Herbarium.\u00a0 This incredible resource documents the world&#8217;s biodiversity and is the foundation of many different types of research projects.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But what do you do if you&#8217;re interesting in learning more about the collections, but you don&#8217;t know where to start?\u00a0 How do you find something of interest buried in a resource of 4 million objects? That&#8217;s where <em><a href=\"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/the-hand-lens\/\">The Hand Lens<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>comes in.\u00a0 This resource provides interpretive information about individual specimens, collectors and uses of these data geared towards a general audience.<\/p>\n<p>Why call it\u00a0<em>The Hand Lens<\/em>?\u00a0 For anyone who has taken an introductory botany class, the first item you usually need to buy is a hand lens.\u00a0 It only costs a few dollars and it is just a simple magnifier that helps you easily see smaller plant features up close.\u00a0 I never saw my botany professor without one.\u00a0 Because the collection isn&#8217;t open to the public, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/the-hand-lens\/\">The Hand Lens<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>is our way of helping the public take a closer look at our specimens and hear the stories behind the collections.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This resource is a labor of love for the entire Herbarium staff and we hope you enjoy reading these stories as much as much as we enjoy telling them.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>To get started, read more about the the <a href=\"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/the-hand-lens\/explore\/narratives-details\/?irn=7196\">Brittons<\/a>, the botanists who founded the Garden.<\/p>\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For the past 25 years, The New York Botanical Garden Herbarium has been digitizing our collections and making them freely available online through the C. V. Starr Virtual Herbarium.\u00a0 This incredible resource documents the world&#8217;s biodiversity and is the foundation&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1706,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-virtual-herbarium"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Introducing The Hand Lens - The William &amp; Lynda Steere Herbarium<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Hand Lens\u00a0is our way of helping the public take a closer look at our specimens and hear the stories behind the collections.\u00a0\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/introducing-the-hand-lens\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Introducing The Hand Lens - The William &amp; Lynda Steere Herbarium\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Hand Lens\u00a0is our way of helping the public take a closer look at our specimens and hear the stories behind the collections.\u00a0\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/introducing-the-hand-lens\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The William &amp; Lynda Steere Herbarium\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-04-22T17:37:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-17T20:03:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/DSC_0058.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"5000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2206\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Melissa Tulig\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Melissa Tulig\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/introducing-the-hand-lens\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/introducing-the-hand-lens\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Melissa Tulig\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/#\/schema\/person\/51a96de68d555eed20f3d46c2135afde\"},\"headline\":\"Introducing The Hand Lens\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-04-22T17:37:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-17T20:03:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/introducing-the-hand-lens\/\"},\"wordCount\":250,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/introducing-the-hand-lens\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/DSC_0058.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\",\"Virtual Herbarium\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/introducing-the-hand-lens\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/introducing-the-hand-lens\/\",\"name\":\"Introducing The Hand Lens - The William &amp; Lynda Steere Herbarium\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/introducing-the-hand-lens\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/introducing-the-hand-lens\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/DSC_0058.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-04-22T17:37:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-17T20:03:07+00:00\",\"description\":\"The Hand Lens\u00a0is our way of helping the public take a closer look at our specimens and hear the stories behind the collections.\u00a0\u00a0\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/introducing-the-hand-lens\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/introducing-the-hand-lens\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/introducing-the-hand-lens\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/DSC_0058.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/DSC_0058.jpg\",\"width\":5000,\"height\":2206,\"caption\":\"The Hand Lens water lily\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/introducing-the-hand-lens\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Introducing The Hand Lens\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/\",\"name\":\"The William &amp; Lynda Steere Herbarium\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The William & Lynda Steere Herbarium\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/logo.png\",\"width\":995,\"height\":243,\"caption\":\"The William & Lynda Steere Herbarium\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/#\/schema\/person\/51a96de68d555eed20f3d46c2135afde\",\"name\":\"Melissa Tulig\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/author\/mtulig\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Introducing The Hand Lens - The William &amp; Lynda Steere Herbarium","description":"The Hand Lens\u00a0is our way of helping the public take a closer look at our specimens and hear the stories behind the collections.\u00a0\u00a0","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/introducing-the-hand-lens\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Introducing The Hand Lens - The William &amp; Lynda Steere Herbarium","og_description":"The Hand Lens\u00a0is our way of helping the public take a closer look at our specimens and hear the stories behind the collections.\u00a0\u00a0","og_url":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/introducing-the-hand-lens\/","og_site_name":"The William &amp; Lynda Steere Herbarium","article_published_time":"2019-04-22T17:37:24+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-03-17T20:03:07+00:00","og_image":[{"width":5000,"height":2206,"url":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/DSC_0058.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Melissa Tulig","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Melissa Tulig","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/introducing-the-hand-lens\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/introducing-the-hand-lens\/"},"author":{"name":"Melissa Tulig","@id":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/#\/schema\/person\/51a96de68d555eed20f3d46c2135afde"},"headline":"Introducing The Hand Lens","datePublished":"2019-04-22T17:37:24+00:00","dateModified":"2026-03-17T20:03:07+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/introducing-the-hand-lens\/"},"wordCount":250,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/introducing-the-hand-lens\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/DSC_0058.jpg","articleSection":["News","Virtual Herbarium"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/introducing-the-hand-lens\/","url":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/introducing-the-hand-lens\/","name":"Introducing The Hand Lens - The William &amp; Lynda Steere Herbarium","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/introducing-the-hand-lens\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/introducing-the-hand-lens\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/DSC_0058.jpg","datePublished":"2019-04-22T17:37:24+00:00","dateModified":"2026-03-17T20:03:07+00:00","description":"The Hand Lens\u00a0is our way of helping the public take a closer look at our specimens and hear the stories behind the collections.\u00a0\u00a0","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/introducing-the-hand-lens\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/introducing-the-hand-lens\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/introducing-the-hand-lens\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/DSC_0058.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/DSC_0058.jpg","width":5000,"height":2206,"caption":"The Hand Lens water lily"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/introducing-the-hand-lens\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Introducing The Hand Lens"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/","name":"The William &amp; Lynda Steere Herbarium","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/#organization","name":"The William & Lynda Steere Herbarium","url":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/logo.png","width":995,"height":243,"caption":"The William & Lynda Steere Herbarium"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/#\/schema\/person\/51a96de68d555eed20f3d46c2135afde","name":"Melissa Tulig","url":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/author\/mtulig\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2207"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5764,"href":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2207\/revisions\/5764"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sweetgum.nybg.org\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}