The Botany Department's unique type photograph collection originated in 1929 when J. Francis Macbride, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, traveled to Europe to photograph herbarium specimens of nomenclatural types. The intent was to make the photographs available to American botanists unable to finance travels to European herbaria; the widespread adoption of the loan process was not as fully developed as it is today, necessitating travel for consultation. Over a ten year period, Macbride photographed type specimens of tropical American plants at the following major herbaria: B, C, G, HAN, HBG, MA, M, P, and W, using Berlin-Dahlem and Geneva as bases of operation. His sojourn in Europe resulted in more than 40,000 photographic negatives, and duplicate collections, types, and type fragments of authentic material which were selected and sent to The Field Museum as exchange. The results were of immediate importance to American systematic botany, but acquired added meaning following the destruction of parts of some European herbaria during World War II. In some instances, the only visual record of a species is one of these photographic prints. The Type Photograph Collection now consists of more than 65,000 negatives. Continuous additions to this collection are made primarily by systematically photographing types in The Field Museum's vascular plant herbarium as well as types and authentic specimens received on loan from other institutions. The collection data for all of these are in database form. Go to the Department of Botany Photography Archives Database to search Erythroxylum Type Specimen Photos. Other Botany Collections: Botany Herbarium | Fungi | Lichens | Algae | Bryophytes | Pteridophytes | Gymnosperms | Flowering Plants | Timothy C. Plowman Economic Botany Collection | Type Photograph Collection