Last featured in the 9-28-2018 Scout Report, this digital history project is still a valuable resource for readers interested in primary source documents related to the history of botanical sciences.
Henry William Ravenel was a South Carolina field botanist, mycologist, naturalist, and author who lived during the Antebellum period and became "one of the most prominent botanists of the 19th century," with the fungi genus ravenelii bearing his name. He was also a prolific journal-keeper and correspondent, and today his journals can be read and searched online at Plants & Planter, a project hosted by the University of South Carolina's Center for Digital Humanities. In addition to Ravenel's journals, visitors to Plants & Planter will find hundreds of letters between Ravenel and other naturalists, images of plant specimens from his voluminous herbarium, and maps depicting Ravenel's travels, correspondence, and plant collections. This project also showcases all five volumes of Ravenel's book Fungi of Carolina, as well as his personal album of portraits. Launched in 2016, Plants & Planter was created in partnership between the University of South Carolina, Clemson University Libraries, Converse College, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and the A.C. Moore Herbarium, and it was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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