Selected Presentations

"Names to conjure with: Correspondence between the Union Pacific Railroad and the Carnegie Museum regarding free transportation of dinosaur collectors and specimens," presented at the symposium, "Railroads and Dinosaurs in the American West," sponsored by the American Heritage Center and the University of Wyoming Geological Museum, Laramie, WY, February 21, 2006. http://ahc.uwyo.edu/eduoutreach/symposiums/2006/default.htm

"Plaster and Dynamite: Using Field Correspondence from the Carnegie Dinosaur Expeditions as Evidence of Paleontological Rivalries in the Early 20th Century." Society of American Archivists, New Orleans, 20 August 2005.

"Nature's Mirror: Trends and Technologies in Early Natural History Illustration" presented at the symposium "Inspired by Nature: The Art of The Natural History Book" sponsored by the Providence Athenaeum in collaboration with the Edna Lawrence Nature Lab and the Rhode Island School of Design, 6 November 2004.
http://www.providenceathenaeum.org/programs/symposium.htm

"The Cost of Scientific Discovery: Funding and Financial Accountability of the Early Carnegie Museum Expeditions." presented at the MARAC (Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference) conference in Pittsburgh, 2 October 2004.

"Border Disputes: Museum Collection Records in the Institutional Archives." Midwest Archivist Conference, Rapid City, South Dakota, October 2002

"No, You Can't Have That! Challenges in Creating Web-accessible Archival Resources in Natural History Collections." Natural Science Collections Alliance, Washington, DC, June 2002.

"Drawing Conclusions: Botanical Illustration As Documentation." New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY, May 2002.

"An Accumulation of Truth: Museum Archives and Institutional Memory." Society of American Archivists Annual Conference, Washington, DC, August 2001. 

"Institutional Archives - They Ain't Necessarily Old."  Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries Annual Conference, Denver, CO, June 2001.

"Mr. Carnegie's Collectors."  Pittsburgh Bibliophiles, Pittsburgh, April 2000.

"Past Practices: Documenting an Institution's History Through Its recordkeeping Systems."  MARAC (Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference), University Park, PA, May 1999.

"Is It Real Or Is It Digitized?"  Drawing from Nature: Art and Illustration in the Natural History Sciences, Society for the History of Natural History, London, April 1999.

"Published Botanical Illustration as Evidence of the Introduction of American Plant Material into Europe." Society for the History of Natural History, International Meeting, University of Virginia, Charlotte, VA, April 1997.

"Naming the Unknown: Traditions in Museum Cataloging." University of Pittsburgh, School of Information Sciences, February 1997.

"The Explorer and the Marketplace: Plant Hunting and Introduction in the 19th Century." Watkinson Library, Trinity College, Hartford, CT, April 1996.

"Travelers’ Tales: Introduction of Economically Important Plants." Phipps Conservatory, Pittsburgh, PA, November 1995.

"Themes in Nineteenth-century American Horticultural Literature." Horticultural Society of New York, New York, NY, February 1994.

"Designing Conservation Surveys," [with J. A. Reed] Restoration '93, Boston, MA, December 1993.

"Stewardship and Access: Conservation Surveys and Collaboration between Curators and Conservators." University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Library and Information Science. Pittsburgh, PA, June 1992.

"Recording the Unknown: The Botanical Collector as Artist." The University Club, New York, NY, April 1992.

"Collecting Collectors: A Century of Building the Research Collections at the New York Botanical Garden." The Pittsburgh Bibliophiles, Pittsburgh, PA, February 1992.

"Names of Power: Information Needs of Botanical Taxonomy." Information Technology Center, Carnegie Mellon University. Pittsburgh, PA, December 1991.

"Plants and Patterns: Published Botanical Illustrations and the Decorative Arts." Cooper-Hewitt Museum. New York, NY, June 1991.

"The Continuing Tradition of Botanical Illustration," as part of The City and the Humanities Lecture series, Lehman College. Bronx, NY, April 1990.

"Patronage and Botanical Illustration: Publication of Illustrated Botanical Books in 18th-century France." The Pforzheimer Lecture on Printing and the Book Arts. New York Public Library. New York, NY, May 1989.

"The Biased Artifact: The Use of Photography in the Documentation of Natural History." The Sixth Winterthur Garden Conference. Winterthur, DE, April 1989.

"Reflections of the Ancients: The Illustrated Herbal in the 15th and 16th Centuries." In conjunction with the co-curated exhibition "Medieval and Renaissance Medical Illustration." Palmer Museum of Art, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, July 1988.

"Creating Library Directories from Computer Databases." Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries Annual Meeting, Chapel Hill, NC, April 1987.

"Medical Herbals." University of Pittsburgh History of Medicine and Health Care, Pittsburgh, PA. February 1986.

"Unsuspected Aspects of Kate Greenaway." College Club. Pittsburgh, PA, April 1985.

"Early Plant Collections at Phipps." Phipps Conservatory, Pittsburgh, PA, December 1981.

"Preservation Basics: Why and How." [with J. Gunner]. CAMLS (Cleveland Area Library System). Cleveland, OH, November 1981.

"Library Conservation." Pennsylvania Library Association, Lehigh Valley Chapter. Reading, PA, May 1981.

"Persistence of Ephemera." Symposium on History in the Service of Systematics, Society for the Bibliography of Natural History and The Systematics Society, British Museum (Natural History), London, England, April 1981.

"Conservation: Theory and Technique." [with J. Gunner]. University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Library and Information Science Colloquium, Pittsburgh, PA,   January 1980.

"Compilers and Sources of the English Herbal." Society for the Bibliography of Natural History, Linnean Society of London, London, England, April 1977.

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