Plants and Planter: Henry William Ravenel and the Convergence of Science and Agriculture in the Nineteenth-Century South

FAIN: PW-51607-14

University of South Carolina (Columbia, SC 29208-0001)
Henry Fulmer (Project Director: July 2013 to September 2016)
Colin Wilder (Co Project Director: July 2014 to September 2016)

The digitization and reunification of over 6,200 plant specimens and nearly 5,000 pages of documents collected or created by South Carolinian naturalist Henry William Ravenel (1814-1887). The resulting digital collection will allow full-text searching and browsing by subject heading for archival materials and provide a map to browse the locations where botanical specimens were collected.

Plants and Planter explores the life, business pursuits, and natural history interests of South Carolina planter, botanist, and agricultural writer Henry William Ravenel (1814-1887). Digitizing and reuniting over 6,200 botanical specimens collected by Ravenel with his voluminous and multifaceted journals and other primary source materials totaling almost 5,000 pages. Plants and Planter will digitize fragile archival and specimen materials; OCR text of archival materials to allow for full-text searching and geographic information visualization; establish a Web site accessible by the general public as well as researchers and students and powered by the Drupal 7 content management system which will unite the digitized materials and interpretive texts in an easy-to-use interface allowing for keyword and full-text searching, thematic browsing, and mapping of specimen locations. The Web site will allow for the research and teaching of 19th-century natural science and regional history.