The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University’s (ANS) Botany (plants) Collection is more famously known in its field as the Philadelphia Herbarium (PH). The herbarium contains the Academy’s collections of plants (including fossils), algae, lichens, fungi, and slime molds. The 1.4 million specimens include some of the oldest and most important plant collections in the Americas and make the herbarium a global resource for research on these organisms.

The ANS Diatom Herbarium, one of the two largest in the world, includes approximately 252,000 permanent slides and 130,000 samples of recent and fossil diatoms collected from fresh, brackish, and marine habitats. In addition to its world coverage and inclusion of fossil diatoms, the herbarium has an extensive record of materials collected as part of environmental surveys of lakes, rivers and marine coasts conducted by Federal and State agencies, Academy employees, and other researchers throughout the United States. Often extending over decades, these surveys offer a unique resource to study long-term changes in diatom populations and ecology.

The Academy holds one of the larger and more taxonomically complete entomological collections in North America. It includes some of the earliest North American insect specimens, and some parts of the collection, such as the Orthoptera and related orders (grasshoppers, crickets, katydids, cockroaches, etc.) and the Entognatha (non-insect hexapods) rank among the best in the world. The collection is used by scientists worldwide in systematic and ecological research, in the education of Drexel University students, and in public programming at the Academy. Specimens predating the founding of the Academy in 1812 make this the oldest insect collection in the Americas.

The General Invertebrates Collection of over 25,000 lots of specimens includes 16 phyla, with major holdings in the Crustacea (crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, barnacles, etc.), Echinodermata (starfish, sea urchins, sand dollars, sea cucumbers), Annelida (segmented worms) and Cnidaria (coral, sea anemones, jellyfish, etc.). The collection, which contains dry, alcohol-preserved and prepared microscope slides is worldwide in scope, with an emphasis on the Eastern and Gulf Coast regions of the United States.

Gilmore,Ned
Collections Manager III

The Herpetology Collection at the Academy is one of the most historically important and biologically diverse collections of reptiles and amphibians in the world. The collection is of moderate size and world-wide in scope with a strong emphasis on specimens of the New World. Prominent in the collection, and a special reason for its great value, are the types of more than 500 named forms, including many primary types or the first scientifically named specimens. The current catalogues of the collection were begun around 1897 when Henry Weed Fowler became curator of "cold-blooded" vertebrates. Today the collection is completely databased and contains more than 40,000 specimens. It continues to grow and serve as a valuable tool to modern biological research.

The Ichthyology Department is home to one of the most important collections of preserved fishes in the Americas with an estimated 1.6 million specimens representing more than 15,000 species from waters throughout the world. The collection’s strengths span both taxonomy (how fishes are classified) and geography (where they come from). For example, the collection has a rich diversity of catfishes (Order Siluriformes), minnows (Cypriniformes) and eels (Anguilliformes) from around the world. Geographically, its strengths include freshwater species of North and South America and marine species of the Western Atlantic and Indian Oceans.

The ANS Invertebrate Paleontology Collection is the oldest Invertebrate Paleontology collection in the country, and the collection’s history goes back to the founding of the Academy. The collection is estimated to contain over 1 million invertebrate specimens, including 5,000 types from over 100 authors, many of them the earliest and most prominent scientists in American and British paleontology. Strengths of the collection are in Cenozoic and Cretaceous Mollusca of the New World, particularly the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains; Quaternary Mollusca worldwide; and the Mesozoic of England. About 75% of the collection is comprised of molluscan fossils.

The Department of Malacology at ANS houses the world’s fourth-largest mollusk collection with over 500,000 cataloged and digitized dry lots and substantial separate holdings of acquired material. The fluid-preserved collection contains more than 50,000 lots that are fully digitized and searchable online. Within the department, resources for researchers include dedicated study spaces and a comprehensive imaging center with macro- and micro-photography equipment and a Scanning Electron Microscope.

Gilmore,Ned
Collections Manager III

The Mammalogy Collection consists of over 25,000 catalogued specimens. From those specimens, there are approximately 21,500 skeletal preparations, 13,500 associated skins and 1,700 wet-preserved specimens. Among these are over 180 primary types, or the first named species of that kind of mammal. The taxonomic and geographic scope of the collection is exceptional, especially considering its relatively small size. Taxonomic strengths include carnivores, bovids, and primates. The geographic distribution of specimen localities generally reflect the major historical collecting expeditions by the Academy’s past members. The collections from Tibet, Central America and Indonesia are particularly unique and scientifically valuable. Specimens from across the U.S. are well represented, particularly the New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware areas. Many North American mammals, especially large carnivores, are from localities where those animals no longer occur.

The Ornithology Collection is one of the 10 largest collections of birds in the world. There are over 215,000 study skins from more than 8,000 species, and over 22,000 tissue samples, making it one of the most taxonomically complete collections of birds. In addition to the traditional specimens collection, the Academy’s Ornithology Collection, includes a unique, first-of-its-kind complementary collection of over 200,000 taxonomically curated bird photographs. The photo collection is known as VIREO (VIsual REsoursces for Ornithology), and the digitized images are available online for educational and commercial use.

Gilmore,Ned
Collections Manager III

Vertebrate paleontology in the United States originated in Philadelphia through the efforts of physicians and natural historians associated with the American Philosophical Society and the Academy of Natural Sciences. Native Philadelphian, Joseph Leidy (1823–1891) was a particularly brilliant anatomist working at the Academy during the growth of paleontology as a scientific discipline. Many call Leidy the father of vertebrate paleontology in this country. Edward Drinker Cope, another Philadelphian, made tremendous contributions to vertebrate paleontology from his home base at the Academy. After a hiatus of almost a century, research in vertebrate paleontology is active again at the Academy.