Question 23: Help finding collections from a 1938 FM expedition to Guyana [ZK - Action]

[rondlg]

Description: Sorry---this is going to be kind of a long one. We are interested in finding all the collections (catalog records) made during the 1938 FM Sewell Avery expedition to Guyana that took place very close to where our upcoming RI in Guyana will take place. The main organizer and collector on that expedition was Emmet R. Blake. My strategy was to look for everything collected by Emmet Blake (including variations of that name) and also look for collections from a number of Guyanese localities in the area we are interested in to see if they were made by another collector. I do see an Event record in EMu for this expedition (Event IRN 6251), but nothing is attached to it.

• When I search the Specimen tab (Catalog module) for Collector = E. R. Blake I get 6012 catalog records
• When I search the Collection tab (CE module) for Participant = E. R. Blake I get 6514 CE records > select all > view attachments > catalog > view > I get 6295 catalog records
• When I search the Parties module for records that include Emmet Blake, I see 18 possible records. When I view attachments for all 18 of these records I get 6495 catalog records
• When I search the zoology collections portal for E. R. Blake, I get 6251 catalog records. There were no records from botanical collections.
• When I search the Locality field (Sites module) for localites: Itabu, Pairima, Phantom Falls, Oronoque, Calf Bird, Ashiru Falls I get 33 site records > view attachments > catalog > view > I get 568 catalog records (all were collected by Blake)
• I took the unique catalog IRNs from all these different searches, which is 6752, and put them into a Group (IRN 16917)
• This question is also being tracked in Help Desk ticket #69293

My questions are:

1. Is there a better way for me to do this? I get a different number of records with every method I use, and none of the methods include all of the catalog records. I know that IT is working on a universal solution to this issue, so if the answer is that we're still working on it, that's fine by me, I just wanted to make sure.
2. Are these all the collections made by Emmet Blake?
3. Are there collections made by other people during this expedition that I'm missing?
4. Are there collections from this expedition (or Blake) that haven’t been digitized yet?

[rondlg]

Response:

• Guyana [seed plants] - on their way to EMu in the next few months
• • Other Botany areas also on the way to EMu
• • Some data in GBIF and making its way back to EMu
• Standardization in process –
• e.g. to consolidate Catalogue ‘Collector’ & ‘other’ fields
• Consolidated / FMNH Master Parties exists for Emmet Blake (FMNH Master IRN 133031)