The historical archive - the national nature collections
The National Nature Collections have a rich history. The collections were established at the beginning of the 20th century by the pioneers of nature research in the Land of Israel and the first researchers at the Hebrew University.
Over the years, many materials of various kinds were collected alongside the items of the collections themselves - tour diaries, letters, photographs, illustrations, teaching materials and more. These materials illuminate the history of the study of nature in the country in the 20th century.
The work on establishing a historical archive of the national natural collections began in January 2020. The collection of plants (the herbarium) was chosen to start the project because of the large scope of the historical materials in it. In the following years, the work will expand to handle the materials kept in the other collections.
The materials in the collection touch on many fields: the history of the Hebrew University and science in the Zionist movement, environmental history (forestry, drying Lake Hula, nature conservation), history of Zionism and the Middle East, ethnobotany and more.
Researchers interested in conducting research on the archive materials are invited to contact Dr. Naomi Yuval-Naeh, the curator of the archive. We will be happy to be in touch regarding possible collaborations.
If you have historical materials relevant to the collection, please contact Tair Rochman, the manager of the archive.
For more information regarding the herbarium archive, visit the herbarium archive page.
You are invited to view scanned materials from the archive on the library authority website.
The archive of the plant collection (the herbarium)
You are invited to view scanned materials from the archive on the library authority website.
The herbarium archive collection includes:
- Personal-research archives: Otto Warburg, Alexander Ig, Naomi Feinbrunn-Dotan, Michael Zahari, David Zaitschek, Hillel Oppenheimer, Clara Chen, among others.
- Historical documentation of the herbarium and the department of botany: notebooks (tour diaries, registration of the loan of herbarium sheets, Hebrew-Arabic place names and more), department meetings, reports, teaching materials, research materials.
- A collection of photographs and slides: Otto Warburg's materials from his journey in East Asia (late 19th century), photographs of the Department of Botany's tours in Israel and neighboring countries (1920s to 1950s).
- Flora Palestine: documentation of the "Flora Palestine" work process (1966-1986). Species lists, glosses, and botanical illustrations (drafts and final versions).
- Bequest of Alexander and Ita Ig: materials in the possession of the Ig family and donated by them. The estate contains many tour diaries from the Land of Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Turkey, and Tunisia (20-30s), research materials, letters, photographs, and biographical material collected by the widow of Prof. Alexander Ig.
The archive of the zoological collections
Currently, a preliminary review of the materials of these collections has been made, and it is difficult to estimate their scope. The materials include letters, photographs, laboratory diaries and tours, scientific illustrations, teaching materials.
Subjects of special interest: Hula Lake before drying (the fish collection), research tours (photographs and notebooks - from the 1920s).