From Plant Press, Vol. 26, No. 1, January 2023.
The United States National Herbarium made a surprise appearance on Apollo magazine’s shortlist for their annual awards. In the "Digital Innovation of the Year" category, the herbarium was recognized for completing its seven-year project to digitize its plant collections and making the comprehensive digital data catalogue of images of specimens and transcribed labels fully accessible to the public. Working with the Smithsonian Digitization Program Office, the herbarium digitized and transcribed more than 3.8 million specimens.
Founded in 1925, Apollo is one of the world’s oldest and most highly respected international magazines on the visual arts. The magazine has been recognizing major achievements in the arts for over 30 years, bestowing honors in the following categories: personality of the year, acquisition of the year, exhibition of the year, book of the year, museum opening of the year, digital innovation of the year, and artist of the year.
Sylvia Orli, the herbarium's digitization lead, commented, “We were quite tickled to be nominated for this award. We understand the value of the herbarium specimens to botanists around the world, but we did not realize that the art world was also paying attention to our efforts.”
Apollo announced its shortlists for each category on November 25, 2022, with the U.S. National Herbarium joining ArtCentrica, Ars Publicata, Art UK Sculpture, Artwrld, and Factum Foundation on the shortlist for "Digital Innovation of the Year." While Art UK Sculpture was the eventual winner at an Apollo Awards ceremony on December 6, the U.S. National Herbarium was honored to receive such recognition.
It's #BragFriday. So here we go: Apollo, the international art magazine, released its shortlist today for their annual awards and in the "Digital Innovation" category we're proud to say our Botany Department made the cut. 👏https://t.co/uxZyleI5l4 pic.twitter.com/WquhzZvfAs
— Smithsonian NMNH (@NMNH) November 25, 2022
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