Press Kit Images: Lichen Discovery

  • Specimen of Leptogium corticola
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    Specimen of Leptogium corticola, a pollution and disturbance sensitive species, collected by Abraham Halsey on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in 1820. Halsey worked through his identifications of this specimen when he borrowed a colleague's reference collection on loan from North Carolina via stagecoach.

  • Specimen of Iceland Moss
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    A page Halsey's lost collections showing a specimen of Iceland Moss (Cetraria islandica) he bought in a store in New York City (lower left), the original specimen of the threatened species Vulpicida viridis (upper right), and of Tuckermanopsis ciliaris from Kingston, New York.

  • Lungwort (Lobaria pulmonaria) specimen
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    A page of Halsey's lost collection show specimens of old-growth forest lichens, including the iconic Lungwort (Lobaria pulmonaria) collected in Manhattan in the 1820'S. Lungwort is used by many states, including the New York Natural Heritage Program, to map and recognize remaining old growth forests.

  • Old-growth forest lichen Arthothelium spectabile
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    The first page of from Halsey's lost collection including specimens of the old-growth forest lichen Arthothelium spectabile collected in Manhattan.

  • Tweed Courthouse in City Hall Park in Manhattan
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    Tweed Courthouse in City Hall Park in Manhattan. The site of the original building where the New York Lyceum met and where Halsey stored his collection.
    (Photo coutesy of James Lendemer)

See also:

Newspaper image of the fire from 1866.
https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e0-ce41-a3d9-e040-e00a18...