“As far as we know, all were collected in Royalston,” said Hickler adding that many earlier collections (by Bates), mostly from Vermont, also exist at regional herbaria such as Harvard University.

The Royalston Bates collection was probably installed in the library when it was opened in 1911, according to Phineas S. Newton Library Director Kathy Morris.

“The north room of the new Phinehas S. Newton Library was the Royalston Museum, which housed several different collections,” said Morris. “Cabinets in the room had shelving for botanical specimens so it’s probable that he had offered his collection before the library was built and spaces to house his botanical specimens were built into the new library as it was being constructed. He more than likely added more specimens to the collection before he died. They (the specimens) are in very good condition for being stored in a wooden cabinet for over 110 years.

“When I first started work at the library, there was the herbarium, a rock and mineral collection, an insect collection, Civil War memorabilia, and a couple of antique dolls and doll clothing. Most of the insect collection was badly damaged and all but the herbarium were transferred to the Royalston Historical Society,” she continued. “When I began work at the library I investigated what was in each of the cabinets and drawers in the building and was fascinated by the herbarium. I have an interest in plants and was excited to share their existence.”

“We are very fortunate to have had two very prominent botanists in town: Matt Hickler and the late Elizabeth Farnsworth. They too were excited about the collection and they set out to verify the identity of each specimen and we were alerted to the fact that Bates was a respected botanist as well as a minister,” Morris said. “It has been a long-term goal to have the specimens digitized and it was fun to work with Matt and Nancy (Hickler) to make that happen. Having Matt and Nancy share my enthusiasm for the project and working diligently to make it happen, has been a pleasure. Matt took on the ambitious task of creating a database for all 444 specimens with the zeal of the committed and professional botanist that he is.”

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“I was delighted to find this hidden treasure documenting the flora of Royalston from more than 100 years ago. It was a real treasure to find it. It’s a bit of history, a snapshot as to where plants were 100 years ago,” said Hickler, adding that he, Robert Bertin and the late Elizabeth Farnsworth worked at the library, reviewing and preserving the collection.

“We checked most, but not all, of the specimens and added annotation labels to the sheets with updated information on identification and names,” Hickler said.

“More recently, in anticipation of bringing the specimens to UMass for digitizing and making them part of the digital collections with the Consortium of Northeastern Herbaria, I went through all of the sheets and repaired those needing work,” he said.

Hickler, his wife Nancy and Morris brought the collection to the Umass Amherst Botany Department. Tristram Seidler, the herbarium curator and botany professor, assisted in scanning the collection and adding it to the online collection. He said the scanning took one day and many additional hours were spent entering data, processing the images and uploading them to the Consortium of Northeastern Herbaria, one of many regional herbarium networks..

The website is free and allows searching for subsets of interest.

“If you want to see only specimens in the Bates collection, you can limit the search to a particular herbarium. We are listed as the ‘James A. Bates Herbarium,’” Hickler said.

Botanists still collect plants, but not as many as were collected in the heyday of botanical exploration in the early 1900s, according to Hickler.

“Specimens collected today are collected the same as was done historically, but we tend to collect more strategically today, for specific purposes,” he said. “For instance as part of a county flora, or to document the first occurrence of an invasive species that is expanding its range, or a plant whose presence in a particular place is particularly noteworthy.”

There will be displays of some of the Bates specimens at different events and on a seasonal basis. The James Bate Collection can be viewed at https://tinyurl.com/2z983xvw.

Carla Charter is a freelance writer from Phillipston. Her writing focuses on the history of the North Quabbin area. Contact her at cjfreelancewriter@earthlink.net.