New York State Museum Lichen Collection (NYS)

The Museum's Biological Collections include two and a half million specimens collected over more than two centuries of research. They record the rich diversity, complex biogeography, and change over time in New York's populations of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, fish, mollusks, crustaceans, insects, vascular plants, fungi, mosses, and other living things. Outstanding 19th century collections include some of the oldest North American plant specimens and thousands of type specimens gathered and described by pioneering naturalists such as mycologist Charles Horton Peck and entomologist Asa Fitch. The Natural History Illustration Collection comprises tens of thousands of drawings, paintings, and sculptures that illuminate the scientific characteristics and innate beauty of New York's living natural world.