Seaweed collecting is the process of

collecting The hobby of collecting includes seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining items that are of interest to an individual ''collector''. Collections differ in a wide variety of respects, most obvio ...

, drying, and pressing

seaweed Seaweed, or macroalgae, refers to thousands of species of macroscopic, multicellular, marine algae. The term includes some types of '' Rhodophyta'' (red), ''Phaeophyta'' (brown) and ''Chlorophyta'' (green) macroalgae. Seaweed species such as ...

. It became popular as a pastime in the

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...

and remains a

hobby A hobby is considered to be a regular activity that is done for enjoyment, typically during one's leisure time. Hobbies include collecting themed items and objects, engaging in creative and artistic pursuits, playing Sport, sports, or pursu ...

today.

History of seaweed collecting

Collecting seaweed can be traced back to at least the 17th century with the pressings found in

Hans Sloane Sir Hans Sloane, 1st Baronet (16 April 1660 – 11 January 1753), was an Irish physician, naturalist, and collector, with a collection of 71,000 items which he bequeathed to the British nation, thus providing the foundation of the British Mu ...

's Herbarium. The pastime became increasingly popular during the

Victorian Era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...

, where it played to the burgeoning interest in natural history and collection in general. It was especially fashionable with young women, as it allowed a greater level of personal freedom. Indeed, it was so in-style that, as a young girl,

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

created her own seaweed album. The materials needed for the hobby became readily available at seaside shops. These activities also afforded women the opportunity to display their understanding and appreciation of the natural world.

Anna Atkins Anna Atkins (née Children; 16 March 1799 – 9 June 1871) was an English botanist and photographer. She is often considered the first person to publish a book illustrated with photographic images. Some sources say that she was the first woma ...

, thought to be the first female photographer, published the first book using photographs as illustrations. This was ''Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions'' and contained pictures of seaweed. The actions of some of the collectors earned them recognition and admiration from their male, professional counterparts. These Victorian collections form valuable historical resources for morphological studies and from which

genomic Genomics is an interdisciplinary field of biology focusing on the structure, function, evolution, mapping, and editing of genomes. A genome is an organism's complete set of DNA, including all of its genes as well as its hierarchical, three-dim ...

DNA can be extracted.

Seaweed collecting equipment

In his 1881 book, A.B. Hervey recommended the following equipment for collecting and pressing seaweed.

References

{{Reflist, 2

External links

Digitised seaweed collections
at the Brooklyn Museum Phycology Collecting

History of seaweed collecting

Seaweed collecting equipment

See also

References

External links