Using the Ehrenberg Collection

The Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg Collection at the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin holds type specimens and original material for thousands of taxa of microscopic organisms. Ehrenberg did not explicitly designate types for his many taxa, or label types in his collection. This, and the rather complex, sample oriented organisation of the materials makes using the collection more difficult. Nonetheless, through the use of unpublished taxonomic and geographic index volumes compiled by Ehrenberg's daughter Clara, by examination of unpublished notations made by Ehrenberg on his original drawings, and by examination of other documentation in the collection it is usually possible to locate both the original type specimen and unprocessed original material for new studies. Clara Ehrenberg's index volumes have now been scanned and placed onto a CD-ROM which can be ordered from the senior author.