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New Collection in DRI – A Digital Botanical Archive of Robert Lloyd Praeger

Submitted on 24th January 2025

The Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI) is delighted to announce that the National Botanic Gardens have ingested a new collection into the Repository – Robert Lloyd Praeger’s Plant Specimens at the National Herbarium of Ireland (1865-1953).

Robert Lloyd Praeger was undoubtedly one of the greatest Irish naturalists of his time and his huge contribution to the progress of Irish botany is widely acknowledged. His contribution to science was multidisciplinary and in particular he made substantial additions to Irish botany – in the fields of plant biogeography, phenology, ecology, plant migration and horticulture. Throughout his active research time, Praeger collected many plant specimens in his fieldwork and his contributions to Irish Topographical Botany were significant – with his active collecting efforts resulting in the preservation of around 5,000 specimen sheets. These specimens, collected by Praeger himself, are housed at the National Herbarium of Ireland in Glasnevin.

In a project funded by the Royal Irish Academy’s Nowlan Digitisation Grant, the National Botanic Gardens of Ireland committed to fully digitizing all of Praeger’s plant collection at the National Herbarium of Ireland, creating a digital botanical archive. The archive will include a searchable index of herbarium images, making the collection accessible online to the general public.

Of this goal, Dr Colin Kelleher, of the National Botanic Gardens said:

“The Praeger collection represents probably the most comprehensive collection of the Irish flora that we hold from a single collector. Praeger was instrumental in establishing a baseline for modern day conservation. In 1901 he published Irish Topographical Botany, which to some is a dry list of the occurrence of plants across the island of Ireland. To others it is a solid foundation for understanding plant geography in Ireland.

Praeger collated all existing records and undertook extensive fieldwork for this publication. Many of Praeger’s specimens in the National Herbarium are the result of meticulous fieldwork to fill gaps in existing data to bring about a comprehensive census of plant occurrences. Each specimen maps his location on a particular day, on the side of a road, in a bog, by a lake or up a mountain.

 The specimens and the data are not only of botanical interest, but also of historical and cultural interest. The digital images enhance the conservation of the delicate physical specimens.”


In this first tranche of ingests, over 1,500 specimen sheets were digitally preserved in the Repository. The IIIF viewer gives users a rich set of common functionalities to view, compare, manipulate, and work with the items – making a portable, shareable, citable, and embeddable browsing experience. Using the IIIF functionality, viewers can zoom in on each specimen sheet to look at the object, and read any associated information relating to it.

DBN herbarium. Melampyrum sylvaticum L.. Image [Type]. Digital Repository of Ireland (2024) [Publisher]. National Botanic Gardens [Depositor]. https://doi.org/10.7486/DRI.zk528d03m (Accessed: 2025/01/24)

For example, using the IIIF viewer, we can see that the above specimen originates from Carnlough Waterfall, Co. Antrim and was collected in July 1920. This functionality gives depth to each of the specimen collections and allows for a robust viewing experience.


Of this ingest, DRI Director Dr Lisa Griffith said:

“DRI are thrilled to add the National Botanic Gardens herbarium images to the Repository. With this collection, the Repository leads the way in the digital preservation and creation of a botanical archive that is available for all to use and view.

The Praeger collection joins a growing number of natural history collections that are preserved in the Repository. We look forward to ingesting more of these objects – creating a comprehensive collection of botanic specimens from the island of Ireland over the past two centuries.”

The Praeger collections can be viewed and downloaded in the DRI Repository.

DRI are delighted to include this valuable collection in the Repository. Other similar collections in the Repository include: the Balfour collection and the Fáilte Ireland collection.

You can keep up to date with all of our collections by signing up to our newsletter.


DRI is funded by the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (DFHERIS) via the Higher Education Authority (HEA).

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