These old herbarium labels are hard to read! Can you decipher them?
- Author
- Pam Linge, Collections Technician
- Date
- April 15, 2025
These labels include scientific names in LATIN, as well as Carl Linnaeus’ classification system using GREEK terms.
The plant specimens were collected in Germany around 1900. Rather unique to these labels is the presence of the handwriting used at the time called KURRENT SCRIPT (or Kurrentschrift in GERMAN). It is challenging for us to read now, because it looks so different from our cursive handwriting.
It has not been taught in German schools since 1941 so not many German-speaking people can read it either.
Sprechen Sie Deutsch?
It helps to know a little German, too. Many of the words refer to general plant habitat.
Using the “cheat sheet”, can you decipher the letters?
The following list illustrates the alphabet in the old German cursive writing called Kurrentschrift. In our labels above, the German writing is indicated with blue boxes. Can you make out any letters based on the table below? See below for our interpretation and translation.
