Madeline Schill, Collections Fellow

As Collections Fellow, my goal is to process material from the North America-China Plant Exploration Consortium (NACPEC) archives. I hope to bring these archives to life by making them digitally accessible, revealing stories told through written documentation and oral histories, and standardizing protocols for processing material from contemporary expeditions across numerous institutions.

Prior to joining the Curation Team, I spent five years across the river at the Harvard University Herbaria digitizing vascular plant specimens, getting my graduate degree in museum studies, and delving into the world of digital collections. My graduate capstone tackled the issue of handling derogatory language in natural history databases, and I continue to work closely with Harvard Extension School affiliates using data science to address biased and derogatory language in databases. When away from the archives, I enjoy playing banjo, illustrating, crocheting, birding, and running. As a Texas native, my favorite experience in New England remains casually encountering the historical stone walls that crisscross our landscape.