Hopkins Notes and Records System

The paper records of the Hopkins Notes and Records System and the electronic records in the Hopkins US System Index (HUSSI) are co-dependent repositories for data about specimens of forest insects and their damage, curated by Government professionals beginning in 1899. The more than 80 years of records for identifications and complete collection information are from all geographic areas managed by the USDA Forest Service, and even a smattering of records from abroad.

Genesis

A.D. Hopkins, commonly referred to as the father of forest entomology in the United States, formulated the record-keeping system that now bears his name. Hopkins brought his system to the federal government when he came to work for the Division of Entomology in the late 1890s, by which time he had already been using his record keeping system at West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, where he previously worked. By 1903, Hopkins' U.S. scheme for cataloging specimens and collection information was mandated in the budding government agency that would become the US Forest Service. The System contains “U.S.” in its name to distinguish it from those earlier Hopkins records at West Virginia University. The Hopkins U.S. System became widely used by Forest Service research and pest management units and by the Agricultural Research Service - Systematic Entomology Laboratory (ARS - SEL) until the mid-1980s.

Framework

Hopkins' organizing scheme was based on a series of duplicate paper records that contained collection and identification information about specific insect or damage specimens. Each record was given a unique sequential Hopkins US Number. Specimens, each bearing its unique Hopkins US Number, and collection records are stored at Forest Service Research Stations and Laboratories, Regional Offices, and at the ARS - SEL in the U.S. National Museum / Smithsonian Institution.

The Hopkins US System contains about 163,000 paper records representing several hundred thousand identified specimens or series of specimens of both insects and samples of insect-damage. Each record minimally contains information about taxon, insect and plant association, collection location, date, and collector. Often, the record also has drawings, textual narratives, measurements, notes on the research study or spray program, or rearing and other biological data provided by the original collector.

Current Status

In 1986, concern for the safety and integrity of the Hopkins US System files prompted the Forest Insect and Disease Research Staff (FIDR-WO) to take steps to preserve the information contained in the Hopkins US System. The intent was also to consolidate the information and make it more useful and accessible to the scientific community. About 153,000 Hopkins US System cards and nearly 10,000 notebook pages throughout the Forest Service and at ARS - SEL were microfilmed. Microfiche sets of the file cards were distributed to the office of FIDR-WO, Forest Service labs, Regional Offices, and field units nation-wide, and to ARS-SEL.

To make the information in the Hopkins files more accessible, in 1987, FIDR began building the digital database that would become HUSSI. Approximately 61,000 ASCII records were initially created. Of these, about 37,000 records from Hopkins System files held by Forest Service units, mostly in the West, wore developed into a relational database. The additional 20,000+ digitized ASCII records are from the Hopkins System paper records held by ARS-SEL at the U.S. National Museum. These have yet to be included in the database.

Future Course

HUSSI can be queried to produce plant- and insect-host lists, historical records, and, for example, information on historic and recent geographic range of forest insects to indicate climate change. The unique Hopkins US Number allows users to obtain desired supplemental information on the physical location of curated specimens, and additional information on the original paper Hopkins record(s). Such information is available from Forest Service repositories, ARS-SEL at the U. S. National Museum / Smithsonian Institution, and from several universities where specimens, records, and/or microfiche now reside.