This collection consists chiefly of photographs of landscapes and plants taken by Rock on collecting trips to China and Tibet, 1922-1929. The Rock Specimen Catalog, located in the Botany Library of the National Museum of Natural History, includes a list of plants collected, 1921-1924, and identification of plants taken, 1928-1929. Also in the Botany Department are manuscript maps prepared by Rock showing his itinerary, 1925-1927. The collection comes with an introduction written by E. H. Walker, Assistant Curator, July 1944, partially quoted below: These photographs were taken by Joseph F. Rock on his expedition to western China under the auspices of the National Geographic Society in 1923-1924 and in 1928. They were generously presented to the U. S. National Museum by the Society through the kind auspices of Dr. Rock in 1944, because of their value in supplementing the herbarium material presented to the Museum by the Society after the expeditions. Most of them are photographs of plants in their natural habitat, taken previous to the preparation of the herbarium specimens. They may not be reproduced without obtaining permission from the National Geographic Society and must be accompanied by the Society's copyright when published. Wherever the legend mentions a herbarium specimen, a corresponding reference appears on the U. S. National Herbarium sheet giving the National geographic society's negative number. These numbers are different from Dr. Rock's original negative numbers, which are not generally used. By requesting a login from the National Geographic Society, you can obtain access to the database in which each of these images is cataloged: https://spi.ngs.org/portal/index.jsp.
Many of SIA's holdings are located off-site, and advance notice is recommended to consult a collection. Please email the SIA Reference Team at osiaref@si.edu.
