Cornell University

Shots from the archive: puffball lad

Lad with puffballs, 1937

Well hello. It’s been quiet here for a while, hasn’t it? Things are thawing now and I’m really looking forward to a new mushroom season. I’m sure you are too.

In the meantime, did you know that we have a really big archive of cool old photographs here? This is one I have blown up and hanging on the wall of my lab. It was taken in 1937 by our then department photographer, W.R. Fisher. We’ve been fortunate to have several generations of expert photographers associated with my Cornell department–explore our photographic heritage here. We’ve already talked about the puffballs here, and I can tell you nothing about the lad (I’m a mycologist!).

Part of my job is to direct the Cornell Plant Pathology Herbarium. In addition to a few hundred thousand specimens of fungi and sick plants, we have about 60,000 photos in our archives, going back to the 1880s. Many of them are interesting or odd. I’ll be posting some here, but feel free to explore on your own.

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Most people don't pay much attention to fungi, which include things like mushrooms, molds, yeasts, and mildews. Here at Cornell we think they're pretty fascinating. In fact, even the most disgusting foot diseases and moldy strawberries are dear to our hearts. We'd like to talk to you about fungi, so that like us, you too can tell gross stories at the dinner table. Afterwards, maybe you'll notice some things you would have overlooked before, and we think this could be good for the planet.

Kathie T. Hodge, Editor

Beneath Notice, our book of borescopic mycology.

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