In this collection of papers, edited by former curator Edward H. Miller, experts and specialists from around the world discuss the unrealized potential of museum collections as tools of research and study. Researchers from universities including Harvard, UC Berkeley and the University of Pittsburgh and from museums including the Royal Ontario Museum, the American Museum of Natural History, The Field Museum and the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Ottawa join the Royal BC Museum's own curatorial staff in examining the roles and uses of museum collections. Subjects include the importance of herbaria to botanical research, the significance of type specimens and the use of museum collections in phytogeography, paleobiology, comparative anatomy and ecological morphology.