Hopkins Notes and Records System

The concept of a system for filing and for the cross-referencing of specimen, collection, and identification information, was first advanced by A. D. Hopkins in 1894. The System was formally initiated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1902 by Hopkins himself, who was subsequently named Chief of Forest Insect Investigations. It was still in use in 1987 by more than twenty Forest Service units of Forest Insect and Disease Research and Forest Pest Management, and by the Agricultural Research Service Systematic Entomology Laboratory (ARS-SEL). A salient feature or the System was the controlled assignment of “Hopkins numbers” to avoid redundancy within or between field units. These unique numbers allow for the keying of records, an essential per-requisite for the creation of a proper relational database.

The paper records of the Hopkins Notes and Records System and the corresponding digital records in the Hopkins US System Index (HUSSI) are co-dependent repositories for data about specimens of forest insects and their damage. These specimens were curated by Government professionals beginning with Hopkins' work at the USDA. The more than 80 years of records with identification and collection information are from all geographic areas managed by the USDA Forest Service, as well as small subset of records from other countries.

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. Hopkins then brought the system to the USDA Division of Entomology in 1902. It was subsequently adopted by personnel of Forest Insect Investigations at field stations throughout the country. 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, by other pest management units, and also by ARS-SEL. The it was in continuous use until the mid-1980s.

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