In all, she captured objects housed at the MCZ and five other HMSC institutions: the Mineralogical and Geological Museum; Harvard University Herbaria; Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East; Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments; and Peabody Museum. She took photos of each specimen and compiled them into digital collections, creating eye-catching displays that emphasized the differences and similarities that can occur in a group of objects, from gems to bird’s nests. Observing those details — from variations in feather color in the bunting birds of the Pacific coast of Mexico to different shapes of stone tools from the Early Paleozoic era — was Zlatanovksi’s favorite part of the research process.

“By definition, a typology is an assemblage based on a shared attribute, and looking at each of these collections you can quickly see how they are connected to each other,” said Zlatanovski, who is also a curator and photographer. “Groupings of similar objects are visually striking and they catch our attention in a way that a single object may not. We are then pulled into studying each individual object within a typology to see how it com pares with those around it, and soon we’re observing details that might otherwise go unnoticed.”