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.[1] 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 pre-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.