The BIAA research centre for Anatolia and the Black Sea Region, incorporates a herbarium (Index Herbariorum code BIA). Gordon Hillman’s team started collecting specimens in the 1970s, creating a unique reference collection to support archaeobotanical research. This project will preserve this collection physically and establish a virtual herbarium containing images and information on unique and at-risk plant specimens in Turkey, available to students, researchers, and the public. This will preserve an important part of Turkey’s heritage and co-create egalitarian archiving practices that facilitate open and permanent access to collections and allow for the co-existence of multiple narratives of the past.