Shippensburg University Herbarium contains mostly specimens of vascular plants, including student collections from plant taxonomy courses, vouchers from botanical surveys, and donated collections. The specimens are primarily from Pennsylvania, but there are also substantial collections from Maine, the Adirondacks, Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas. The Herbarium also houses over 1,000 catalogued specimens of bryophytes, plus uncatalogued lichens, fungi and macroalgae.  The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources designates SHIP as one of the herbaria that accepts voucher specimens of "Plant Species of Special Concern" from surveys for environmental review.