observed throughout the 1–2.5 $\mu$m region (Jones et al. 1995) are an important opacity source in the atmospheres of the coolest stars as well as brown dwarfs (Allard & Hauschildt 1995). While the I– or J–bands are probably the best spectral regions to classify extremely cool stars (as they lie on the Wien side of the Planck function for these objects) more heavily obscured objects can still be profitably observed at low resolution in the J– and H–bands (e.g. NICMOS on HST) or in the K–band (Wilking, Greene, & Meyer 1998) in search of these water vapor absorptions.

The H–band spectral atlas we have presented is comprised of moderate resolution spectra with $R \sim 3000$. In contrast, most spectral classification is typically carried out with $R \sim 500-1000$. The strongest and broadest features in the H–band are the CO(6-3) bands and the Brackett lines. These features could be identified with much lower spectral resolution than our survey, at $R \sim 500$. The most crowded region in the H–band spectra is that in the vicinity of the HI line at 5948.50 cm$^{-1}$ (1.68110 $\mu$m), the AlI triplet at 5964–5980 cm$^{-1}$ (1.677–1.672 $\mu$m), and the SiI line at 5993.29 cm$^{-1}$ (1.66853 $\mu$m). 