Conservation work on the Peter H. Raven Library’s copy of The Orchidaceae of Mexico and Guatemala has begun! Follow along as we document this painstaking restoration of one of the largest and grandest volumes in the Garden’s rare book collection. The Pages of Books Can Tear and Chip Paper is generally a very stable substrate for printing…
Tag: library
Collection Connection: Whiskey and Research
“There’s a deeper story to almost all of these,” says Ralph Haynes as he peers into a box of dried corn cobs. The co-founder of Pinckney Bend Distillery is meeting with Garden research staff, exploring the herbarium, and flipping through the pages of rare botanical books—taking a deeper look at the intersection of his passion…
From the Library: Rebuilding the Bateman Book (Part 2)
Conservation work on the Peter H. Raven Library’s copy of The Orchidaceae of Mexico and Guatemala has begun! Follow along as we document this painstaking restoration of one of the largest and grandest volumes in the Garden’s rare book collection. The Pages of Books Get Dirty Liquid spills, soiled hands, coal-burning furnaces, oil-burning lamps, drops to the…
From the Library: Rebuilding the Bateman Book (Part 1)
Conservation work on the Peter H. Raven Library’s copy of The Orchidaceae of Mexico and Guatemala has begun! Follow along as we document this painstaking restoration of one of the largest and grandest volumes in the Garden’s rare book collection. James Bateman, a wealthy English orchid collector, was responsible for the creation of The Orchidaceae…
Discover + Share: The Best of 2017
This year marked the first year for Discover + Share, a new blog from the Missouri Botanical Garden. Our goal was to give visitors a glimpse of the Garden most don’t often get to see or experience–to share our stories and help you learn a little more about the many facets of the Garden’s mission….
From the Library: Bookbinding Curiosities—Paste Papers
The practice of decorating paper with pleasing patterns and colors began in China, where paper was invented. By the 10th century, Chinese craftspeople were probably practicing a rudimentary kind of paper marbling, a complex process that results in sheets covered with sinuous, organic, often colorful designs. This art traveled west along with paper making technology,…
From the Library: A Different Kind of Conservation
The Peter H Raven Library of the Missouri Botanical Garden contains many rare and unusual books, but they aren’t all in the Rare Book Room. Our General Collection also holds many rare, even unique items, such as this small volume (about 6.5” long) of pressed plants from the Holy Land. This book, Flowers of…
From Collection to Conservation: The Botanical Data Driving the Garden’s Mission
After looking at it closely, horticulturists Jared Chauncey and Dave Gunn have determined that the plant in front of them is, in fact, Quercus arkansana. They collect several different plant parts—branches, leaves, and acorns. A few of them will be pressed, dried, and mounted to create two herbarium vouchers—one for the National Arboretum and one…
From the Library: Analyzing a Mystery Book
The Missouri Botanical Garden’s Peter H. Raven Library has recently been upgrading many of its rare book cataloging records. One such record is for a book published in 1764 by noted botanist Carl Linnaeus (the namesake of the Garden’s Linnean House conservatory) called Genera Plantarum, printed in Stockholm by Lars Salvius. It was thought to…
From the Library: Ancient Books Given Another Chance
“Utopian visions we had about the Internet and all it would be able to do are just that: utopian visions,” says Susie Cobbledick, book conservator at the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Peter H. Raven Library. “Electronic files don’t last very long,” she adds, “These [books] are very rare materials, many being the last or only copies…
18th Century Coloring Book Discovered at the Missouri Botanical Garden
A 256-year-old coloring book was discovered in the Peter H. Raven library in May by botanist Amy Pool. Robert Sayer’s The Florist was first published as a coloring book in 1760, with distinct instructions on how to color the pages. Pool first came across the title of the book while she was researching botanical illustrations…
From the Library: Cross-Pollination: Flowers in 18th-Century European Porcelain and Textiles
A new exhibit at the Saint Louis Art Museum combines 18th-century textiles and porcelain with several objects from the collections of the Missouri Botanical Garden—two books and a herbarium (dried plant) specimen. Dr Wyse Jackson, Garden President, has also generously loaned the exhibit a book from his personal library: The Florist by Augustin Heckle, a floral…