Inside The New York Botanical Garden
Archive: May 1, 2017
Posted in What's Beautiful Now on May 1 2017, by Matt Newman
From the bloom of our ever-fragrant lilacs to the dainty dramatics of the Auricula Theater, spring’s progress isn’t hard to see here at NYBG. The crabapples are waking near Daffodil Hill, and the magnolias—always some of the season’s top charmers—are still trucking along with pink and white blooms. Meanwhile, the Azalea Garden is becoming a sea of color.
Check out what’s beautiful now!
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Posted in From the Library on May 1 2017, by Esther Jackson
Esther Jackson is the Public Services Librarian at NYBG’s LuEsther T. Mertz Library where she manages Reference and Circulation services and oversees the Plant Information Office. She spends much of her time assisting researchers, providing instruction related to library resources, and collaborating with NYBG staff on various projects related to Garden initiatives and events.
Botanical Art from the Golden Age of Scientific Discovery was one of my Top 10 Popular Science Books of 2016. As I wrote in my earlier review, author Anna Laurent has curated an exquisite collection of historic botanical art. “More than an archive of illustrations and inquiry, this book documents an extraordinary convergence of disciplines that flourished in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,” she writes. “Europe was enjoying a golden age of scientific discovery; naturalists were exploring the globe and there was a clamoring for knowledge of the natural world.”
The art in this book comes specifically from botanical wall charts. These charts were created as teaching tools during the 19th and 20th centuries. Produced by professors, biologists, illustrators, writers, and botanists, wall charts were used in classroom instruction to supplement lessons involving living or vouchered plants. These wall charts were first documented in Germany in the 1820s. In addition to featuring many beautiful German charts, the book includes examples of charts from various countries.
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