Inside The New York Botanical Garden

Celebrating the Works of Women at NYBG

Posted in People on March 8 2019, by Matt Newman

Photo of a plaque commemorating Elizabeth Gertrude Knight Britton

Women’s History Month is underway, and here at NYBG we’re celebrating countless contributions to the Garden’s missions in science, art, horticulture, and so much more with several events in March. The Garden’s own co-founder, Elizabeth Knight Britton, was a world-renowned botanist and advocate for the natural world, and so many other venerable women in their fields have contributed to the field of plants through their research, illustrations, landscape design, and activism. This year, we’re highlighting a few who have worked with NYBG, and helping to expound on the work of others who deserve the spotlight.

On March 12, join the staff of the LuEsther T. Mertz Library and others for a #HerNaturalHistory workshop intended to make information about female artists and scientific illustrators more open and accessible to the world. Volunteers will be bringing their own laptops to participate, transcribing text from illustrations in the Mertz Library that we’ve contributed to the Biodiversity Heritage Library.

This event will also be streamed on Facebook Live, so don’t miss it!

The following day, March 13, come back for the #HerNaturalHistory sister event, a workshop that teaches attendees to edit entries in Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata, adding important identifier information about female illustrators and scientists to raise their profile and improve their searchability in some of the world’s most active and important free information sources.

We’ll also be highlighting the tremendous influence of one of America’s most successful and revered garden designers. Register for Beatrix Farrand’s American Landscapes on March 15 to see the world premiere of a new documentary on the 50-year career of this visionary. Explore her completed design commissions at the White House, the Morgan Library, the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden in Maine, the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden at NYBG, campus designs at Princeton and Yale, Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C., and many more, and enjoy a conversation with experts immediately after the screening.