BOTANICAL ILLUSTRATION

In 1958-59, the Library received as a bequest of Gordon L. Harris '16 a collection of books and prints on the orchid. For particulars refer to: Dale Roylance, "A Collection of Orchid Books" in the Princeton University Library Chronicle XX, 2 (Winter, 1959) pp. 122-23 [full text] . The collection forms part of the General Rare Book Collection (Ex).

Presented in 1971-72, the Sydnor Barksdale Penick Collection of Botanical Books contains about 32 volumes dating from 1568 (William Turner'sHerball) to the mid-19th century. For particulars refer to the Princeton University Library Chronicle XXXIV, 1 (Autumn, 1972) p. 87-8 [ full text] .

In September 1989, an anonymous donation brought to the Library a choice collection of 23 herbals and other early printed books on related subjects. Many of the books came from Thuya Lodge on Mt. Desert, Maine. A list of the accessions is in the Curator's vertical file under Thuya Lodge Collection. Also available as a PDF. 

During the academic year 2002-2003, Mrs. Margaret Field, a public librarian from Clarksburg, N.J., has donated her pristine copy of A Selection of Hexandrian Plants, Belonging to the Natural Orders Amaryllidae and Liliacae, from Drawings by Mrs. Edward [Priscilla Susan] Bury(London, [1831]). It contains thirty exquisitely hand-colored aquatints -- each of a single life-size flower -- by Robert Havell, who engraved the plates for Audubon's Birds of America.