One of the most valuable gifts I ever received was a key that the head librarian shared with me when I was a horticulture student at the New York Botanical Garden in the mid-1970s. This key gave me access to the library when it was closed to the public. I spent hours almost every night for the next two years going through the stacks, pulling books off the shelves, often at random, to educate myself.
One enthusiasm I developed in this way was an admiration for botanical prints and illustrations. The library had an outstanding collection of such works, some of them centuries old. I was fascinated by the way an artist could make me see a plant and its beauties more clearly. The most skilled of these artists combined mastery of technique and composition with expert knowledge of botany, so that their work was not only pleasing to the eye, but taught me the unique characteristics of a species and what sets it apart from all other plants.
I had to turn in that key when I graduated. However, I maintained my interest in botanical art through visits to libraries and museum collections. A few years ago I visited one of the largest such collections, leading internationally, the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I recently reconnected in conversation with the interim curator at the Hunt, Carrie Roy.
Hunt’s collection begins with the enthusiasm of a young girl, Rachel McMasters Miller. Growing up in Turtle Creek, then, in the late 19th century, a rural village on the outskirts of Pittsburgh, she was given a wildflower reference book and made it her “bible.” She used it to identify the wild plants she encountered in the fields and woods around her grandmother’s estate. This passion grew when she was 15 and received a 17th-century gardening manual, The English Gardener, by Leonard Meagher. Rare book auction catalogs became her favorite bedtime reading, and she began collecting not only books on botany and horticulture, but also the artwork that illustrated them. She became an expert bookbinder and her collection only grew when she married Roy Arthur Hunt, who shared her love of rare books and botanical art.
By the 1950s, Rachel Hunt’s collection had grown so significantly—almost 3,000 titles of rare books and periodicals and 1,300 works of botanical art—that institutions across the country were racing to acquire it. However, she and her husband wanted it to remain in Pittsburgh and agreed to donate it to the then Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) with the stipulation that it be housed in its own facility atop the library building. Since its opening in 1961, the collection has grown explosively. Today, the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation includes more than 31,000 book and serial titles and 32,413 prints, drawings and watercolors.
As its collection grew, The Hunt also broadened its focus. Rachel Hunt’s interest was primarily in the Western tradition of botanical art, but today the collection includes works from around the world. It has also become a supporter of contemporary botanical artists, hosting a traveling exhibition of notable new works every three years.
The Hunt Institute is open by appointment to researchers. It is currently closed to the public for renovations, but will reopen by fall 2023, when it will host a retrospective of artists from its past exhibitions of contemporary botanical artists. In the meantime, fans of botanical art can access digital versions of many of Hunt’s artworks through his website, www.huntbotanical.org. Among my favorites are the Torner Collection of nearly 2,000 watercolors and sketches dating from a royal Spanish expedition to Central America and the Pacific coast of North America in the late 18th century. A change of regimes in Spain meant that these remarkable paintings were never published until Hunt acquired them in 1981. They are now available to view in digital format, also on the Hunt Institute website.
To learn more about botanical art and the Hunt Institute, listen to an interview with Carrie Roy on the Berkshire Botanical Garden’s Growing Greener podcast at www.berkshirebotanical.org. Or experience the delights of botanical art first hand. Aspiring artists will find classes offered regularly at the Berkshire Botanic Gardens by prominent practitioners such as Ann Kremers, Carol Ann Morley, and Anastasia Traina. For information check the Botanic Gardens website at berkshirebotanical.org.
Be-a-Better-Gardener is a community service of the Berkshire Botanical Garden located in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Its mission to provide knowledge about horticulture and the environment through a diverse range of classes and programs informs and inspires thousands of students and visitors each year. Thomas Christopher is a volunteer at the Berkshire Botanic Gardens and has authored or co-authored more than a dozen books.
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