Botany and History Entwined

This catalogue accompanies an exhibition celebrating Hunt Institute¿s 50th anniversary (2011). What is now known as Hunt Institute was dedicated in 1961 by Roy and Rachel Hunt as the Rachel McMasters Miller Hunt Botanical Library. This new library would not only house the collection Rachel had spent a lifetime assembling but also utilize that collection for research in the history of botany. As a girl Rachel developed a love for nature and books that grew into a lifelong passion for...
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This catalogue accompanies an exhibition celebrating Hunt Institute¿s 50th anniversary (2011). What is now known as Hunt Institute was dedicated in 1961 by Roy and Rachel Hunt as the Rachel McMasters Miller Hunt Botanical Library. This new library would not only house the collection Rachel had spent a lifetime assembling but also utilize that collection for research in the history of botany. As a girl Rachel developed a love for nature and books that grew into a lifelong passion for books about plants, gardens and botany and extended to botanical portraits, letters, manuscripts and artworks. When it came time to donate the collection, it not only reflected the interests of one woman but also mirrored the various aspects of the history of botany. This catalogue shows the depth and breadth of Rachel¿s collection, how it has been augmented over the years and how it is utilized and remains relevant for research today. The catalogue begins with a foreword by Institute Director Robert W. Kiger. The following biographical material traces Rachel Hunt¿s early interest in books to her years spent as a bookbinder to her development as a collector. The catalogue is then divided into sections reflecting Rachel¿s collecting interests: the history of the herbal, the development of gardens and garden plants, the foundation of botany as a science and the botanical discoveries made through travel and exploration. The catalogue concludes with the founding of Hunt Botanical Library and the resulting Hunt Institute with descriptions of its four departments.