Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation
Special Collections
The Michel Adanson Library
Harry Ardell Allard Collection
Fannie Elisabeth Waugh Davis Collection
Anne Ophelia Todd Dowden Collection
Georg Dionys Ehret Collection
Andreas Friedrich Happe Collection
Hitchcock-Chase Collection of Grass Drawings
Margaret Mee Collection
Gilbert M. Smith Collection
Isaac Sprague Collection
Strandell Collection of Linnaeana
Torner Collection of Sessé and Mociño Biological Illustrations
U.S.D.A. Forest Service Collection
Wall Chart Collection
Frederick Andrews Walpole Collection
During the intellectual and scientific ferment of the 18th century, a number of natural classification schemes for plants were proposed, but none had as extensive a logical foundation as Michel Adanson's. The astounding diversity of plants newly introduced to Europe from various voyages of exploration made the existing systems of classification seem painfully inadequate. In his classic taxonomic work Familles des plantes, he summarized the building blocks of the past, and then, using these as a foundation, he constructed a classification scheme based on the full range of a plant's natural characteristics without assigning priority to any particular characteristics. He based his system on natural relationships, forgoing the temptation to use more accessible artificial systems. Although his system has been superseded by others that have proven more workable, many modern botanists have observed that Adanson was ahead of his time in terms of his philosophical and scientific understanding of the natural world and of his intellectual struggle with the problems inherent in constructing a classification system to reflect the relationships within that world.
The personal library of French naturalist Michel Adanson (1727–1806) was acquired from his descendants in Paris in 1961–1962. Additional items were purchased in 1970. The Adanson Library includes the following, curated respectively by the Library, Art and Archives departments:
- 127 books owned by Adanson, many with copious annotations by him, reflecting his intellectual development as he sought to refine his understanding of natural relationships
- His collection of more than 10,000 botanical illustrations from publications of his time and earlier, arranged according to his system of classification and bearing his identifications and notes
- 260 holographic manuscripts and letters by Adanson and contemporary botanists; assorted papers and related items
At the time of the collection's dedication, the Hunt Botanical Library held an international symposium and an exhibition on Adanson and his work in celebration of the bicentennial of the publication of Adanson's Familles des plantes. The resulting two-volume Adanson: The Bicentennial of Michel Adanson's "Familles des plantes" (1963–1964, now out-of-print) included a detailed catalogue of the Adanson Library, and additional information was available in A Guide to the Adanson Exhibition (1963, now out-of-print). See the graphics site for more information about Adanson and the collection.
Harry Ardell Allard Collection
The Harry Ardell Allard Collection contains 364 ink drawings, which seem to be associated with the flora of Virginia and West Virginia about which Allard wrote some 55 of his 254 papers. See the graphics site for more information about the artist and the images.
Fannie Elisabeth Waugh Davis Collection
The Fannie Elisabeth Waugh Davis Collection contains 158 pen and ink drawings. See the graphics site for more information about the artist and the images.
Anne Ophelia Todd Dowden Collection
The Anne Ophelia Todd Dowden Collection contains almost 500 drawings, mostly watercolor. See the graphics site for more information about the artist.
The Georg Dionys Ehret Collection contains 227 gouache paintings and 10 engravings and etchings. See the graphics site for more information about the artist.
Andreas Friedrich Happe Collection
The Andreas Friedrich Happe Collection contains an album of 470 watercolors depicting plants by the Berlin apothecary and artist Andreas Friedrich Happe (1733–1802) and was assembled about the year 1780.
Hitchcock-Chase Collection of Grass Drawings
The Hitchcock-Chase Collection consists of 2,707 drawings (mostly ink, but some pencil) of grasses, representing hundreds of genera, that were assembled by the Smithsonian Institution agrostologists Albert Spear Hitchcock (1865–1935) and Mary Agnes Chase (1869–1963). The collection is on indefinite loan to Hunt Institute from the Smithsonian and is, to our knowledge, the only such collection of grass illustrations. See the graphics site for more information about the artist and the images.
British botanical artist Margaret Mee (1909–1988) lived in Brazil, taught art in São Paulo's British School, and made expeditions into the jungle to collect and paint tropical flora. See the graphics site for a transcript of an interview, broadcast in November 1988 on The MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour.
The Gilbert M. Smith Collection consists of 509 ink drawings mostly for Smith's Cryptogamic Botany: Volume I, Algae and Fungi, ed. 1 (New York and London, 1938) and Cryptogamic Botany: Volume II, Bryophytes and Pteridophytes, ed. 2 (New York, Toronto and London, 1955). See the graphics site for more information about the artist and the images.
The Isaac Sprague Collection contains 488 images. See the graphics site for more information about the artist and the images.
Strandell Collection of Linnaeana
The Strandell Collection includes all published works, in almost every known edition and translation, by the great Swedish naturalist-physician Carolus Linnaeus (Carl von Linné) as well as many of those by his many students, and much of the world's literature about Linnaeus and his students. This is the largest assemblage of such materials outside Uppsala, Sweden, and it includes approximately 3,000 volumes. The Institute acquired the collection in 1968 from Dr. Birger Strandell, who was a Stockholm physician and direct descendant of Linnaeus. The collection includes:
- Publications by Linnaeus, as first and later editions and as reprints and translations in published collections
- The 186 student dissertations that he supervised, now being digitized. See our Original Linnaean Dissertations database on the graphics site for digital versions. English summaries are also available on the graphics site.
- Many of the publications by Linnaeus' students
- A considerable amount of secondary literature discussing Linnaeus' impact on the natural sciences and medicine
- A large collection of clippings relating to Linnaeus and his scientific and cultural impact, primarily relating to Sweden
See the graphics site for more information about the collection.
Torner Collection of Sessé and Mociño Biological Illustrations
The Torner Collection of Sessé and Mociño Biological Illustrations is the original collection of botanical and zoological illustrations made during the Spanish exploring expedition of 1787–1803 sent to New Spain under the command of Martin de Sessé y Lacasta (1751–1808) and Jose Mariano Mociño (1757–1820). The drawings were executed by a number of artists including Juan de Dios Vicente de la Cerda, Atanasio Echeverría y Godoy, Jose Guio and Pedro Oliver. The collection comprises approximately 2,000 watercolor drawings and sketches; about 1,800 are of botanical subjects (the remainder of fish, insects, reptiles, birds and mammals). See the graphics site for more information about the collection.
U.S.D.A. Forest Service Collection
The United States Department of Agriculture (U.S.D.A.) Forest Service Collection includes 2,884 drawings (mostly ink), many of which are originals that were produced for the United States Forest Service Bulletin and for the books Common Trees of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and Alaska Trees and Shrubs (see below). The collection is on indefinite loan to Hunt Institute from the U.S.D.A. Forest Service. See the graphics site for more information about the collection.
The Hunt Institute’s collection contains four incomplete sets of instructional wall charts from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These consist of lithographs, some with hand coloring, measuring approximately 66 x 82 centimeters. See the graphics site for more information about the collection.
Frederick Andrews Walpole Collection
The Frederick Andrews Walpole Collection contains 801 mostly pencil and ink drawings and watercolors. See the graphics site for more information about the artist and the images.
Hunt Institute Text Only Footer
GENERAL INFORMATION
About the Institute
Associate Membership
Contact Us
Frequently Asked Questions
News and Events
Publications
Staff
DEPARTMENTS and COLLECTIONS
Departments
Departments Services and Charges
History of Collections
Rachel McMasters Miller Hunt
SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
Special Collections
AWARD
Lawrence Memorial Award
Text-Only Site Guide - Full Graphics Pages
URL for this page: huntbot.andrew.cmu.edu /HIBD/HIBD-T/Collections-T.shtml
© 2008 Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation.
All rights reserved. Terms and Conditions.