Botanicals exhibition extended
The exhibition Botanicals: Environmental Expressions in Art, the Alisa and Isaac M. Sutton Collection, which was scheduled to run from 23 October 2009 to 29 January 2010, has been extended through 30 June 2010.
Open House 2010
In conjunction with Botanicals: Environmental Expressions in Art, the Alisa and Isaac M. Sutton Collection, the Hunt Institute will hold its annual Open House in June 2010. We will present two curators’ talks and displays. Archivist Angela Todd will talk about the legacy and legend of Sir Joseph Banks (1744–1820), the famed British naturalist, botanist and world traveler for whom Banksia is named. Librarian Charlotte Tancin will discuss examples of botanical artworks that were created by artists who were part of an expedition, were employed afterward to draw specimens for publication, or explored on their own seeking new plants to draw. We will also have a guided gallery tour of the exhibition by Acting Curator of Art Lugene Bruno, overviews and displays from our departments, a tour of the reading room and opportunities to meet one-on-one with our staff to ask questions and see items in the collections. We encourage everyone to consider visiting us during this Open House. It will be a good time to see the exhibition before it closes and an opportunity to have an inside look at our collections and our work. A schedule of events will be available in January 2010 on our Web site. We are looking forward to your visit.
2010 Associates program
We hope that our Regular Associates and Patron Associates enjoyed their memberships in the Associates program during 2009 and took full advantage of their benefits. As you consider renewing for 2010 or joining for the first time, we would like to preview our plans for the upcoming year.
Botanicals: Environmental Expressions in Art, the Alisa and Isaac M. Sutton Collection has been extended through 30 June 2010. Our annual Open House will be held in June in conjunction with this exhibition. We will present two curators’ talks and displays. Archivist Angela Todd will talk about the legacy and legend of Sir Joseph Banks (1744–1820), the famed British naturalist, botanist and world traveler for whom Banksia is named. Librarian Charlotte Tancin will discuss examples of botanical artworks that were created by artists who were part of an expedition, were employed afterward to draw specimens for publication, or explored on their own seeking new plants to draw. We will also have a guided gallery tour of the exhibition by Acting Curator of Art Lugene Bruno, overviews and displays from our departments, a tour of the reading room and opportunities to meet one-on-one with our staff to ask questions and see items in the collections. The preview reception for our 13th International Exhibition of Botanical Art & Illustration will be on 23 September, and Associates will receive the accompanying catalogue. For those Associates who choose Huntia as their member benefit, the 14(2) issue is slated for publication during 2010.
Those renewing or joining at the Patron Associate level will receive Huntia and the exhibition catalogue. The teNeues Publishing Company has produced a 2010 Redouté datebook featuring 26 color images from our copy of his Choix des Plus Belles Fleurs (Paris, 1829). Patrons will receive this datebook also while supplies last as well as an Ex Libris print and three free hours of staff research time. Those joining at the Sustaining Associate ($500) and Benefactor Associate ($1000) levels will receive the same benefits as the Patron level. At these three levels, portions of your contributions are tax deductible in the following amounts, $40 for Patron, $440 for Sustaining, and $940 for Benefactor.
As always, all members receive a 25% discount on our cards and publications, behind-the-scenes tours by appointment, and our Bulletin. We will also acknowledge all members with a listing in the fall issue of the Bulletin.
For anyone considering a first-time membership, this is the perfect time to join us. We also offer gift memberships in the Associates program. We can send an announcement card to you or directly to the recipient of the membership. A 2010 Associate membership is a great holiday gift for the botanist, historian or botanical art lover on your list.
Those 2009 Regular Associates and Patron Associates wishing to renew their own or gift memberships for 2010 should complete and return the renewal forms that will be sent with the fall Bulletin in December. Those planning to join or give a gift membership for the first time can complete and return the Associates program brochure that will be included with the fall Bulletin or the Associates Order Form available on our Web site. If you do not receive a form with the fall Bulletin and want to renew or join, then please print the Associates Order Form from our Web site or give us a call. We hope that you will join us for another exciting year. We appreciate your support of the Institute’s programs and mission.
Hunt Institute Sponsorship Program
Rachel McMasters Miller Hunt’s botanical collections of books, art, manuscripts, and portraits are known for their depth and fine quality, reflecting her enthusiasm and expertise in plants, gardens, books, and history. She was determined that her collections be “living” resources—not only preserved but also curated actively and used productively in the service of science and scholarship. To those ends, we continue to develop and enhance the collections at Hunt Institute, working to make them accessible and to preserve them for the future. We have an international audience and a small but growing group of interested donors. You can help to strengthen our collections and programs through monetary and/or material gifts.
Donor Recognition
We gratefully recognize donations in a variety of ways, such as with a letter of thanks, mention in our Bulletin and on our Web site, and through the use of donor bookplates. Of course, donors who wish to remain anonymous could be listed as such or may decline any official mention.
Monetary and Material Gifts
Monetary donations to Hunt Institute are tax deductible. Monetary gifts may be applied to our general operating fund or to the endowment generously established by the Roy A. Hunt Foundation to provide ongoing support for Hunt Institute. In addition to building the collections, gifts can be used for archival storage supplies, conservation and repair of collection material, digitizing and databasing projects, and production of publications. If you would like to expedite a current project or enable us to begin one, please let us know; special project support is always welcome. Or consider giving to one of the following funds:
Anne Ophelia Todd Dowden Art Acquisition Fund
This fund is named in honor of the late artist Anne Ophelia Todd Dowden (1907–2007). A 1930 graduate of Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University), Anne Ophelia is considered America’s leading botanical artist of the past century. After working as a teacher and a textile designer, Anne Ophelia turned her attention to botanical illustration in the 1950s, embarking on another career. She worked from specimens to achieve correct and exacting details in her artworks and with botanists to ensure accuracy. Fascinated by the natural world and its connections, especially pollination, she wanted to educate, interest and engage the public about plants. To this end, she illustrated nine books and wrote and illustrated eleven for which she also did the design, layout and the publication preparation herself decades before desktop publishing. Her passion for botanical art, science and education made her so special and inspired a generation of artists. She also maintained numerous contacts with botanists, artists, and botanical gardens, and whenever she spotted new artistic talent, she made recommendations to the Hunt Institute.
The naming of this acquisition fund after Anne Ophelia is a fitting tribute to her legacy. Our restricted budget hampers the acquisition of works by artists, particularly those new to our series of International Exhibitions. Unlike funds in our regular budget, which are contingent on the fiscal year, monies in the Anne Ophelia Todd Dowden Art Acquisition Fund will remain available until needed. The purchase of artworks from this fund will enable us to support and recognize artists working in the genre of botanical art.
Our collection includes Anne Ophelia’s bequest of over 450 artworks from which we have organized several exhibitions and travel shows. In donating her artworks to the Institute, Anne Ophelia wanted them to be preserved, but she also wanted them to be accessible for study by botanical artists. This fund will allow us to preserve artworks by the current generation of botanical artists and make them available for study by the next.
Individuals, as well as botanical art societies and other organizations, may find this fund an attractive way to support the Hunt Institute. We are very pleased to thank Lotte H. Blaustein and the American Society of Botanical Artists for the first donations to this fund. For further information write James J. White, Curator of Art, Hunt Institute.
Ronald L. Stuckey Endowment for the Preservation of Botanical History
In 2003 Dr. Ronald L. Stuckey, professor emeritus of botany at The Ohio State University, established the Ronald L. Stuckey Endowment for the Preservation of Botanical History at the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation. This fund will help us to acquire and preserve photographs, biographical sketches, and obituaries of botanists, as well as books on botanical history and bibliography. We are grateful for Dr. Stuckey’s long-time interest in Hunt Institute, its collections and its mission. We welcome additional contributions to this fund from others who share our commitment to the preservation of botanical history.
Material gifts of artworks, books, papers, etc., are greatly appreciated. For more information about the types of material gifts that we are able to accept, please see the Archives, Art, Bibliography, and Library pages. Material not suitable for the collections will be returned promptly to the donor, or the donor can choose for the Institute to sell the items to raise funds, to offer them to another library, or (for published materials) to include them in the Institute’s duplicate sales.
We are happy to provide a letter of acknowledgment and a list of the material received, along with short descriptions if needed, but we are not permitted by the IRS, nor are we sufficiently knowledgeable, to make appraisals on items donated to us. If you have retained the purchase receipts connected with your gift(s), these might serve your tax purposes in lieu of an appraisal.
Memorial Gifts
Memorial gifts are also welcome. For example, books purchased through your contribution can be marked with a donor bookplate upon request, acknowledging your gift in memory of or on behalf of someone.
Other Types of Contributions
There are other ways that you can help. Take our biographical record forms to distribute at scientific or botanical art meetings to help swell our biographical files. If you see botanical biographies and obituaries, drop a note to our Archivist about them. Send us notices about botanists that appear in newspapers, magazines and other regional or non-botanical publications. If you know of a group that will be meeting in or visiting Pittsburgh, suggest that they contact us about a group visit to Hunt Institute.
Please don’t hesitate to confer with us about any proposed gift, including its use and acknowledgment. We appreciate your involvement, and we thank you for your interest.
Archives Collection List
Finding aids for individual collections have been linked from the Archives Collection List for Michel Adanson (1727–1806), Paul Hamilton Allen (1911–1963), an Anonymous collector of Narcissus, William Andrew Archer (1894–1973), Liberty Hyde Bailey (1858–1954), Peter René Oscar Bally (1895–1980), Rudolph Beer (1873–1940), Charles Edwin Bessey (1845–1915), Bernard Boivin (1916–1985), Botanical Garden of Padua, Botanical Society of America—Pacific Section, Adolphe Théodore Brongniart (1801–1876), Joachim Camerer (1534–1598), Harold Trevor Clifford (1927–), 11th International Botanical Congress (Seattle, 1969), David Grandison Fairchild (1869–1954), Gesellschaft Deutscher Naturforscher und Aerzte, Edward Lee Greene (843–1915), Frederick Joseph Hermann (1906–1987), Hunt Botanical Library, John Hutchinson (1884–1972), Hugo Iltis (1882–1952), Nicolaus Joseph von Jacquin (1727–1817), Jean Francois De Galaup (Comte) de La Perouse (1741–1788), George Hill Mathewson Lawrence (1910–1978), John Bernhard Leiberg (1853–1913), Willem Daniel Margadant (1916–1997), Mildred Esther Mathias (1906–1995), Franz Carl Mertens (1764–1831), Philip Miller (1691–1771), Benjamin Yoe Morrison (1891–1966), Christiaan Hendrik Persoon (1761–1836), David Prain (1857–1944), Joseph Rock (1884–1962), Velva Rudd (1910–1999), Norman Hudson Russell (1921–), William Edwin Safford (1859–1926), Arthur Moreland Scott (1888–1963) and Charles Swingle (1899–1978). More finding aids will be added soon. PDFs of thumbnails of individual and group portraits and biographical citations for many of the above subjects have been added to the individual collection pages.
