The LuEsther T Mertz Library sits in creamy splendour on a low rise in the New York Botanical Gardens, in Queens. When I first wrote this post I had photos, but I appear to have lost them so, sadly as of 6 April 2012, no pics.
An avenue of trees (and, yes, even though I was visiting one of the world's most important Botanical Gardens, I neglected to note what type of tree!) leads to splendid stairs attended by mer-people frolicking in a fountain - frozen on this particular day.
A few facts, to show I was paying attention: the library holds more than a million print and non-print items including 75% of the world's literature on systematic botany and 70% of the world's published flora. Other subjects include gardening and landscape design. The Reading Room is situated on the top floor of the Library Building, which also houses an Herbarium of 6.5 million plant and fungi specimens and 3 exhibition spaces. The Library Building, designed by Robert W Gibson and opened in 1903, was recently renovated and extended and this review by Alan Burdick, in the May 2002 issue of Discover describes the history, collections and renovation far more eloquently than I can - well worth a few minutes reading.
It was the first library I visited, so I wasn't brave enough to actually go in, but here I am in the lobby.
Anyone may use the library: its careful welcome to visitors will be familiar to my colleagues.
And why is it interesting to art and museum librarians? Well, botanical literature and prints, an art form in their own right, are extensively used by artists and designers, not just as source material for landscape and garden design, for example, but also as inspiration for patterns, fashion and furniture. The LuEsther Mertz Library holdings include oil paintings and sculpture as well as prints, drawings and watercolours; the collections are properly curated: their conservators received a National Institute for Conservation Heritage Award in 2003 for Outstanding Commitment to the Preservation and Care of Collections (read this, oh friends, and weep) and ARLIS/NY saw fit to include it in their annual programme of visits and events, as reported on page 5 of their Fall 2003 Newsletter.
But to be honest that's not the only reason I'm posting this - the most exciting part was the unexpected extra: we tentatively approached the front doors and, despite the imposing facade, were welcomed in by a guard who directed us to the displays that explained some of the research undertaken at the NYBG. We held the lift for a man struggling a little bit with a large box, who commented that my accent indicated a familiarity probably with Kew Gardens, before he went off behind staff-only doors, only to reappear. Were we interested in hearing about his research? Of course, we were! He took us to a section on Brazil nuts, succinctly describing decades of research in tropical forests, then he went off again while we continued admiring the exhibition.
[Note: most of the "exhibited books" displayed were in fact blanks, with reproduced pages laid on top - understandable for preservation, but it did reduce some of the enjoyment and awe]
Ten minutes later Scott A. Mori was back: would we like to see the Herbarium? Usually only accessible by appointment to bone fide researchers, since he was re-shelving a few specimens he'd be happy to briefly show us the facility. How could a librarian responsible for storage and preservation resist such an offer? It was fascinating, although there wasn't time to ask the myriad of questions that came to mind - such as how were the specimens - preserved parts of plants at different stages of its life-cycle attached to standard size pages - housed, how was the storage organised ... especially when we finally admitted that we weren't actually botanists, just very impressed, grateful visitors.
A final pleasing serendipity: when he was Director of the Institute of Systematic Botany at the NYBG, Dr Mori added to the art collections.
