Good Botanical Illustration Books
- Herndon-Consagra, F. (2004). The illustrated garden: books from the Missouri Botanical Garden 1485-1855, an exhibition at the Saint Louis Art Museum. Missouri Botanical Garden.
- MacPhail, I., Sterling Morton Library, & Newberry Library. (1972). Hortus botanicus ; the botanic garden & the book: fifty books from the Sterling Morton Library exhibited at the Newberry Library for the fiftieth anniversary of the Morton Arboretum. [Printing: Meriden Gravure Co.].
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Fraser, S. M., & Sellers, V. B. (Eds.). (2014). Flora illustrata : great works from the LuEsther T. Mertz Library of the New York Botanical Garden. The New York Botanical Garden.
- Raphael, S. (1990). An Oak Spring Pomona : a selection of the rare books on fruit in the Oak Spring Garden Library. Oak Spring Garden Library.
- Raphael, S., Heins, G., & Jackson, L. E. (1989). An Oak Spring sylva : a selection of the rare books on trees in the Oak Spring Garden Library. Oak Spring Garden Library.
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Tongiorgi Tomasi, L., Willis, T., Argetsinger, M., Chien, L. C., & Oak Spring Garden Library. (2009). An Oak Spring herbaria : herbs and herbals from the fourteenth to the nineteenth centuries : a selection of the rare books, manuscripts and works of art in the collection of Rachel Lambert Mellon. Oak Spring Garden Library.
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Tomasi, L. T. (2022). An Oak Spring Flora: Flower Illustration from the Fifteenth Century to the Present Time: A Selection of the Rare books, Manuscripts, and Works of Art in the Collection of Rachel Lambert Mellon. Yale University Press.
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Fry, C., & Wayland, E. (2024). The botanists’ library : the most important botanical books in history. Ivy Press, an imprint of The Quarto Group.
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Clarke, V., Ciccaglione, L., Aitken, R., Aloi, G., Bader, S., Biggs, M., Bell, L., Cooke, T., Elliott, B., Fortenberry, D., Furness, T. A., Kingsbury, N., Morris, C., Musgrave, T., Paulus, K. L., Saunders, G., Smith, J., Trigg, D., Vincent, A., … Phaidon Press publisher. (2023). Garden : exploring the horticultural world (V. Clarke & L. Ciccaglione, Eds.). Phaidon Press.
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Blunt, W., & Stearn, W. T. (2021). The art of botanical illustration (Revised edition, 2021.). ACC Art Books Ltd.
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Laurent, A. (2016). Botanical art from the golden age of scientific discovery. The University of Chicago Press.
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Collins, M. (2000). Medieval herbals : the illustrative traditions. British Library.
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Saunders, G., & Victoria and Albert Museum. (2009). Picturing plants : an analytical history of botanical illustration (2nd ed.). KWS.
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De Bray, L. (1989). The art of botanical illustration : the classic illustrators and their achievements from 1550 to 1900. C. Helm.
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Clarke, V., & Pickles, R. (Eds.). (2016). Plant : exploring the botanical world. Phaidon Press.
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Kramer, J., Strachan, E., & Sunshine, L. (1996). Women of flowers : a tribute to Victorian women illustrators. Stewart, Tabori & Chang.
Locating Botanical Illustrations
Isaacson, R. T., & Garden Center of Greater Cleveland. (1982). Flowering plant index of illustration and information, 1979-1981. G.K. Hall.
Provenance Research
- Les Marques de CollectionsIdentify owner stamps and initials
Catalog raisonnes for specific artists is another tool. Not all have them, but many do. Worldcat, of course, is a good way to check if they exist; you can also use the Mia Library catalog to see if we have it here:
Value $
Search the title, author, year and "rare book" or "auction" and look for a range of recent sales in the past 10 years.
Databases
- Garden, Landscape & Horticulture IndexA resource for access to articles about gardens and plants. Topics include horticulture, botany, garden and landscape design & history, ecology, plant and garden conservation, garden management, and horticultural therapy. This index and abstract product is designed for gardening enthusiasts, professionals, and students of horticulture and of garden and landscape design & history.
- JSTORFind full text articles in academic journals or books on the arts, humanities, social sciences, and sciences. JSTOR provides articles from the journal's first issue. In some cases the most recent 2-5 years may not be available. View this tutorial to learn how to go from a general idea to a very precise set of results of journal articles and scholarly materials.
- Google Scholar (Setup connection to get to PDFs)Use Google Scholar to find articles from academic publishers, professional societies, research institutes, and scholarly repositories from colleges and universities. If you are using from off-campus access, change the "Library Settings" to University of Minnesota Twin Cities. Look for the "FindIt@U of M Twin Cities" links in your Google Scholar search results to access full text and PDFs. View this tutorial to learn how to go from a general idea to a very precise set of results of journal articles and scholarly materials.
- ARTstorARTstor is a cross-disciplinary image database. It offers collections of approximately 300,000 art images and descriptive information covering art, architecture and archeology.
Journals
- Curtis's Botanical Magazine
- The Botanical Artist