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Librarians are often called upon to solve mysteries, and we enjoying hearing the stories of triumphs by our colleagues.\u00a0 One of my favorites is the story of Mary Gunn (1899-1989), a librarian at the Botanical Research Institute in Pretoria, South Africa.\u00a0 She had a special interest in the history of botany and botanical illustration.<\/p>\n
In the 1930s, she began researching a book in her library\u2019s collection titled \u201cSpecimens of the Flora of South Africa by a Lady\u201d and published in England in 1849.\u00a0 This book included nine plates of colorful, native plants noteworthy for their quality.\u00a0 The identity of the \u201cLady\u201d was unknown.<\/p>\n
Gunn used her research skills over a period of nearly 20 years to discover the artist was Arabella Elizabeth Roupell (1817-1914), the wife of a British judge who was in Cape Town, South Africa for only two years in the early 1840s.\u00a0 Having much leisure time, Roupell would ride on horseback to collect plants for painting, often accompanied by a British botanist who later introduced her to William Hooker, the first director of Kew and father of Joseph.<\/p>\n
Hooker was very impressed with Roupell\u2019s work that included about 100 paintings.\u00a0 He promoted the publication of a sele![\"\"](\"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Roupell-Sparaxis-396x528.jpg\")
ct few in \u201cSpecimens,\u201d but why this was done anonymously is unknown.\u00a0 The book received high praise at the time, with a copy being given to Queen Victoria.\u00a0 There were only 110 printed, and those soon became rare collector\u2019s items.<\/p>\n
Through Gunn\u2019s exhaustive efforts, she not only discovered this history, but also the location of the original paintings.\u00a0 With the help of the South African government, they were returned to the University of Cape Town in the 1950s.\u00a0 \u201cMore Cape Flowers by a Lady\u201d was published in 1964 with reproductions of eleven of the original pieces and a text by Allan Bird that included their history.\u00a0 While the Miller Library does not have the earlier book, we are pleased to have this limited, later publication.<\/p>\n
Reviewed by: Brian Thompson on November 21, 2023<\/p>\n
Excerpted from the Winter 2024 issue of the Arboretum Bulletin<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Librarians are often called upon to solve mysteries, and we enjoying hearing the stories of triumphs by our colleagues.\u00a0 One of my favorites is the story of Mary Gunn (1899-1989), a librarian at the Botanical Research Institute in Pretoria, South Africa.\u00a0 She had a special interest in the history of botany and botanical illustration. In the 1930s, she began researching a book in her library\u2019s collection titled \u201cSpecimens of the Flora of South Africa by a Lady\u201d and published in…<\/p>\n