{"id":5340,"date":"2019-11-26T11:39:17","date_gmt":"2019-11-26T19:39:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/?post_type=book&p=5340"},"modified":"2022-10-21T16:37:28","modified_gmt":"2022-10-21T23:37:28","slug":"mountain-wild-flowers-of-america-a-simple-and-popular-guide-to-the-names-and-descriptions-of-the-flowers-that-bloom-above-the-clouds","status":"publish","type":"book","link":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/book\/mountain-wild-flowers-of-america-a-simple-and-popular-guide-to-the-names-and-descriptions-of-the-flowers-that-bloom-above-the-clouds\/","title":{"rendered":"Mountain Wild Flowers of America: A Simple and Popular Guide to the Names and Descriptions of the Flowers that Bloom above the Clouds"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Photography was a major innovation for field guides in the early 20th<\/sup> century.\u00a0 Julia W. Henshaw (1869-1937) was an early adopter with her 1906 book \u201cMountain Wild Flowers of America.\u201d\u00a0 While this title implies inclusion of alpine plants across Canada and the United States, she lived in Vancouver, BC and gives special attention to our regional mountains.\u00a0 The Miller Library also has a later edition (1917) under the slightly revised title of \u201cWild Flowers of the North American Mountains<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Born in England, she studied art in her home country, but didn\u2019t take up photography until she moved to British Columbia around 1890.\u00a0 Her images are in a studio setting, in grey scale with a neutral grey background.\u00a0 Ordered by color, it is not too difficult to imagine the appearance of the living plants.<\/p>\n

Like other writers of these early field guides, Henshaw had abundant energy and a wide variety of interests.\u00a0 Daphne Bramham writes in the \u201cVancouver Sun\u201d (published September 8, 2014) that she was \u201can explorer and general outdoorswoman\u201d who climbed in the Rockies and mapped much of the interior of Vancouver Island.\u00a0 A strong advocate participation in World War I, she drove an ambulance at the Western Front in Europe, and spoke across Canada of her experience to encourage more involvement in the war effort.\u00a0 She had her indoor pursuits, too, as a theater critic (using Julian Durham as a pseudonym), writing novels, and founding a social club for women, the first such society in Vancouver.<\/p>\n

Other than the use of photographs, this field guide is very similar in style to the others of the time.\u00a0 The writing is intended for a general audience, but Henshaw acknowledges a respectable list of botanists and naturalists as scientific advisors.\u00a0 However, she is at her best with her subjective descriptions.\u00a0 In reference to Erythronium giganteum<\/em> (now E. grandiflorum<\/em> var. grandiflorum<\/em>), which in her day was burdened with the common name of \u201cyellow adder\u2019s tongue\u201d (now \u201cglacier lily\u201d) she writes, \u201cLate at evening, when beneath the star-sown purple of the sky you return from making some alpine ascent, the pure flames of these wild Lilies gleam in their leafy setting with a pale golden light, and illuminate the green brink of your path.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Excerpted from the Winter 2020 issue of the Arboretum Bulletin<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photography was a major innovation for field guides in the early 20th century.\u00a0 Julia W. Henshaw (1869-1937) was an early adopter with her 1906 book \u201cMountain Wild Flowers of America.\u201d\u00a0 While this title implies inclusion of alpine plants across Canada and the United States, she lived in Vancouver, BC and gives special attention to our regional mountains.\u00a0 The Miller Library also has a later edition (1917) under the slightly revised title of \u201cWild Flowers of the North American Mountains.\u201d Born…<\/p>\n

Continue reading Mountain Wild Flowers of America: A Simple and Popular Guide to the Names and Descriptions of the Flowers that Bloom above the Clouds<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","keyword":[22,273],"class_list":["post-5340","book","type-book","status-publish","hentry","keyword-reviews","keyword-wildflowers"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book\/5340"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/book"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"keyword","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/keyword?post=5340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}