Surprisingly, the first Arbor Day was not held in a heavily forested part of the United States, but in Nebraska, known for its treeless prairies. In 1872, J. Sterling Morton, more »
Author: Robin Everly
In honor of National Gardens Month (April), the Smithsonian Libraries’ 50th Anniversary and our exhibition, Cultivating America’s Gardens, we take a deeper look at the botany and horticulture collections in more »
This post was written by Robin Everly, librarian in the Botany and Horticulture Library, with Spencer Goyette, contractor in the National Museum of Natural History’s Department of Botany.
Working in the Botany and Horticulture library, I’m still surprised by the books I come across that I haven’t heard about. So when I came across Oaxaca Journal what caught my eye was the author’s name on the book’s spine- Oliver Sacks. Immediately, I wondered if it was the same Oliver Sacks, neurologist and bestselling author of books such as Awakenings, The Island of the Colorblind, and The Man who Mistook his wife for a Hat. Dr. Sacks, who died on August 30, 2015, of metastatic cancer, had the ability to communicate complex scientific concepts to the general public by providing well written prose as well as insightful and strange stories about the human mind. And yes, he, the same Dr. Sacks, wrote Oaxaca Journal, which is the personal journal he kept during a fern collecting trip to southern Mexico with the American Fern Society 15 years ago.
This post was written by Robin Everly, Botany-Horticulture Library.
Did you know that Saturday, February 28 is Floral Design Day and the day itself has been around for 20 years?
The day was created to celebrate a special birthday of Carl Rittner, who founded the Rittners School of Floral Design in Boston, Massachusetts and was a leader in floral art education. Fittingly, it was enacted by official proclamation by then Governor William F. Weld of Massachusetts in 1995.
The other day, seeing this article in the Washington Post reminded me of my days at the National Arboretum (USNA) when the Arboretum cherry trees as well as the tidal more »
It made national news! A rare 5.8 magnitude earthquake on the East Coast which has caused the closing of some of Washington D.C.’s iconic structures such as the Washington Monument more »
October 27 marks what would be the 151st birthday of the 26th President of the United States and youngest to hold office. He became president in 1901 at 42 years more »