Press "Enter" to skip to content

Tag: Flowers

For Camping Month: How to Share a Tent with a Smithsonian Secretary

"Mrs. Walcott sketching a wild flower in water colors on a frosty morning in camp."
“Mrs. Walcott sketching a wild flower in water colors on a frosty morning in camp.”

What are your plans for National Camping Month? Thinking of bringing along a sketchbook? You’d be in good company.

Mary Vaux Walcott (1860-1940) was undoubtedly a pro at camping. The naturalist and botanical illustrator spent the summers of her youth in the Canadian Rockies with her well-to-do family, where she became an active mountain climber, outdoorswooman, photographer, and started her first forays into botanical illustration. It was later in life, in her mid fifties, when she married the then current Secretary of the Smithsonian, Charles Doolittle Walcott, against the objections of her father.

Celebrating floral design in the Botany-Horticulture Library

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.