The Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation (HIBD), dedicated as the Rachel McMasters Miller Hunt Botanical Library in 1961, is a research division of
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...
.
History
HIBD is named for
Rachel McMasters Miller Hunt Rachel McMasters Miller Hunt (1882-1963) was an American bookbinder and book collector, specializing in botanical literature.
Early life
Rachel McMasters Miller was born in Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania, in 1882 to Rachel Hughey McMasters Miller (186 ...
. She donated a collection of botanical books to the university to create HIBD. An annual monetary award is given in her honor by the institute.
HIBD was dedicated October 10, 1961.
George H. M. Lawrence was the founding director. In 1970, Gilbert Daniels, became the second director. T. D. Jacobsen succeeded Robert Kiger as director in 2019.
Description
HIBD is an institution of international
bibliographical research in the fields of
botany
Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...
,
horticulture
Horticulture (from ) is the art and science of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, trees, shrubs and ornamental plants. Horticulture is commonly associated with the more professional and technical aspects of plant cultivation on a smaller and mo ...
, and
plant science
Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially their anatomy, taxonomy, and ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who specialises in this field. "Plant" and "botany ...
history. It has a research library with over 30,000 works and art holdings. It includes art and bibliography departments.
HIBD is better known internationally than in the U.S.
It has a collection of
botanical paintings (many of them
watercolors
Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting method"Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to the S ...
), drawings, and prints dating from the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...
to contemporary works. Its library has books from an equally expansive time frame.
HIBD hosts public exhibitions, including the triennial International Exhibition of Botanical Art & Illustration since 1964. That exhibition coincides with the educational conference of the
American Society of Botanical Artists in
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...
.
Publications
* ''Botanico-Periodicum-Huntanium'' (first started in 1968, Sept 2004 BPH2 began)
* ''Bulletin of the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation''
* ''Catalogue of Botanical Books in the Collection of Rachel McMasters Hunt''
* ''
Huntia'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation. In continuous publication since 1964, this journal is the institute's scholarly journal of botanical history. The journal is published irregularly in one or more numbers per volume of approximately 200 pages by Hunt Institute. Starting with volume 17, the journal is now only published online and in color.
[Elisabeth B. Davis and Diane Schmidt ]
References
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Botanical research institutes
Carnegie Mellon University