Conserving, Digitizing, and Disseminating Rare and Fragile Horticultural Records

FAIN: PW-259055-18

Chicago Botanic Garden (Glencoe, IL 60022-1168)
Leora Siegel (Project Director: July 2017 to October 2022)

Conservation and digitization of 62 rare and unique volumes of “language of flowers” literature published in the United States and Europe during the 19^th century, to be made publicly available via the Biodiversity Heritage Library. 

The Chicago Botanic Garden’s Lenhardt Library seeks to conserve, digitize, and disseminate 62 rare and fragile language of flowers volumes. The project will create and sustain free, public access to the culturally significant works, providing insights into 19th literature, gender roles, and botanical culture. Two contracted vendors, ARTEX, a fine art shipper, and the nationally recognized Northeast Document Conservation Company, will ship, conserve, and digitize the works to the highest professional standards. Library staff will inspect the work, assign metadata to digital pages and images, shelve conserved volumes in a secure rare book room, and upload digitized content to the Biodiversity Heritage Library, an open access repository of biodiversity literature facilitated by Smithsonian Libraries. Staff will broadly disseminate the grant products through rare book viewings, exhibitions, lectures, Public Library Days, youth programs, social and legacy media, and the Garden blog.

Associated Products

Frances Sargent Osgood and the Language of Flowers: A 19th Century Literary Genre of Floriography and Floral Poetry (Blog Post)
Title: Frances Sargent Osgood and the Language of Flowers: A 19th Century Literary Genre of Floriography and Floral Poetry
Author: Leora Siegel
Abstract: The Language of Flower genre is at the intersection of botany, horticulture, natural history, art, poetry, and women’s studies. This popular literary trend in the 19th century, presented the world of botany through dictionaries of flowers and associated meanings, floral poetry and prose, offering a sentimental view of natural history. A properly arranged bouquet was said to convey a “secret message” for the recipient. The “social media” of its day, this Victorian fad, led to many editions of works published, with multiple titles by successful authors.
Date: 11/19/2020
Primary URL: https://blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2020/11/frances-sargent-osgood-language-of-flowers.html
Primary URL Description: Biodiversity Heritage Library Blog
Blog Title: Frances Sargent Osgood and the Language of Flowers, a 19th century literary genre of floriography and floral poetry
Website: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/

Language of Flowers Virtual Symposium (Conference/Institute/Seminar)
Title: Language of Flowers Virtual Symposium
Author: Leora Siegel
Author: Stacy Stoldt
Author: Brent Elliott
Author: Ann Shteir
Abstract: The Language of Flowers genre is at the intersection of botany, horticulture, natural history, art, poetry, and women’s studies. This 19th-century popular literary trend presented the world of botany through dictionaries of flowers and associated meanings, and floral poetry and prose, offering a sentimental view of natural history. A properly arranged bouquet was said to convey a “secret message” for the recipient. The “social media” of its day, this Victorian literary fad, led to many editions of works being published, with multiple titles by successful authors.
Date Range: 4/30/2021
Location: Virtual, Zoom webinar, recorded and uploaded to YouTube
Primary URL: https://youtu.be/2lrEivFkeS8
Primary URL Description: Link to YouTube for the Language of Flowers virtual symposium presented by the Lenhardt Library of the Chicago Botanic Garden.
Secondary URL: https://blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2021/04/language-of-flowers-virtual-symposium.html
Secondary URL Description: Biodiversity Heritage Library registration webpage for the Language of Flowers virtual symposium presented by the Lenhardt Library of the Chicago Botanic Garden.

Floriography: The Language of Flowers (Article)
Title: Floriography: The Language of Flowers
Author: Stacy Stoldt
Author: Leora Siegel
Abstract: The “Language of Flowers” genre is at the intersection of botany, horticulture, natural history, art, poetry, and women’s studies. This popular literary trend in the nineteenth century presented the world of botany through dictionaries of flowers and associated meanings, floral poetry, and prose, offering a sentimental view of natural history. A properly arranged bouquet was said to convey a “secret message” for the recipient. The “social media” of its day, this Victorian fad led to many editions of works published, with multiple titles by successful authors.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: https://www.caxtonclub.org/
Primary URL Description: Caxton Club homepage with access to the current issue of the Caxtonian.
Access Model: Current issue is open access on the website. Previous issues are open to Caxton Club membership..
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Caxtonian: Journal of the Caxton Club
Publisher: Caxton Club

Lenhardt Library of the Chicago Botanic Garden Digitized Collections: Language of Flowers (Web Resource)
Title: Lenhardt Library of the Chicago Botanic Garden Digitized Collections: Language of Flowers
Author: Amanda Lettner
Abstract: This web resource features open access to 62 digitized volumes with thumbnail images, Flickr images, exhibition photos, symposium YouTube link, and blog posts about language of flowers and the NEH support for this project.
Year: 2019
Primary URL: https://cbhl.libguides.com/c.php?g=753317&p=6318279
Primary URL Description: Link to the Chicago Botanic Garden’s language of flowers digital assets.

Language of Flowers pop-up (Exhibition)
Title: Language of Flowers pop-up
Curator: Stacy Stoldt
Abstract: Newly conserved language of flowers volumes were displayed to share with our communities of interest with signage describing the support from the National Endowments for the Humanities for this project.
Year: 2019
Primary URL: https://cbhl.libguides.com/c.php?g=753317&p=6318279
Primary URL Description: Link to the language of flowers LibGuide tab that collects in one location, photos of a language of flowers popup display, full-text access to the sixty-two digitized volumes funded by this NEH grant and blog posts about the grant.

Biodiversity Heritage Library, Language of Flowers Collection (Web Resource)
Title: Biodiversity Heritage Library, Language of Flowers Collection
Author: Biodiversity Heritage Library
Abstract: The Biodiversity Heritage Library’s language of flowers collection contains 187 volumes with open access including the 62 digitized with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Year: 2019
Primary URL: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/browse/collection/LanguageofFlowers
Primary URL Description: Link to the language of flowers collection in the Biodiversity Heritage Library with full-text access to 187 volumes in this genre.

---