Auction Ends: Apr 6, 2013 11:00 PM EDT

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Private Tour - Peter H. Raven Library and the Herbarium at the Missouri Botanical Garden

Item Number: 119

Estimated Value: Priceless

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Item Description

The herbarium of the Missouri Botanical Garden is the second largest herbarium in the United States and one of the largest in the world. The Garden’s collection contains plant specimens collected by George Boehmer in the 1740s, by Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander, who accompanied Captain James Cook on his first voyage around the world (1768-71), and by Charles Darwin on his voyage with H.M.S. Beagle (1831-36).

Another treasure of the Missouri Botanical Garden is the world-acclaimed Peter H. Raven Library. The Library began as a small collection of horticultural books owned by the Garden’s founder, Henry Shaw. Today, the Library is globally recognized as one of the most comprehensive libraries of botanical literature in the world. The oldest volume in the rare book collection is Opus ruralium commodorum, which dates back to1474. Written by Peitro de’Crescenzi (1233-1320), it is a guide to good farming practices and estate management in rural Italy at the end of the Middle Ages. Another notable item is Temple of Flora by Robert John Thornton, published between 1799 and 1807. The work, with its lavishly beautiful, full-color illustrations, has been described as a premier piece of English botanical literature.

Here is your chance to have a private tour of the Missouri Botanical Garden's herbarium and Peter H. Raven Library. Your tour will begin with a general introduction of the 200,000 volume library and will include a visit to the Sturtevant Pre-Linnean Collection of more than 1000 rare botanical and natural history books, dating from 1474 to 1753. Your tour continues in the herbarium, a collection of over six million pressed and dried plant specimens from all over the world. You will come away with a better understanding of the important roles the library and herbarium play in plant research and conservation at the Garden and their global scope.