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Inside The New York Botanical Garden

Flora Illustrata Named American Horticultural Society 2015 Book Award Winner

Posted in From the Library on June 16 2015, by Vanessa Sellers

Flora Illustrata

Last Thursday, June 4, the American Horticultural Society honored Susan M. Fraser and Vanessa Bezemer Sellers, editors of the 2015 Book Award Winner FLORA ILLUSTRATA: Great Works from the LuEsther T. Mertz Library of The New York Botanical Garden (The New York Botanical Garden/Yale University Press, November 2014). Fraser, Director of the Mertz Library, and Sellers, Coordinator of the Humanities Institute, were on hand to receive the award at the festive ceremony and banquet held at River Farm, the AHS headquarters in Alexandria, VA.

Flanked by Jane Diamantis, Chair of the Awards Committee, and Tom Underwood, Executive Director of the American Horticultural Society, editors Susan Fraser and Vanessa Sellers proudly display the book award for Flora Illustrata during the June 4th Award Ceremony at River Farm, AHS headquarters in Alexandria, VA.
Flanked by Jane Diamantis, Chair of the Awards Committee, and Tom Underwood, Executive Director of the American Horticultural Society, editors Susan Fraser and Vanessa Sellers proudly display the book award for Flora Illustrata during the June 4th Award Ceremony at River Farm, AHS headquarters in Alexandria, VA.

Hailed by critics nationwide, Flora Illustrata offers an exciting look inside the Garden’s Mertz Library, one of the world’s most comprehensive resources about plants and gardens. With an abundance of impressive images from the Library collections, and authoritative essays, Flora Illustrata highlights the creative effort of the world’s preeminent explorers, scientists, publishers, artists, and printmakers across the centuries, as bookmaking and the graphic arts developed in tandem with knowledge of natural history.

Members of the American Horticultural Society’s 2015 Book Award Committee, who selected Flora Illustrata, commented: “It adeptly captures horticultural history through thoughtful, easy-to-understand discussions of the botanical and cultural significance of each piece … Everything from the high quality paper and appealing layout to the breadth of information makes this an ‘amazing reference volume.'”