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A detailed description of the Mertz Library’s rich and varied holdings is provided by FRASER & REED (2002) and REED (1969). Books and journals are found in the ‘General Research Collection’, the ‘Rare Book and Folio Collection’, the ‘Pre-1850 Collection’, the
‘Circulating Collection’, as well as in a number of special-use collections, including the
‘Reference and Bindery Collections’ and the ‘Cryptogamic/Britton’ and the ‘Herbarium Libraries’. All book and journal holdings are fully cataloged and accessible in the Library’s online catalog CATALPA. The ‘Non-Book and Special Collections’ include ‘The Archives’, the ‘Art and Illustration Collection’, the ‘Seed and Nursery Catalog Collection’, the ‘Index Seminum Collection’, the ‘Reprint Collection’, the ‘Lord & Burnham Collection’, the
‘Photograph Collection’, and the ‘Vertical File’.
3.1 The Book and Journal Collections
The General Research CollectionThe General Research Collection consists of all books published after 1850 and nearly all of the Library's serial titles.
The Rare Book and Folio Collection
The Rare Book and Folio Collection includes the earliest books and manuscripts held by the library, dating from the 12th century to 1753, the publication of CARL LINNAEUS’ ‘Species Plantarum’. Included in this collection are scarce works from the Linnean and pre-Linnean times, among them herbals, incunabula, and works considered to be foundations in the fields of botany, biology, materia medica, horticulture and gardening, and agriculture. Some of them are as well the most beautiful and valuable volumes held by the Library. The Folio Collection is particularly notable for its holdings of 18th and 19th century featuring many fine botanical plates, rendered in print from paintings and drawings by many notable artists as PIERRE
JOSEPH REDOUTÉ, PANCRACE BESSA, GEORGE DIONYSIUS EHRET and WALTER HOOD FITCH. The Pre-1850 Collection
The Pre-1850 Collection consists of books published between the years 1753 and 1850. The collection is particularly noteworthy for its early American imprints. As this period is also known as the ‘great age of botanical illustration’, many of the volumes feature outstanding hand colored illustrations.
The Circulating Collection
The Circulating Collection is a small collection of about 4.000 titles of general interest focusing on basic botany, gardening, and landscape design. The holdings may be borrowed for home use by Garden Members, Garden Staff, volunteers and students enrolled in the Graduate Studies Program and The School of Professional Horticulture.
3.2 The Non-Book Collections
The Archives and ManuscriptsThe Archives include manuscripts of important botanists and horticulturists, correspondence, working papers, field notebooks, photographs, architectural plans, maps, illustrations, portraits, and artifacts. The collection provides a comprehensive history of the growth and
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development of the New York Botanical Garden since its inception in 1891 as well as the history of botanical science and horticulture as fields of study. They also document the relationships between the Garden and its personalities with other botanical, horticultural, and cultural institutions in the 19th and 20th century, in the United States and other nations.
The Archives are arranged in three categories:
1. Institutional records were created as a result of official Garden activities.
2. Personal papers contain correspondence, manuscripts, research notes, and other materials from botanists, horticulturists, and landscape designers associated with the history of botany and horticulture in the U.S., the development of the landscape, and the growth and evolution of the Garden and its work.
3. Repository archives are the historical records of selected botanical and horticultural organizations, plant societies and plant-related businesses and industries.
The Lord & Burnham Collection is an important attraction of the repository archives. It holds architectural drawings, correspondence and account books for greenhouses, conservatories, and related structures erected in the United States in the late 19th and 20th centuries by the Lord & Burnham Company and by other manufacturers associated with the firm. The collection contains over 140.000 architectural plans and includes data on structural and site elements for more than 7.000 glass structures.
The Art and Illustration Collection
The Art and Illustration Collection encompasses watercolors, oil paintings, line drawings, sculptures, and photographs – thus covering a wide range of illustration techniques and media. Included in this collection are drawings done to illustrate renowned Floras, illustrations to supplement botanical descriptions in taxonomic works, as well as garden-related illustrations. The Art and Illustration Collection is an important tool for taxonomic research and a valuable and useful resource for studies of the history of botanical art, as well as for exhibitions.
Seed and Nursery Catalog Collection
The Seed and Nursery Catalog Collection contains approximately 150.000 items, the earliest dating back to the first half of the 19th century. It is particularly strong in catalogs of American purveyors of seeds and plants in the 20th century. The holdings are not yet cataloged but have been inventoried in two local databases available in the Library.
Index Seminum
The Index Seminum (Seed Exchange Lists) Collection contains printed lists of documented seed collections made from wild plants available for distribution through exchange by botanical gardens and arboreta. These publications are of interest to scholars studying the introduction of new species. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, the first descriptions of new plants sometimes appeared in such publications.
The Reprint Collection
The Reprint Collection holds a large collection of scientific reprints arranged alphabetically by the first author's name. The reprints are copies of articles, printed separately from scientific
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and technical journals, for distribution by the author(s). The collection conveniently brings together many of the writings of a single author. It often contains articles from journals not held in the general research collection. The Library is presently creating records in the online catalog to indicate that an author is represented in the collection.
The Photograph Collection
The Photograph Collection was gathered in the Library in the 1960s from a number of collections housed elsewhere in the Garden. The most important ones are the historical photographs of the Garden, especially those taken before World War II. Access to these collections is limited.
The Vertical File
The Vertical File is a subject file containing magazine and newspaper clippings, photographs, ephemeral publications, and other miscellany. This collection, begun in the 1920s, now numbers over 40.000 file folders. The file is still maintained and added to, although the Library depends increasingly on searchable databases for the kinds of information once designated for the Vertical File.
4. ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE OF THE LUESTHER T. MERTZ LIBRARY,