Around the World in…
The science of botany flourished in the 18th century as travel became more common. Botanists were able to voyage far beyond their countries of origin to study and collect new – to them – plants from around the world. Because live plants were unlikely to survive the salty air and the lack of fresh water and light on a long ocean journey, botanists initially relied on dried plant specimens and seeds when presenting their findings. Published in 1842, Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward’s treatise, On the Growth of Plants in Closely Glazed Cases, outlines how live plants could be transported across oceans in enclosed cases. These Wardian cases changed how botanists conducted and shared their studies, and became the forerunners of modern terrariums.
Anne Kingsbury Wollstonecraft. Specimens of the Plants and Fruits of the Island of Cuba, 1826.
Anne Kingsbury Wollstonecraft was an early 19th-century American naturalist and botanical illustrator. As the wife of Charles Wollstonecraft, she was a sister-in-law of writer and women’s rights activist Mary Wollstonecraft and an aunt by marriage to Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, the author of Frankenstein.
After her husband’s death in 1817, Anne Wollstonecraft spent the last decade of her life in Matanzas, Cuba, studying the island’s flora. Notably, she consulted with indigenous Cubans to document the native names and uses of plants.
Her research was assembled in a three-volume manuscript, Specimens of the Plants and Fruits of the Island of Cuba, in which she meticulously recorded and illustrated her findings. Wollstonecraft’s work is considered one of the most significant collections of botanical illustrations from Cuba’s Spanish colonial period, and was a triumph for a woman in science at a time when societal expectations and prejudice limited women’s contributions to the discipline.
Despite its significance, the manuscript was never published and was known to scholars only through early references. After Wollstonecraft’s death in 1828, it was passed down through the generations until 1923, when descendant B. F. Kingsbury donated the volumes to Cornell University Library. Due to an attribution error, the manuscript remained little-known for nearly 100 years more. In 2018, Cornell University Library digitized all three volumes and made them freely available online via HathiTrust.
The manuscript volumes contain several dried specimens pressed between the pages, a technique botanists frequently used to preserve samples before the introduction of the Wardian case.
Gift of B. F. Kingsbury.
Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward. On the Growth of Plants in Closely Glazed Cases. London: J. Van Woorst, 1852.
This copy of Nathaniel Ward’s work belonged to Liberty Hyde Bailey, Cornell horticulture professor, founder of the College of Agriculture, and eponym of the Hortorium where the book is housed today.
On loan from the L.H. Bailey Hortorium Herbarium.
Mark Catesby. The Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands, vol. 2. London: Printed at the expense of the author, 1731-43.
English naturalist Mark Catesby explored the southern coast of what is now the United States, as well as islands in the Caribbean including Jamaica and the Bahamas. He studied the local flora and fauna, sending seeds and dried plant specimens back to England for study and attempted cultivation. His success attracted the attention of the Royal Society, resulting in financing for a return trip to North America, which enabled him to observe and gather content for his Natural History.
