Library and Archives Collections

The Longwood Gardens Library's collections encompass materials from the fields of horticulture, botany and the allied arts and sciences.  There are approximately 31,000 items in the collections.

MAIN AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS 

Monographs and series in support of the Gardens’ interests and activities.

What you might find here:

  • Flora series of the geographical regions of the world, such as Flora of North America or Flora of Tropical East Africa
  • The Winter Harvest Handbook : Year-Round Vegetable Production Using Deep-Organic Techniques and Unheated Greenhouses by Eliot Coleman
  • A history of the du Pont family -  Du Pont: 200 Years of an American Family by Michelle Farrari

REFERENCE COLLECTION

Basic reference tools, such as dictionaries, encyclopedias and almanacs.  Many of these tools are specific to horticulture and botany, such as dictionaries of plant names and encyclopedic plant references.

What you might find here:

  • Taxonomic Literature : A Selective Guide to Botanical Publications and Collections with Dates, Commentaries and Types by Frans A. Stafleu and Richard S. Cowan
  • Encyclopedia of Gardens : History and Design   editor, Candice A. Shoemaker

PERIODICALS COLLECTION

Back issues of currently published and out-of-print magazines, both bound and unbound — some going back many years. We also subscribe to over 300 current periodicals. The current list may be found by clicking here:

What you might find here:

  • The December 1959 issue of Popular Gardening , containing an article entitled "Make a Merry Christmas Corsage"
  • The unique horticultural newsletter The Avant Gardener
  • A complete set of BBC Gardens Illustrated , 1993-present

Onsite, access the Garden, Landscape & Horticulture Index to assist in the exploration of our journal collection. This index provides abstracts and from more than 400 core publications covering horticulture, garden and landscape design and history, botany, ecology, plant and garden conservation, garden management and horticultural therapy.

RARE BOOK COLLECTION

Housed in our climate-controlled Archives, the rare book collection contains fine examples of botanical art spread across a wide range of plants. The collection spans nearly 350 years.

What you might find here:

  • The oldest title in the collection — Sylva by John Evelyn (1664)
  • A complete set of Curtis's Botanical Magazine (from 1788 to the present)
  • Reichenbachia (1888-1892), an unsurpassed collection of chromolithographic orchid plates and descriptions

ARCHIVES COLLECTION

The Archives contains paper records from 1954 to present day organized by departments at Longwood.  In addition, there are blueprints, photographs, property maps and recordings in several formats and a small artifact collection.