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Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation

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The Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation ( HIBD ), dedicated as the Rachel McMasters Miller Hunt Botanical Library in 1961, is a research division of Carnegie Mellon University .

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23-453: HIBD is named for Rachel McMasters Miller Hunt . She donated a collection of botanical books to the University to create HIBD. An annual monetary award is given in her honor by the institute. HIBD was dedicated October 10, 1961. George H. M. Lawrence was the founding director. In 1970, Gilbert Daniels, became the 2nd director. T. D. Jacobsen succeeded Robert Kiger as director in 2019. HIBD

46-484: A child was How to Know the Wild Flowers , by Mrs. William Starr Dana , a gift from a friend of her mother. At fifteen, she was given a copy of Leonard Meager's The English Gardener by a family member, which inspired in her a lifelong interest for book collecting, particularly books about botany and plants. She attended her first book sale in 1911, at the age of 29, where she purchased two botanical works, one of which

69-521: A research library specializing in books, bibliography and bibliophily, printing (especially the history of printing and examples of fine printing), binding, illustration and bookselling. The Grolier Club has one of the more extensive collections of book auction and bookseller catalogs in North America. The Library has the archives of a number of prominent bibliophiles such as Sir Thomas Phillipps , and of bibliophile and print collecting groups, such as

92-554: A rising executive at Alcoa . Both shared a love for rare books. As an engagement gift for Roy, Rachel bound a prayer-book in "violet crushed morocco, tooled with aluminum leaf." The Book of Common Prayer with which the Hunts' marriage ceremony was performed by Bishop Cortlandt Whitehead was also bound by Rachel, in red and gold. For their honeymoon, the Hunts toured Sweden , Norway , and Russia , where Rachel acquired some gemstones to be used in her bindings. When World War I broke out,

115-602: A trip with her family to the Pan-American Exposition in 1901, Miller visited the Roycroft community of craftsmen. This trip inspired her to experiment with making her own hand-bound books. In 1903, she was introduced to suffragette and bookbinder Euphemia Bakewell , and studied with her in Pittsburgh for two years. On a trip to Europe with her parents in 1905, Miller Hunt visited T. J. Cobden-Sanderson 's Doves Bindery, and

138-408: Is "the literary study of the arts pertaining to the production of books, including the occasional publication of books designed to illustrate, promote and encourage these arts; and the acquisition, furnishing and maintenance of a suitable club building for the safekeeping of its property, wherein meetings, lectures and exhibitions shall take place from time to time ..." The Grolier Club maintains

161-556: Is a private club and society of bibliophiles in New York City . Founded in January 1884, it is the oldest existing bibliophilic club in North America. The club is named after Jean Grolier de Servières, Viscount d'Aguisy , Treasurer General of France, whose library was famous; his motto, " Io. Grolierii et amicorum " [of or belonging to Jean Grolier and his friends], suggested his generosity in sharing books. The Club's stated objective

184-413: Is an institution of international bibliographical research in the fields of botany , horticulture , and plant science history. It has a research library with over 30,000 works and art holdings. It includes art and bibliography departments. HIBD is better known internationally than in the U.S. It has a collection of botanical paintings (many of them watercolors ), drawings, and prints dating from

207-593: The Hroswitha Club of women book collectors (1944–c. 1999) and the Society of Iconophiles. The Grolier Club also has a program of public exhibitions which "treat books and prints as objects worthy of display, on a par with painting and sculpture." The exhibitions draw on various sources including holdings of the Club, its members, and of institutional libraries. In 2013, it hosted an exhibition on women in science . In 2022

230-742: The Rare Book School was featured in the exhibit, "Building the Book from the Ancient World to the Present Day: Five Decades of Rare Book School & the Book Arts Press." The exhibit covered two millennia of the changing form of the book. The Grolier Club is a member of the Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies . The Grolier Club was formed on January 23, 1884, with 50 members and

253-604: The Renaissance to contemporary works. Its Library has books from an equally expansive time frame. HIBD hosts public exhibitions, including the triennial International Exhibition of Botanical Art & Illustration exhibitions since 1964. That exhibition coincides with the American Society of Botanical Artists educational conference in Pittsburgh . Rachel McMasters Miller Hunt Rachel McMasters Miller Hunt (1882-1963)

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276-596: The Caribbean and Europe. As her connections to the botanical and bibliophile communities grew, Rachel hosted intellectual gatherings at her home, in addition to speaking engagements at outside organizations. She was the first woman to lecture at the Grolier Club (at that time still an all-male organization), and was a founding member of the Hroswitha Club . Her collection included over 6,000 bookplates, many of them designed for her by her friend Sarah B. Hill , and in 1922, she

299-740: The Hunt Botanical Library (known as the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation starting in 1971, as its collection and mission continued to grow). Rachel took a very involved role in the planning and design of the library, as well as the moving of her collection into the building. As a child, Rachel "thought it would be great fun to be an acrobat". She stayed friends with Euphemia Bakewell for many years, as well as other women bookbinders such as Eleanor and Amy Dupuy, Mrs. Elizabeth Utley Thomas, and Sarah Hill, all of whom attended her wedding. On 11 June 1913, she married Roy Arthur Hunt ,

322-539: The Hunts (then safely back in the United States) worked with Euphemia Bakewell, travelling in Europe, to distribute funding to help orphans and child refugees. In April 1919, their first child, a son, was born, followed by three more brothers over the next seven years. Hunt died on 22 February 1963, after a prolonged bout of the flu. Roy died three years later on 21 October 1966. Grolier Club The Grolier Club

345-574: The recently-founded Guild of Book Workers of New York . Her work was praised by binder Alfred de Sauty for its "finely balanced sense of craftsmanship." In 1908, she met T. J. Cobden-Sanderson while he was visiting Euphemia Bakewell; Cobden-Sanderson invited her to visit him in Hammersmith , which she did, staying at the Doves Bindery for almost a year. She continued creating and exhibiting bindings until about 1920. Her last public showing of her work

368-614: The wealthy young bibliophile whose early death in the sinking of the RMS Titanic inspired his mother to construct Harvard's Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library , had been a member. From April 20 to June 5, 1971, a newly-discovered pre-Columbian Maya codex was displayed in the club, giving the codex the name the Grolier Codex . In 1973 the club published a facsimile of the codex in a book by Michael D. Coe . The Grolier Club has had three locations since its founding. Its first home

391-594: Was a copy of Jardin d'Hyver ou Cabinet des Fleurs , a gardening work by Jean Franeau, sieur de Lestocquoy. After her marriage in 1913, Rachel continued to collect works on botany and gardening, and developed a network of relationships among librarians, gardeners, bibliographers, authors, collectors, and scholars. In 1936, the Hunts began building a library at their home "Elmhurst" to house her growing book collection. Rachel sometimes accompanied her husband Roy on business trips, allowing her to tour gardens in South America,

414-772: Was a founding member of the American Bookplates Designers and Collectors Society. She was also an active member of the Garden Club of Allegheny County, the Garden Club of America , the American Horticultural Society , and the Herb Society of America. Her career as a lecturer continued well into the 1950s. In 1958, the first volume of a catalogue of her book collection was produced by Jane Quinby. In 1960, Rachel McMasters Miller Hunt and Roy Hunt founded

437-669: Was also able to purchase supplies for her own bookbinding work, such as hand-marbled endpapers, stamping tools, and a stock of gold leaf. Back in the United States, Miller established her own bindery, which she named the Lehcar Bindery ("Rachel" spelled backwards), in Shadyside . There, she produced over 126 complete bindings, performing all aspects of the work except for edge gilding. She worked on numerous commissions and exhibited in several national book exhibitions, and in 1907, she joined

460-672: Was an American bookbinder and book collector, specializing in botanical literature. Rachel McMasters Miller was born in Turtle Creek , Pennsylvania, in 1882 to Rachel Hughey McMasters Miller (1861–1940) and Mortimer Craig Miller (1856–1933), a maritime lawyer . She attended the Thurston School in Pittsburgh , followed by Miss Mittleberger's School for Girls in Cleveland , from which she graduated in June 1901 as president of her class. While on

483-503: Was at the Guild of Bookworkers' annual exhibition in 1921, held at the Grolier Club . Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Hunt became a distinguished speaker on books and bookbinding, though she was no longer an active practitioner. She continued to maintain her binding equipment in a workshop at "Elmhurst," the Pittsburgh home she and her husband moved to in 1926, and continued to refer to it as the "Lehcar Bindery." One of Hunt's treasured books as

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506-1087: Was formally incorporated in 1888. The founders of the club were William Loring Andrews , Theodore L. DeVinne , A. W. Drake , Albert Gallup , Robert Hoe III , Brayton Ives, Samuel W. Marvin, E. S. Mead, and Arthur B. Turnure. Perfection in the art of bookmaking is encouraged. E. D. French engraved the club's own bookplate as well as bookplates for many of its members. Honorary members have included I.N. Phelps Stokes (elected 1927), Bruce Rogers (1928), Henry Watson Kent (1930), Franklin D. Roosevelt (1934), Rudolph Ruzicka (1946), Lawrence C. Wroth (1950), Carl Purington Rollins (1951), Elmer Adler (1952), Joseph Blumenthal (1967), Margaret Bingham Stillwell (1977) and Mary C. Hyde Eccles (1989). Honorary Foreign Corresponding members have included Emery Walker (elected 1920), Alfred W. Pollard (1921), Sir Geoffrey Keynes (1922), Michael Sadleir (1925), Stanley Morison (1951), Giovanni Mardersteig (1964), Howard M. Nixon (1971), Nicolas Barker (1972), John Carter (1973), and Hermann Zapf (2003). Harry Elkins Widener ,

529-520: Was rented space at 64 Madison Avenue, but the club had outgrown this space by 1888. It moved in 1890 to a Romanesque Revival building at 29 East 32nd Street (now a designated city landmark). The third and current clubhouse at 47 East 60th Street, on the Upper East Side , was designed by Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue . The cornerstone was laid in December 1916, and the clubhouse opened almost exactly

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