Celebrating Spring with the Lenhardt Library of the Chicago Botanic Garden

There is still a nip in the air across Illinois but this week marks the calendar’s first week of Spring. To celebrate Spring and to turn our minds toward warmer weather, the IDHH highlights the Lenhardt Library of the Chicago Botanic Garden’s collection in the Illinois Digital Archive. The collection features more than 100 digitized books, postcards, and photography. These digital items represent a tiny fraction of the Lenhardt Library’s rare book collection, which provides 500 years of research on nearly all things related to botany, horticulture, agriculture, gardening, landscaping, and botanical art.
The first three items below are postcards featuring photomechanical prints of original photographs and paintings of botanical landmarks in Lincoln Park, Jackson Park, and Washington Park. All of these places, the Conservatories in Lincoln Park and Washington Park and the Japanese Garden in Jackson Park are still extant.

The last items are photographs from the 1965 Chicago World Flower and Garden Show. First held in 1847, the tradition continues to this day.

Thanks to our contributor, the Lenhardt Library of the Chicago Botanic Gardens. See all of their items in the DPLA or check out all IDHH items with the subject, “Spring.”