Earlier this week I joined a small group of library staff over at Duke’s Herbarium to look at some books. In 2024 the university announced their decision to close the herbarium and, since then, faculty and staff members have been planning for what will happen to the 825,000+ plant specimens housed there. The collection also houses a few thousand printed books on plant life from across the globe, and some of those books will soon come to live at the libraries.
One very small book sitting on the shelf caught my eye, and looking inside I found a quite unusual bookplate:
Most bookplates are small and rectangular, so it is interesting to find one so large and triangular in shape. In fact this one is so oversized for the book that they left one corner of the triangle unglued, so that it would not interfere with the movement of the inner hinge or front flyleaf.
The small figure on the bookplate holds a folding hand lens or loupe, a magnifier commonly used by naturalists. William C. Steere was an award-winning expert in bryophytes, and he gifted this book to Lewis E. Anderson in 1966. The bryophyte herbarium at Duke University was named for Anderson in 1998 and the bryophyte herbarium at New York Botanical Gardens was posthumously named for Steere in 2000.
Coupled with the bookseller’s ticket on the front board and inscriptions / stamps on the front flyleaf, this delightful bookplate tells a very detailed story of the book’s history.
