Oak Spring Garden Foundation on Google Arts & Culture

 The Oak Spring Garden Foundation  has made some of its collection available online via a collaboration with Google Arts & Culture.  This will be of great interest to those (like me) who are enthusiastic about the history of botanical art.

The Foundation was created by Bunny Mellon who was one of the richest women in the world and who died in 2014 age 103. (Learn more about Bunny Mellon)

• The Foundation's collection comprises a collection of over 16,000 objects, including rare books, manuscripts, and works of art dating back to the 14th century
• these mainly relate to horticulture, landscape design, botany, natural history and voyages of exploration
• It's been described as one of the most compelling horticultural repositories in the nation 
• The foundation is open to researchers by appointment only.

Oak Spring Farm was the former home of the Mellons and comprised a 4,000-acre estate, in Upperville, Virginia. The farm has now been sold along with other items from her estate

However, her prized collection of books, manuscripts and art on plants, gardens, and landscapes is now housed in The Oak Spring Garden Library within a 263-acre estate which helps to perpetuate her memory.

​Oak Spring Garden Foundation on Google Arts & Culture

OSGF is dedicated to inspiring and facilitating scholarship and public dialogue on the history and future of plants, including the culture of gardens and landscapes and the importance of plants for human well-being.

A small sample of the images now available to view on Oak Spring Garden Foundation on Google Arts

The display on the Oak Spring Garden Foundation Page on Google Arts & Culture includes:

• 166 items - of which 127 items relate to plants (with a lot of original watercolours from A Curious Herbal by Elizabeth Blackwell) 
• 2 exhibits - widescreen videos about women botanical artists and related items in the collection (Note: The video while impressive on the website is much, much better on Google Arts & Culture and my 27" screen - I very much recommend you take a look!)

The first video Women Botanical Artists includes:

• ​Maria Sibylla Merian 1647-1717
• Johanna Helena Herolt 1668-1721 (Merian's daughter)
• Barbara Regina Dietzsch (1706-1783)
• Elizabeth Blachrie Blackwell (1707-1758)
• Lydia Byam (1722-unknown) - a British botanical watercolourist living on Antigua
• Lise Cloquet (1788-1860) a French botanical painter influenced by Redoute
• Lady Anna Brassey nee Allnutt​ (1838-1887)

Women Artists Part 2 covers:

• Anna Maria Hussey (1805-1853) aka Mrs Thomas Jonathan Hussey -  a British mycologist, who focused on researching and painting fungi
• Henrietta Maria Moriarty (unknown - early 19th century) - who produced Henrietta Moriarty’s Viridarium Fifty Plates of Green-house Plants, Drawn and Coloured from Nature. with Concise Descriptions, and Rules for their Culture (1806)
• Sarah Matilda Parry (fl. 1818-1850) illustrated Fruits from the Garden of Summer Hill
• Dorothea Eliza Smith (1804-1864) - painted in Peru and illustrated the Fruits of Lima 
• Dame Anne Hamilton (unknown) - an obvious admirer of Ehret
• Lady Frances Howard (unknown)
• Elizabeth and Margaret Wharton (unknown)

Research at the Oak Spring Garden Foundation

Beginning in January 2018 we are able to offer free overnight accommodation on the Oak Spring estate for bona fide scholars wishing to study material in the Oak Spring Garden Library collections. Since we are only able to accommodate a limited number of scholars at any given time, we will probably need to prioritize our visitors based on timing and topics. 
Work with the Oak Spring Garden's Collection

If you'd like to visit, you can find the Oak Spring Garden Foundation at 1776 Loughborough Lane, Upperville, VA 20184, USA. 

You need to send a brief proposal

• outlining your interest in visiting the Oak Spring Garden Library,
• the goal of your work as it relates to plants, gardens and landscapes
• complete the short online form 

You can also find the form and other ways of engaging with OSGF at www.OSGF.org/opportunities.