Special Collections

In recent years the Historia Plantarum Collection has been accrued with donations and purchases from the collections of Smithsonian botanists Dan Nicolson and Stanwyn Shetler; the late Smithsonian ethnobotanist Robert De Filipps (1939-2004); the historian of Arabic medicine Farid Haddad, curator of the Sami Haddad Memorial Library, which included manuscripts now at the Wellcome Library in London (UK); and archival documentation on Greek medical manuscripts of the historian of medieval pharmacy John M. Riddle.

The Collection also holds (on a long-term loan basis) volumes belonging to the late historian of medieval botany and pharmacy Jerry Stannard (1926-1988), whose botanical and historical collection has been donated to the Smithsonian Libraries.

Although the collection grows constantly, you can also help by donating books.