From Nina Schneider, Head Cataloger              

The Clark’s Head Cataloger will be hosting an employee from the Denver Botanic Gardens next week. This got us thinking about some of the botany, horticulture, and design books held at the library: volumes such as the 1682 copy of Labyrinte de Versailles published in French, English, German and Dutch by Nicolaus Visscher in Amsterdam (call#: SB466.F83 V56 1682*), or the 13th edition of The Gardeners Kalendar: Directing what works are to be performed every Month in the Kitchen, Fruit, and Pleasure-gardens by Philip Miller (1691-1771), printed by the author and sold by John Rivington [et al.] in 1762 (call#: X 92571D3), or Victoria Padilla’s 1961 book on Southern California Gardens: an illustrated history, published by University of California Press and designed by Ward Ritchie (call#: Press coll. Ritchie)

The Clark also has numerous reference books, such as The English Garden: Literary Sources & Documents edited and with an introduction by Michael Charlesworth (a three-volume reference source published in 1993 [call#: PR1111.G3 E5]). Last but not least, Senator Clark’s own Montana amusement park is charmingly described in Beautiful Columbia Garden : The Far-famed Pleasure Resort of Butte, published in the mid-19th century by the Butte Electric Railway Company (call#: Mont. Coll. B38b).

For those of you who haven’t visited, the Clark Library sits in the middle of a city-block, surrounded by well-manicured lawns, boxwood hedges, flowering arbors, expanses of English ivy, clusters of Strelitzia (or Birds of Paradise), a rose garden, fountains (that need refurbishing), statuary,  and our extraordinary Moreton Bay Fig trees. The most amazing part of our property is that the Clark only has one (very hard working) gardener to maintain it. It’s a peaceful oasis in the middle of Los Angeles, open to the public during the week. It’s not unusual to see our neighbors strolling on the grounds during a beautiful autumn day.