Orchids: From Rare Books to Research

April 1, 2007-May 31, 2007
Location: Bridge Gallery

This exhibit highlights the scope of our really wonderful collection of materials on orchids. Included are examples of society newsletters, conference proceedings, field guides and floras, botanical art books, books on orchid growing and on orchid breeding, and books on the botany and ecology of orchids. The exhibit also includes a special selection of books from our Rare Book collection.

A collection of this breadth and depth does not develop overnight. Eileen Herring, the current selector for botany and horticulture, has been actively developing this collection for the past twelve years, but much credit goes to previous librarians and to faculty members in horticulture. According to a 1995 article by Paula Szilard in Na Okika O Hawaii, the first orchid book purchased for the UH Manoa Library was the second edition of American Orchid Culture which was added to the collection in 1939. Several major purchases of orchid books were made during the 1940s and the collection was again expanded considerably in the 1960s and early 1970s. Paula Szilard was responsible for greatly improving the collection while she was the horticulture subject specialist. In 1994, she worked with Dr. Yoneo Sagawa to transfer the orchid publication collection of the Lyon Arboretum library to UH Manoa Library. Dr. Sagawa also arranged a number of exchange relationships with orchid societies throughout the work, greatly expanding our collection of orchid society newsletters. In 2004, the Library received a major gift of rare orchid books from the J.H. Beaumont Orchid Research Library of the Tropical Plant & Soil Sciences Department, College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources.

Did you know that dendrobium and oncidium cut flowers and potted plants were three of the top 10 floriculture and nursery crops in the state of Hawaii? Researchers at the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources continue to work on improving quality and performance of the plants available to our local growers. One part of the exhibit highlights the research and publications of faculty of the College.

Thanks to the many people who assisted me in the development and installation of this exhibit: Stu Dawrs, Milton Mukai, Debbie Dunn, Susan Johnson, Merlita Nazareno, Kris Anderson, Miles Hakoda in CTAHR´s publications office, and Dr. Sagawa´s assistant.

A very special mahalo to Dr. Richard Criley for the orchid flower arrangement and to Dr. Yoneo Sagawa for his ongoing encouragement and support of this part of our collection.

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