Location: Farlow Herbarium, 20 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge (next to the Harvard Divinity School).

Directions: Take the MBTA Red Line train to Harvard Square. Walk northeast through Harvard Yard and then to Kirland Street behind Memorial Hall. Kirkland Street intersects with Divinity Avenue. Walk north on Divinity Avenue to No. 20, which is on the east (right) side of the avenue. Farlow Herbarium is the small Victorian Gothic building on the north side of the Divinity School, across from the Peabody Museum. The nearest parking garage is under the Holyoke Center—across from either Dunster or Holyoke Streets. The Holyoke Center is the Harvard Corporation headquarters at Mass. Ave. / Holyoke Street / Dunster Street / and Mt. Auburn Street. The parking garage is UNDER that building.

Admission: $10.00 Members VSA/NE; $15.00 Nonmembers.

PLEASE join us for a very special opportunity to visit and learn about one of Harvard’s most picturesque buildings and important archival collections. Built in 1886 as the Harvard Divinity School Library from designs provided by Peabody and Stearns, this building is particularly noteworthy for the beauty of its Gothic Revival Reading Room. The Farlow Reference Library and Herbarium has been housed in this building since 1923.
        William Gilson Farlow, a pioneer in plant pathology research, helped establish a systematic nomenclature for fungi, and inspired and directed some of America’s leading botanists. It was said that “His firsthand knowledge of cryptogams was greater than that of any botanist and he was probably the most learned man in his profession.” During his lifetime Farlow founded and endowed the Harvard Cryptogamic Laboratories and Herbarium. His personal library was bequeathed to the University upon his death in Cambridge on June 3rd, 1919.
        This talk will discuss the history of the building and the arduous journey to secure it for the Farlow Herbarium.

Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
The History and Architecture of the Farlow Reference Library and Herbarium of Cryptogamic Botany

5:30 P.M.  Reception
6:15 P.M.  Lecture
7:15 P.M.  Tour
Lecturer: Lisa DeCesare, Head of Archives & Public Services Botany Libraries