The LuEsther T. Mertz Library, founded in 1899, is the largest, most comprehensive botanical library in the Americas. It is also a treasury of centuries of knowledge about plants and related topics.
The Mertz Library Exhibition Program is the primary vehicle for displaying and discussing the many remarkable holdings of rare books, historic artifacts, archival documents, and artworks housed in the collections of the LuEsther T. Mertz Library. Exhibitions are currently displayed in the Rare Book Room and front entrance display cases.
The Library previously held exhibitions in the Rondina and LoFaro Gallery. The Library has borrowed important objects for past exhibitions from other institutions, including Yale University (a Monet painting); Cambridge University (Darwin’s letters and notebooks); the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Japanese art, lacquers, and woodcut prints); the Morgan Library (paintings); Harvard University (Emily Dickinson’s letters and poems); the Oak Spring Garden Library (paintings, rare books, and mss.); and the American Museum of Natural History (rare books and mss.), among others.
Learn more about our past exhibitions from the list below.
Exhibitions
e jgroarke@nybg.org
p 718-817-8845
Library
e libref@nybg.org
p 718-817-8604
f 718-817-8956
Monday: Closed
Tuesday: 10am - 4pm
Wednesday: 10am - 4pm
Thursday: 10am - 4pm
Friday: 10am - 4pm
Sat & Sun: Closed
