Posted on Fri., Dec. 7, 2012 by Brandon Tam

Finding a rare and endangered plant species in the wild is hard enough. What is even more difficult is spotting an albino form of that flower!

Posted on Thu., Dec. 6, 2012 by Shelley Kresan

With this post we introduce a new Verso series from Shelley Kresan, one of the rare book catalogers in the Library. She is in the process of cataloging the Anne M. Cranston cookbook collection

Posted on Tue., Dec. 4, 2012 by Kate Lain

Heavy boxes of glass. A portable darkroom. Noxious chemicals. A cumbersome camera. Field photography during the U.S. Civil War was an arduous process far removed from the relatively effortless digital image-snapping of today's pocket-sized cameras and phones.

Posted on Fri., Nov. 30, 2012 by Brandon Tam

It's a bird.... It's a plane.... It's orchid pollen? Pollen has been flying at the information desk in The Rose Hills Foundation Conservatory for Botanical Science this past month! Lucky visitors who were in the Conservatory at the right place and at the right time were able to witness

Posted on Wed., Nov. 28, 2012 by Thea Page

In theory, putting on an art exhibition is a rather formulaic process. You develop a theme, select works, design a layout for the gallery, and then, in the final weeks before opening, the show is installed according to plan.

Posted on Wed., Nov. 21, 2012 by Catherine Wehrey

Green turtle. Jowl with spinach. Coconut cake. Crab à la Mayonnaise. What's on your Thanksgiving menu? If you and yours celebrated the holiday in late 19th-century California, your table might have buckled under the weight of some of these delicacies

Posted on Tue., Nov. 20, 2012 by Matt Stevens

Bibliographers seldom get much attention, especially when they choose the literary giant Samuel Johnson as their subject. Scholar O M "Skip" Brack Jr. relished living in the shadow of such greatness, annotating scholarly editions of Johnson's writings

Posted on Thu., Nov. 15, 2012 by Susan Turner-Lowe

"Maynard L. Parker (1900–1976) built a career making residential spaces look their alluring best," says Jennifer A. Watts on the jacket copy of the new book that she edited about the acclaimed architectural photographer.

Posted on Sat., Nov. 10, 2012 by Jennifer A. Watts

Veterans Day, an occasion to honor the nation's servicemen and women, has roots stretching back to the First World War. Yet the desire to commemorate wartime sacrifice has a much longer history.

Posted on Thu., Nov. 8, 2012 by Catherine Wehrey

The name Hubble is familiar to most people. It invokes mental images of the Hubble Telescope and its photographs of colorful nebulae in space, but few know details of the life of its namesake...or his cat.