The Theater of Plantes: A Colonial Encyclopedia of Herbal Lore

Time: 1pm

Location: Burlington County Lyceum of History and Natural Science, 307 High St, Mt. Holly, NJ.

Pre-registration is requested. Call 609-267-7111, or email: bclhns@bcls.lib.nj.us

Lecture by Karen Reeds, PhD, FLS, Princeton Research Forum

For more than 150 years, the Burlington County Lyceum has quietly cared for

a huge illustrated herbal: a copy of John Parkinson's Theatrum Botanicum,

The Theater of Plantes (London,1640). Why was this book brought to colonial

Virginia in the late 17th century, and how did it end up in the library of a

small New Jersey town? Karen Reeds, a historian of early botany, will

describe her detective work tracing the remarkable story of this unique

volume – its owners, its travels, and the plants hidden inside it.