Antique 1936 Herbarium 47 Pressed Wildflowers Fern Handwritten Botany Album READ For Sale

An original 1936 student herbarium — 47 pressed and mounted plant specimens, each identified in period ink on a printed label recording genus and species, family, common name, habitat, locality, and date collected.

Published as “The Atlas Herbarium” by Beckley-Cardy Co. of Chicago, a school-supply house that sold blank herbarium books to classrooms nationwide. This copy was filled by W. Klee Grumbine and dated ‘36 on the front cover in the collector’s own hand. The work was done in a single season — every sheet is dated May 1936.

This is more than a casual pressing project. The collection is organized by family and spans 26 of them, from the earliest spring ephemerals to ferns, grasses, legumes, and woody vines. Most specimens were gathered in Carroll County, and the collector went further on many sheets, noting each plant’s broader native range: “Me. to Ga.,” “Me., N.J., N.Y.,” “Carroll County + Everywhere.” That habit turns the album from a scrapbook into a genuine working reference.

The human details survive too. One buttercup carries a penciled question mark after the species name where the collector wasn’t certain. Another sheet is annotated “poor specimen” in his own hand. Two labels show corrections written over the original common name. Ninety years on, you can still watch someone learning botany in real time.

SPECIMENS INCLUDED — 47 TOTAL

Ferns & Horsetails

• Adiantum pedatum — Maidenhair Fern

• Onoclea sensibilis — Sensitive Fern

• Aspidium sp. — New York Fern

• Polystichum acrostichoides — Christmas Fern

• Equisetum arvense — Horsetail

Lily, Iris & Related

• Polygonatum biflorum — Solomon’s Seal

• Smilacina racemosa — False Spikenard

• Ornithogalum umbellatum — Star-of-Bethlehem

• Erythronium americanum — Dogtooth Violet

• Sisyrinchium angustifolium — Blue-eyed Grass

Composites

• Chrysanthemum leucanthemum — Ox-eye Daisy

• Anthemis cotula — Dog-Fennel / Chamomile

• Antennaria neodioica — Pussy-Toes

• Taraxacum officinale — Dandelion

Crowfoot Family

• Ranunculus acris — Tall Buttercup

• Ranunculus pennsylvanicus — Bristly Crowfoot

• Anemonella thalictroides — Rue Anemone

Mustards

• Brassica arvensis — Hedge Mustard

• Capsella bursa-pastoris — Shepherd’s Purse

• Arabis hirsuta — Hairy Rock Cress

Pinks

• Arenaria serpyllifolia — Thyme-leaved Sandwort

• Cerastium vulgatum — Larger Mouse-Ear Chickweed

• Stellaria graminea — Lesser Stitchwort

Legumes

• Trifolium pratense — Red Clover

• Medicago sativa — Alfalfa / Lucerne

• Melilotus officinalis — Yellow Melilot

Roses

• Rosa humilis — Pasture Rose

• Potentilla fruticosa — • Tiarella cordifolia — False Mitrewort

• Saxifraga virginiensis — Early Saxifrage

Madders

• Galium asprellum — Rough Bedstraw

• Houstonia caerulea — Quaker Ladies / Bluets

Parsley Family

• Thaspium aureum — Golden Alexanders

• Osmorrhiza claytoni — Sweet Cicely

Woodland & Field Species

• Asarum canadense — Wild Ginger

• Podophyllum peltatum — May Apple / Mandrake

• Aralia nudicaulis — Wild Sarsaparilla

• Pedicularis canadensis — Wood Betony

• Rhododendron nudiflorum — Pink Azalea

• Claytonia virginica — Spring Beauty

• Geranium maculatum — Wild Geranium / Cranesbill

• Rumex acetosella — Sheep Sorrel

• Malva rotundifolia — Round-Leaved Mallow

• Nepeta hederacea — Gill-over-the-ground

• Plantago lanceolata — English Plantain

• Vitis labrusca — Northern Fox Grape

• Valerianella locusta — Lamb’s Lettuce

COLLECTOR VALUE HIGHLIGHTS

• 47 original specimens — a genuinely deep collection, not a partial or abandoned album

• 26 plant families, systematically arranged, with range notes beyond the local county

• Full provenance: named collector, county, month, and year, signed on the cover

• Original pressed material, not printed plates or modern reproductions

• Period nomenclature since revised — Chrysanthemum leucanthemum, Anemonella, Aspidium, Nepeta hederacea — a fixed snapshot of 1930s taxonomy

• Collector’s own pencil corrections and uncertainty marks visible on several sheets

• Beckley-Cardy Chicago imprint, a scarce survivor of a consumable school product

• Large format at roughly 12 x 18 inches — individual sheets frame at gallery scale

• Appeals to botanical art buyers, natural history collectors, interior designers, herbal and apothecary decorators, and antiquarian dealers

CONDITION

Good antique condition with honest wear appropriate to a 90-year-old working album.

• Covers: toning, scattered water staining, edge and corner wear, chipping with paper loss at the lower fore-edge of the front board

• Binding: original black string ties present and holding; boards secure and functional

• Interior sheets: clean and bright overall, with light offset shadows and tannin staining where specimens transferred to facing pages

• Specimens: intact and firmly mounted with original gummed paper strips; dried to natural brown and olive tones; brittle by nature, with minor fragments and flaking present as expected

• Labels: complete and legible throughout, including the collector’s pencil annotations

Sold as found. Please review all photos, as they form part of the description.

PRICING RECOMMENDATION

• Buy It Now: $349.99 with Best Offer enabled

• Accept offers in the $225–$285 range

• sale alternative: start at $149.99, , 7-day listing

• Depth is the value driver here. Comparable dated and signed 1930s herbaria with 15–20 specimens typically realize $125–$300; at 47 specimens across 26 families with full labeling, this sits at the top of that band. Single framed antique herbarium sheets resell at $25–$45 each, and a buyer breaking this album has 47 of them, which supports the higher ask.

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