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Lily Wells water color illustrations of North American plants

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Held at: University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts [Contact Us]3420 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6206

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.

Overview and metadata sections

Lily Wells, born in Newport, Rhode Island, was a member of the Naturalists Field Club of the University of Pennsylvania. She painted the various flora of the northeastern and mid-Atlantic United States.

This collection comprises seven sketchbooks of botanical watercolors; plus one bound volume of seven individual watercolor plates.

In the first seven volumes of sketchbooks, each plant is identified. Location and habitat are described, and each painting is dated. Locations of plants illustrated include Philadelphia and suburbs, Shawnee and Mt. Pocono, Pennsylvania; Camden, Williamstown, Atco, Absecon, Asbury Park, and Gloucester County, New Jersey; Westkill, Echo Notch, and Lebanon Springs, New York; West Quincy, West Roxbury, Milton, and Berkshire County, Massachusetts; Middletown, Rhode Island; Mt. Kearsarge and Shelburne, New Hampshire; and Kittery, Maine.

Volume 8 includes seven watercolors of flowering plants of the northeastern United States painted by Lily Wells, a member of the Naturalists Field Club of the University of Pennsylvania. This volume also has an introduction by John W. Harshberger dated June 14, 1928 and holds a wedding announcement for Lily Wells and John Muirhead Macfarlane, dated 1929.

Volume 8 is a gift of the Naturalists Field Club, 1928. The remaining sketchbooks were acquired in 2001.

Binding: cloth; sketchbooks have damaged spines, some covers detached.

Publisher
University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts
Finding Aid Author
Molly B. Hutt
Finding Aid Date
2015 April 14
Access Restrictions

This collection is open for research use.

Use Restrictions

Copyright restrictions may exist. For most library holdings, the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania do not hold copyright. It is the responsibility of the requester to seek permission from the holder of the copyright to reproduce material from the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts.

Collection Inventory

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Volume 1: Philadelphia; Camden, New Jersey; and vicinity, 1893-1894.
Box 1 Folder 1
Volume 2: New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia, 1894.
Box 1 Folder 2
Volume 3: Williamstown, New Jersey; Shawnee, Pennsylvania; and Philadelphia, 1895.
Box 1 Folder 3
Volume 4: New Jersey and Pennsylvania, 1895.
Box 2 Folder 1
Volume 5: New Jersey, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, 1896-1904.
Box 2 Folder 2
Volume 6: New Hampshire, New Jersey pinelands and shore, 1896-1899.
Box 2 Folder 3
Volume 7: Massachusetts, Maine, and New Hampshire, 1902-1928.
Box 2 Folder 4
Volume 8: [Northern New England], [1928].
Box 2 Folder 5

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