In the age of Laudato Si, we are reminded of the value of knowing what our common home looks like, and part of this is knowing the level of biodiversity in our environment. The Sisters and Daughters of Charity who ministered at St. Joseph’s Academy and at their Provincial house throughout the 19th century did not go into extensive detail on trees, plants, and ecology around them. Thankfully, some of their students did.
The Archives has five books, each containing a collection of pressed leaves and flowers of various plant species found in the area, along with the scientific name of each plant. The books range in date from 1806 to 1874.
The typical page from one of these books consists of one or several samples cut and pasted into the books and its scientific name.
The scrapbooks provide evidence of the education Academy students were receiving, both in Latin and in plants and botany. While many of the plants are native, several of them are not, indicating some type of cultivation. One of the books even contains a chart of the plants, including its count, scientific, and common name, as well as more information on its taxonomical classification.
Seeing as some of the books predate Mother Seton’s founding of her school in Emmitsburg in 1809, it is unclear exactly how some of the earliest books came to the collections. Others, however, have clear provenance and direct connection to Emmitsburg, as the one created by Mary O’Rourke, class of 1874, sent by her husband and daughter after her passing.
We are in the process of scanning these books, first and foremost as a conservation measure. Decaying plant matter does not typically do well for conservation and holding up well, as anyone familiar with trees, soil, gardening, or nutrients will tell you. The plant samples are also incredibly fragile, made dry and brittle by over a century (sometimes two) of survival. Scanning will preserve the books in the state they are in now, at least in image form, in case more and more pieces get whittled away. Currently, three of the five books have been scanned, and we are planning to make them available publicly through our colleagues at Digital Maryland. Eventually, we will make the others available as well, but due to their size, we will need to work with third-party vendors with capabilities that we do not have on-site.