Anne Dondertman - A Collection of Rare Horticultural Books

February 25, 2013 Meeting.
Anne Dondertman is Acting Director of U of T’s Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library and curator of the recent exhibition, How Does MY Garden Grow: The Education of a Gardener. She will focus on the evolution of our knowledge of gardening and horticulture from Greek and Roman times up to the twentieth century.
It is rare indeed that people give. Most people guard and keep…
James A. Baldwin, a great American writer of the second half of the twentieth century, was addressing a far deeper subject than collections of books on plants, gardens and horticulture in the quote above; still, the sentiment of his quote does apply quite nicely to our own Anne Dondertman—in the most positive light possible. She is a keeper of sorts, but like most librarians, she takes great pride in sharing treasures, rather than guarding them for herself. This month, for those like me who missed the exhibit she curated, How Does MY Garden Grow: The Education of a Gardener at U of T’s Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library last year, she is sharing it yet again at our meeting.Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris “Park-in-Sun’s Terrestrial Paradise” John Parkinson, 1629
Anne is a long-time member of the Hort, who loves gardening. She thought to indulge this love by combining it with her love of books; she thought it would provide some fun at work where she was Assistant Director and Department Head of Rare Books at the venerable library.