Exhibition Schedule click here

A research division of Carnegie Mellon University, specializes in the history of botany and all aspects of plant science and serves the international scientific community through research and documentation.

To this end, the Institute acquires and maintains authoritative collections of books, plant images, manuscripts, portraits and data files, and provides publications and other modes of information service. The Institute meets the reference needs of botanists, biologists, historians, conservationists, librarians, bibliographers and the public at large, especially those concerned with any aspect of the North American flora.

 [Insect on Citrus], detail of a hand-colored engraving by Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717) for her Dissertatio de generatione et metamorphosibus insectorum surinamensium, ed. 3 (The Hague, Pierre Gosse, 1726, pl. 28), HI Library call no. BE10 M561d.

Hunt Institute was dedicated in 1961 as the Rachel McMasters Miller Hunt Botanical Library, an international center for bibliographical research and service in the interests of botany and horticulture, as well as a center for the study of all aspects of the history of the plant sciences. By 1971 the Library’s activities had so diversified that the name was changed to Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation.

Growth in collections and research projects led to the establishment of four programmatic departments: Archives, Art, Bibliography and the Library. The current collections include approximately 29,000 books; 30,000 portraits; 30,000 watercolors, drawings and prints; and 2,000 autograph letters and manuscripts. The Archives specializes in biographical information about, portraits of and handwriting samples from scientists, illustrators and all others in the plant sciences.

The Archives is a repository of alternate resort and as such has collected over 300 institutional and individual archival collections that may not have otherwise found an easy fit at another institution. Including artworks dating from the Renaissance, the Art Department’s collection now focuses on contemporary botanical art and illustration, where the coverage is unmatched. The Art Department organizes and stages exhibitions, including the triennial "International Exhibition of Botanical Art & Illustration." The Bibliography Department maintains comprehensive data files on the history and bibliography of botanical literature. Known for its collection of historical works on botany dating from the late 1400s to the present, the Library’s collection focuses on the development of botany as a science and also includes modern taxonomic monographs, floristic works and serials.