Birds, bees, and butterflies in the Hill Library’s new exhibit

Come to the Hill Library to be surrounded by birds, flowers, butterflies and bees—you might even discover a lynx and a rock hyrax here.

No, we have not installed a garden or a zoo. The Hill Library’s Exhibit Gallery now features the new exhibit “Reading the Natural World: Histories of Science on the Page,” which draws upon the wealth of natural history materials in the Special Collections Research Center.

And these materials are gorgeous. Colorful, detailed illustrations of flora and fauna from naturalists and artists. Leatherbound editions dating back to the 1600s. Pressed flowers and bellows cameras.

Through these beautiful images and artifacts from the SCRC’s Rare Book Collection, “Reading the Natural World” traces the development of scientific knowledge and printing technology, and considers who did the work of natural history and who actually got the credit for it. 

Curator Karina Burbank, a Public History graduate student, worked with Exhibit Graphic Designer Emily Schmidt, Preservation Librarian Jamie Bradway, and other SCRC staff to create the exhibit. After the Libraries’ recent photography-heavy exhibit about the history of the North Carolina State Fair, Burbank wanted to organize a show that leveraged physical objects in the collections. With over 50 books in its display cases, “Reading the Natural World” delivers.

“I was thinking about what kind of exhibit could we do that's rooted in letting objects tell their own stories and about what kinds of museums I like to go to,” Burbank says. “I particularly love museums where I can sort of wander in and find something that catches my eye and then just stay with that for a little bit and learn about it and then see what next captures my attention.”

Burbank and the SCRC team also saw how they could make this exhibit reflect some of the university's strengths through a focus on rare books and natural history and the development of science and scientific communication. One standalone case, for instance, spotlights the work of the NC State Vascular Plant Herbarium, But then Burbank hit a challenge—how do you pick the 50 books to display from among thousands in the collection? 

Lacking an obvious answer, she simply started with the first book on the first shelf in the Rare Books Collection and went book-by-book. This time-consuming process quickly became a chore but, in retrospect, Burbank thinks it added a lot to the exhibit.

“There are probably other ways I could have gone about it using our online digital catalogs but I really wanted to be thinking about the idea of materiality,” she says. “I wanted to see what kinds of books were catching my eye and how those looked and felt and how they sat in comparison to each other. I also started noticing that there were a lot of books that either didn't have the author's name on the cover or only had the author's name listed as initials. Often those books were written by women who weren't necessarily publicizing the fact that they were women when they were writing these scientific texts because of that context.”

Burbank’s realization allowed her to develop, as one of the exhibit’s themes, the under-recognition of women scientists. If we don't expect to see a lot of women in the histories of the sciences, that's not because they weren't there. It’s because women were left out of the stories that are told about the sciences—or even because they themselves tried to pass as men so their work wouldn’t be delegitimized.

“Digging through the primary source materials, I started discovering the involvement of women in everything from books aimed towards children to very methodical, scientific research publications,” Burbank says. “There were women who took on initials in order to hide their gender and just sort of float in under the presumption that these were men, and I'm sure there were women who changed their names to male ones.”

Once Burbank’s constellation of beautiful books began to take shape, it was up to Schmidt to draw upon them for the exhibit’s visual design. She took a similar tack to the design of each exhibit case that Burbank did in selecting books—let the books take the lead.

“When Karina and I started talking about what this exhibit would be, we knew that the books were going to be the stars of the show,” Schmidt says. “The design needed to draw visitors into the gallery so they could then spend time with the books on display. This concept ultimately led to enlarging a single image as each case's backdrop, which highlighted the beautiful illustrations while keeping the focus on the books.”

“I chose illustrations that would catch the eye and colors that would allow the books to stand out. In addition, I used many of the beautiful illustrations to create repeating patterns on the side and bottom panels, both to visually support the content within the cases as well as draw people through the gallery.”

Schmidt took pains not to crowd each case with books, carefully considering how much space they would take up when placed open to a particular illustration and set at an appealing display angle. She worked with Bradway—who built a custom cradle for every single book—to balance many considerations for the books including their preservation, accessibility, size and incorporation into the overall design.

These efforts sum to a visually sumptuous exhibit that doesn’t overwhelm a viewer with too many things to look at. Instead, the exhibit design allows visitors to experience the exhibit in the curious, meandering way that Burbank had hoped. Burbank even made an exhibit playlist to accompany that experience. Nonetheless, Schmidt has some favorite moments. 

“In several cases, the imagery wraps from the back panel onto the sides. I really like the immersive impact that it makes, especially in the central mountain scene and the botany case that welcomes visitors into the gallery. I'm also especially fond of the bee pattern, built from multiple hand-colored illustrations,” she says.