Nebula Gallery Kicks Off New Year With Belsterling Botanical Beauties


The Nebula Gallery, located on the third floor of the Eugene McDermott Library, is blooming with botanical beauty now through March 3. Due to its popularity, the eye-catching exhibit, “Belsterling Blooms,” will make a repeat performance in the Nebula Gallery, an exhibition space opened in the library’s Special Collections and Archives Division last year.

“Belsterling Blooms,” which features large, bold and beautiful illustrations of an assortment of rich, stunning flowers, aims to shed light on the breadth of botanical material found within the library’s Louise B. Belsterling Collection.

Nebula Gallery visitors may view a curated selection of plates from four titles ranging from the mid-18th to the mid-19th century. The highlighted images were chosen for their hand-colored illustrations and remarkable vibrancy. All displayed plates can be found within the collection, although for presentation, they have been digitally enlarged and augmented.

 

The plates included in the exhibit are from the following titles:
The Ladies’ Flower-Garden of Ornamental Annuals, 1840
Flora Londinensis, 1777
The Compleat Florist, 1747
The New Botanic Garden, 1812

“Belsterling Blooms” will be on display in the Nebula Gallery between January 10 and March 3, 2020. Visit the gallery between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The curator of the Belsterling Collection and the exhibit is Madeline Hoff, madeline.hoff@utdallas.edu.

The Nebula Gallery is located in the lobby of the Special Collections and Archives Division in Room MC 3.504. If you would like information on how to get your art displayed in the gallery, contact Cassandra Zawojek at 972-883-3855 or cassandra.zawojek@utdallas.edu.

 

About the Collection:
The assortment of rare botanical and horticultural books is named for Louise B. Belsterling, whose personal library formed the basis of the collection. Though volumes from the Belsterling Collection do not circulate, they are available for research and use in the Special Collections reading room by request. Patrons should consider extra time for retrieval, as the volumes are stored outside of the Special Collections Division and could be unavailable.

Page Last Updated: November 6, 2023