BBG Library

BBG’s Library provides reference services to home gardeners, staff, and the professional horticultural community. It is a convenient access point from which to learn more about all of the Library’s collections and the Garden’s plant collections. The Library is located on the second floor of the historic McKim, Mead & White Administration Building (enter at 1000 Washington Avenue). Members may borrow one or two books for a period of up to two weeks.

LINNAEUS, the Garden’s online catalog, allows visitors to search and tag the Garden’s entire collection of books and serials.

Visit LINNAEUS, BBG’s Online Catalog ›

Hours

Tuesday–Friday: 11 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
Please email [email protected] ahead of your visit.

Gardener’s Help Line

Library staff can answer your gardening and horticulture questions. Contact [email protected]. Please include your phone number in your email query for a more timely response from our staff. You may also leave a voicemail message at 718-623-7270 and a member of our Library staff will return your call.

To expedite answers, the Help Line staff suggests the following:

• Keep your question as straightforward as possible.
• Identify your question category: pests and diseases, culture and propagation, plant identification, etc.
• Identify the class of plant: tree, shrub, perennial, annual, etc.
• Describe the problem. If you’re concerned about an insect, for example, note the appearance of the pest and where you have seen it (on leaves, stems, in the soil), as well as the damage it is doing.

Rare Book Room & Special Collections

Charles Stuart Gager, the first director of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, was a man of extraordinary vision, a distinguished botanist, and a bibliophile. For Gager, assembling a great botanical library to support the historical and scientific study of plants was an integral part of building a great botanical garden. Through special endowments and generous gifts, Gager and those who followed built a collection of significant botanical and horticultural works that has few rivals.

Special collections consist of archives of notable individuals, institutional records of the Garden, historical and botanical photography, and original botanical artwork. The photographic and art collections consist, in part, of work produced by staff, commissioned by the Garden, or donated by artists or their estate in support of the Garden’s mission.

Rare Book Collection

The non-circulating rare book collection, comprising some 1500 volumes from the 15th century through the 20th century, is particularly strong in:

• Early European herbals, including those by Brunfels, Dodoens, Fuchs, and Mattioli.
• The great color-plate books, including those by Blackwell, Miller, Loudon, Hooker, and Redouté.
• Landmark works by Linnaeus, including correspondence, Hortus Cliffortianus, and Species Plantarum.
• New World floras by early travelers in the Americas, like Bartram, Catesby, and Michaux.

Bibliographic records for most of this collection are available through LINNAEUS, the Library's online catalog.

Other Notable Collections

Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Historic Image Collection consists of glass plate negatives, lantern slides, film-based negatives, and works on paper created during the first half of the 20th century that document all aspects of the Garden and its programs.

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden Florilegium Society documents the Garden's living collections in watercolor, pen and ink, and other media.

A significant portion of the library’s science, rare book, and special collections is maintained off-site in storage with limited access.