Skip to main content
Menu
Access to material may be restricted.
View All Records View On Map
Farlow Herbarium
Access to material may be restricted.
Access to material may be restricted.

Farlow Herbarium

Address20, Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA, United States of America, 02138
Site Number317
Alternate Names Divinity Library
Building Root Number 04370
Architect (Original)
Building Acquired 1887
Constructed 1887
StatusActive
Site Name HistoryThe site is named after William Gilson Farlow (1844-1919, A.B. 1866), a noted Harvard botanist, who bequeathed his personal library to Harvard upon his death .Historical NotesThe Farlow Herbarium was designed by the noted Boston architecture firm of Peabody and Stearns and completed in 1887 as a library for the Harvard Divinity School.

During World War I the building housed activities related to the United States Naval Radio School, which occupied a portion of Harvard's campus from 1917 to 1919. In 1919 Professor William G. Farlow bequeathed his 11,000 volumes on botany to the University. The Farlow Reference Library of Cryptogamic Botany has been housed in the building since 1922 when the Divinity School library collection was moved to Andover Hall.

The building was originally funded by a subscription through the Society for the Promotion of Theological Education.

In 1902, a librarian room addition was built west of the stacks room, designed by Peabody and Stearns.

After the Divinity School library collection was moved to Andover Hall, a new stack building was added to the northwest corner (1922-23).

The west porch and librarian's room addition were demolished in 1953 to accommodate construction of the new Harvard University Herbaria.

Additional Information
Harvard University and Cambridge: Photogravures. A.Wittemann, c1895.
“The Harvard Divinity School Library.” Library Journal, vol. 13, no. 2, Feb. 1888, pp. 42–43.
“The New Divinity Library.” Cambridge Chronicle, Vol. 43 no. 2172, 1 Oct. 1887, p. 5.
“University Acquires Ownership of Farlow Botanical Library.” The Harvard Crimson, 30 Oct. 1922.
“Farlow Library Now Belongs to Harvard: Has 11,000 Books Dealing With Cryptogamic Botany Will Be Housed With Herbarium in Divinity Library Building.” Boston Daily Globe, 30 Oct. 1922, p. 2.
Linder, David H. (David Hunt). The Farlow Herbarium and Library. Published for the Harvard Alumni Association by the Harvard Bulletin, Inc, 1936.
King, Moses. Harvard University. Eighty Photographic Views Selected from "King’s Handbook of Harvard University. 2d ed., M. King, [c1895].
Peabody and Stearns Collection of Architectural Drawings (1870-1917). Boston Public Library Special Collections.
Harvard Divinity School at the Turn of the 20th Century. https://library.hds.harvard.edu/book/export/html/349506. Accessed 1 Mar. 2021.
Harvard University and Cambridge: Photogravures. A.Wittemann, c1895., http://hdl.handle.net/2027/gri.ark:/13960/t3pw3c357.
Harvard University Herbaria - Botany Libraries Archives Farlow Herbarium of Cryptogamic Botany. http://botlib.huh.harvard.edu/libraries/Farlowarc.htm. Accessed 1 Mar. 2021.
Harvard University Herbaria - Botany Libraries Exhibits. http://botlib.huh.harvard.edu/libraries/album/album_page16.htm. Accessed 1 Mar. 2021.
Divinity [School] Library, Harvard College. https://www.loc.gov/item/2016794622/. Accessed 1 Mar. 2021.
Kang, Kaffee and Terry Gootblatt. The Farlow Library and Herbarium [a history of the building]. Cambridge, Mass, 1974. Botany Farlow Library call number K165 Typescript [thesis].
General Information by and about the Friends of the Farlow. Harvard University Archives call number HUD 3406.5000.
Records of Farlow Reference Library and Herbarium, 1924-1953. Harvard University Archives call number UAV 384.50.
Weber, Paul J. Photographs of Harvard University Buildings and Grounds Taken by Paul J. Weber, Ca. 1929-1931 and 1939. Harvard University Archives call number HUV 2329
Peabody and Stearns. Farlow Herbarium, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, 1886. Hollis number: olvsite6278, http://id.lib.harvard.edu/via/olvsite68278/urn-3:GSD.loeb:4323529/catalog
Harvard University Archives. Construction Management Records, ca. 1953-1986. Harvard University Archives call number UAV 298.8000
This building has been designated by the University Planning Office as having a Notable Interior.
Related Projects