On Saturday, May 31, as the late-spring sun shone brightly on the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, we welcomed birdwatchers, garden enthusiasts, and those invested in urban greenery to the Clark Library Nature and Garden Festival. As guests of all ages enjoyed refreshing popsicles from Mateo’s Ice Cream and Fruit Bars, they perused nature stations across the library’s arboraceous and verdant grounds.
Experts joined the Clark Library staff to share their nature knowledge—members of the Theodore Payne Foundation explained the variety of native plants local to the area; UCLA students from the Bruin Birding Club answered questions about the birds that flit in and around the grounds; and the National Park Service taught guests about our animal neighbors and how to engage with them. In addition, visitors traded plant cuttings, borrowed seeds from the Clark’s heirloom seed library, partook in a scavenger hunt, designed their own field notebooks, and participated in a biosurvey.
The outdoor activities corresponded to the Clark Library’s extensive collection of rare books and manuscripts on gardens and animals from the 1600s to the present. Dozens of library materials were displayed in the Drawing Room and North Book Room, and our librarians were available to answer questions about the collection and individual works. Some works on display included Edward Topsell’s The Histoire of Foure-Footed Beastes (1607), John Gerard’s The Herball, or Generall Histoire of Plantes (1636), Norman Forsyth’s stereopticon views of Montana (ca. 1908), and Peter and Donna Thomas’s Goodbye Bonita Lagoon: A Papermaker’s Elegy (2023). As guests browsed these materials and others, recorded bird songs echoed through the Drawing Room. After exploring the indoor and outdoor spaces of the Clark Library, visitors picnicked beneath the fig tree on the sprawling North Lawn.
-Mal Meisels, Instruction and Engagement Fellow