[Photographs of tree peonies]

By

Gratwick, William.

Daphnis, Nassos, 1914-2010
White, Minor.

Type

Book

Material

Archival material

Publication info

[Pavilion, N.Y.?, s.n, [1968]

Notes

Unsigned black-and-white photographs of black and white tree peonies by Nassos Daphnis, Minor White, and William Gratwick. | The prints, which illustrate various species of tree peonies at different stages of their development, including embryo, bud, full flower, and seed pod, were probably made at the Gratwick nursery, Linwood Gardens, in Pavilion, New York, possibly in the mid-1950s and 1960s, and assembled by Gratwick ca. 1968. Gratwick had worked for Arthur P. Saunders, a chemistry professor at Hamilton College and the first significant breeder of peonies and tree peonies in America, who began hybridizing peonies in 1915; and when Saunders died in 1953, Gratwick inherited his stock of tree peonies. He moved them to his nursery in Pavilion, and continued his breeding work with a former New York artist, Nassos Daphnis, who had given up painting for botany in 1946.

Photographs, ranging in size from 17 x 12 cm. to 20 x 24 cm., are mounted on white mat board 39 x 46 cm. Each board individually foldered in white paper, with ms. captions in pencil on front of folder, including artist's name, and title/subject of photograph.

Contents: Seed pod and pod of Paeonia lutea / Nassos Daphnis -- Tree peony Howzan / Nassos Daphnis -- Tree peony bud unfolding / William Gratwick -- Embryo of a tree peony / Nassos Daphnis -- Tree peony / Minor White -- Hira no yoki (white) and seedling / Minor White -- [Untitled photograph of a white tree peony within a coil of electrical wire] -- White tree peony (Jap.) / Minor White -- White tree peony (Jap.) / Minor White -- Saunders Lutea hybrid "Black Pirate" / Minor White -- White tree peony (Jap.) / Minor White -- "Black Pirate" (Saunders hybrid) and 3 flowers of Paeonia lutea / Minor White -- Jap. tree peony (Gratwick seedling) "Guardian of the monastery" / Minor White -- White tree peony (Jap.) / Minor White.

In album of grasscloth boards, with three interior glossy white cloth flaps; secured with a pair of black cloth ties.

Presented to the Massachusetts Horticultural Society in 1971 by William Gratwick.

Acquired by the Chicago Botanic Garden from the Massachusetts Horticultural Society in November 2002.

Subjects

Gelatin silver prints , Peonies , Photographs , Photography of plants , Tree peony

Call Number

QK495.P15 G73

Language

English

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.125418
OCLC: 43112767
Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q51402284