105 
mittee on Botanic Garden of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and 
Sciences decided that, as far as practicable, all books purchased for 
the Botanic Garden library and binding of books should be paid 
for by private funds, and so become the property of the Institute. 
Since income from the original $50,000 endowment fund of the 
Garden was to be used for buying plants as well as books, the 
Director requested a special book fund of $5,000 to $10,000. The 
most pressing immediate needs of the library were met with a 
$1,000 gift in 1912 from Mr. Alfred T. White. 
During the period through 1915, the library, which had been 
moved in September, 1913, to a room in the first unit of the new 
Laboratory Building, acquired nearly 4,000 volumes. The library 
moved to its present quarters on completion of the Laboratory 
3uilding in 1917. There it grew to 6,500 volumes in 1920, nearly 
16,000 in 1930, and over 22,000 in 1940. 
The gifts of many friends aided materially in this growth. In 
1913, the Index Kewensis was secured through the generosity of 
Mr. George D. Pratt. The gift of Mrs. Annie Morrill Smith of 
nearly 800 volumes added important works on Bryophytes. Other 
volumes were given by Mrs. Clarence R. Hyde, Mr. -Leonard 
Barron, Mr. Frank H. Ames, and Mr. William J. Studwell. Dr. 
Gager was a steady and frequent donor of books. The gift by 
Miss Harriet White of Mary Vaux Walcott’s North American 
Wild Flowers, and a gift by the Pierrepont family, should be 
mentioned. 
The value of many of the works on the shelves is enhanced by 
the previous ownership and signatures of such men as de Candolle, 
Pasteur, Darwin, and Asa Gray. Dr. Gager was ever eager to 
add to the collection of such association items. 
Several hundred pamphlets were received by the library during 
its first year, and by 1942 the pamphlet collection had increased 
to over 21,000. 
Probably no gift to the Botanic Garden library was more ap- 
preciated by the Director than the $10,000 Benjamin Stuart Gager 
Memorial Endowment Fund, presented anonymously in 1918. 
Largely by means of a portion of the income from this fund, as 
well as by a few gifts, a priceless collection including incunabula, 
pre-Linnaean, Linnaean, and post-Linnaean books of scientific 
