Harvard University 
School of Landscape Architecture 
Cambridge, Mass. 
James Sturgis Pray, Chairman 
May 29, 1920. 
Dear Fernald: 
One of my enthusiastic former students 
writes me as follows from San Diego under date of 
May 10: 
He says that he has come in touch with A. H. Valentien, 
head artist and designer at the Rookwood Potteries in 
Cincinnati for twenty-seven years, and since then a 
painter of wild flowers, as they are, for study and 
scientific purposes. "His work was undiscovered for a 
"long time, and when it was finally seen, it was recognized 
"as the work of a great genius, a consummate artist. 
"Eventually, a wealthy woman. Miss Ellen Scripps, of the 
"great house of Scripps out here, commissioned Valentien 
"to do the flora of California and this has taken nine 
"years and is now as complete as they are going to make 
"it. It has cost lots of money and is destined for the 
"Univ. of Calif. It consists of some thousand plates, 
"covering some fifteen hundred species only and I have 
"seen it by appointment at Miss Scripps' private library 
"at La Jolla, near San Diego. It is a magnificent thing 
"and Smithsonian experts would buy it outright if there 
"were funds for 'original works' which there are not. 
"They would buy reproductions at ag£ price, and it is 
"estimated that to lithograph it would cost some §60,000. 
"This will orient you as to its importance. 
"I must not get to describing this work, suffice it to 
r*say that the flov7ers seem to be real, not painted, to such 
"an extent are they three dimensional, and they have the 
"most wonderful texture, be it like satin or with a "bloom*, 
"or woolly,-the sheet of Calif, poppies seems filled with 
"sunlight, each poppy a cup of sunlight. But enough. 
"The thought occurred to me that it would be a lasting 
"glory to Hew England if Valentien could be got to do the 
"Hew England flora and I am wondering if, somehow. 
