A Conversation about Catesby’s Natural History with the Winterthur Library Director

1 In the Winterthur Library, see QH41 C35 PF–Mark Catesby, The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands (London: printed at the expense of the author, 1731–42). All textual and plate references to the Natural History in this essay refer to the Winterthur Library’s first edition set, Winterthur, DE (hereafter Winterthur Library). WINTERTHURLIBRARY director Rebecca Parmer sat down with Catharine Dann Roeber to chat about Winterthur’s copy of theNatural History and its role in an academic research library context. Parmer shares her perspective on a collections-centric approach to the Natural History, considering its history as both collectible object and informational source, the potential it holds for inspiring new lines of interdisciplinary inquiry, and the role of collecting institutions in engaging the complex pasts of their holdings. Winterthur’s library is a leading independent research facility with world-class holdings. How do these volumes of Mark Catesby’s work fit into a collection thatmany assume focuses only on decorative arts? That’s a great question—and a familiar one! Situated as we are within the larger context of the Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, we sometimes encounter the (very reasonable) assumption that the library collections’ primary aim is to support the study of the museum’s object collection, which focuses on decorative arts used and made inAmerica. There is some truth to that assumption, as the library’s collections of primary resources and secondary scholarship bring important context and insight to the museum object collections and to the study of American decorative arts broadly. But over time, the library’s collections have grown and expanded in scope to document, engage, and support the interdisciplinary study of more than four centuries of American artistic, cultural, social, and intellectual history and development in a global context. To understand the place of Catesby and his Natural History in these holdings requires a little knowledge of Winterthur Library history and how