As part of Professor John Guy Petruzzi’s advanced studio “Field Notebook, Watercolor & Nature,” art students visited the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, located on the top floor of CMU’s Hunt Library. The trip offered a firsthand look at how artists, archivists, and curators preserve plant knowledge through centuries of scientific illustration.
01: THE EXHIBITION
“The Art and Science of Rafael Lucas Rodríguez Caballero” is on view through December 17, 2025.
Students began their visit with Archivist & Research Scholar Nancy L. Janda, who introduced them to the exhibition on Costa Rican botanist and artist Rafael Lucas Rodríguez Caballero. Janda walked the class through Rodríguez’s hand-lettered notebooks and orchid studies created over nearly 25 years of field research across Central and South America. With more than 1,000 orchid watercolors in the archive, his work shows how disciplined observation becomes a scientific record.
02: THE COLLECTIONS
The Institute’s holdings include approximately 30,400 portraits; 280 archival collections; 33,481 watercolors, drawings, and prints; 243,000 data files; and 30,726 book and serial titles.
Senior Curator Carrie Roy shared the story of Rachel McMasters Miller Hunt, whose lifelong interests in illustration, bookbinding, and plant history led to the founding of the Botanical Library in 1961, now the Hunt Institute. Hunt’s original collection of rare and historical works about plants, gardens, and botany remains central to the Institute’s mission and continues to support research across botany, printmaking, book arts, and the cultural history of science.
03: THE SELECTIONS
Featuring works from the Institute’s ongoing International Exhibition series, established in 1964. The 18th International opens in 2029.
Curator Lydia Rosenberg shared a special selection of contemporary and historic artworks exemplifying the evolving standards of botanical illustration. She explained how accuracy and clarity shape the field, and why illustration remains essential to scientific documentation, even considered superior to photography in many contexts. Highlights included works by Italian artist Marilena Pistoia (1933–2017), who produced hundreds of drawings and watercolors for botanical publications before shifting her practice to abstract painting and etching.
04: THE CLASS
An advanced studio introducing students to nature illustration through watercolor painting.
In “Field Notebook, Watercolor & Nature,” students develop a field sketchbook documenting the natural world through observational drawing, classical watercolor, and research-driven processes. Throughout the semester, they’ve advanced their technical illustration skills while deepening their connection to nature and exploring new creative strategies. This visit offered a chance to connect their studio work to a centuries-long legacy of botanical illustration preserved in the Institute’s archive.
More from the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation | huntbotanical.org