Sir William Jackson Hooker (1785–1835) was a well-known, congenial, and socially-minded botanist who became the first full-time director of Kew Gardens, London. At age 20 he discovered of a rare moss species and this spurred a permanent devotion to botanical study, with cryptogamic botany (e.g., ferns, mosses, fungi) his specialty. His early botanical excursions took him to Iceland and inland Europe where he met and developed life-long friendships with other explorers. He was appointed chair of Regius Professor of Botany at Glasgow University in 1920, and in 1841 also accepted the directorship of Kew Gardens in London. Under his leadership, Kew Gardens became an international center botanical research and advancement, rich with living and herbarium specimens. His son Sir Joseph Hooker also became an internationally renowned botanist and succeeded his father as the Director of Kew. Botanical Miscellany was William Hooker’s first botanical journal, describing plants, their uses and growing habitats. Only three volumes were published.

Botanical Miscellany; Containing Figures and Descriptions of Such Plants as Recommend Themselves by Their Novelty, Rarity, or History, or by the Uses to Which They are Applied in the Arts, in Medicine, and in Domestic Economy by William Jackson Hooker. London: J. Murray, 1830–33. p. 100, Bryophyllum calycinium.

Dr. Jacob Bigelow (1787–1879) attended Harvard College then earned is M.D. at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School in 1810. While there he studied medicinal plants under the tutorage of Benjamin Smith Barton, uncle of famed botanist William Barton. In 1811 he joined a medical practice in Boston, and shortly afterward published Florula Bostoniensis, a flora of native plants in and around Boston. He joined Harvard Medical School in 1815 as professor of materia medica (now known as pharmacology) and immediately began writing and illustrating the serial publication, American Medical Botany. Issued in six sections of 20 plants and a color plate, they were later bound into three volumes, released in 1817, 1818 and 1820. This ultimately led to his contributing to the significant work, The Pharmacopeia of the United States of America (1820). In his career, Bigelow promoted hygienic and humane medical practices and using medicines and narcotics wisely. Of significant note, American Medical Botany was the first book published in the United States to have plates printed in colors. Instead of hand-colored plates, Bigelow invested in a French color-printing process in which color was applied directly to etched stone plates, creating one of the earliest U.S. publications with color-printed plates. This is a first edition, still bound in sheepskin, as issued.

On Exhibit: American Medical Botany, being a Collection of the Native Medicinal Plants of the United States, Containing Their Botanical History and Chemical Analysis, and Properties and uses in Medicine, Diet and the Arts, with Coloured Engravings by Jacob Bigelow. Boston: Cummings and Hilliard, 1817-1820. Illicium floridanum, Star Anise