Botanical Prints

As you might know, I work for an organization which is 215 years old. We have documents that I routinely handle that were written in the early 1800’s. Our collection of portraits dates back into the late 1700’s and I have a 50,000 volume library with tomes 300+ years old at my disposal. History means a lot to me, and books mean even more.

I pulled the trigger, so to speak, and cut the botanical prints out of the book. I think that knowing that the book would never be salvaged and that I was its last chance gave me the confidence to weld the Xacto knife and cut the pages.

Before

After

Here’s a final version I did of this print. I cleaned up the stains, sharpened the contrast, sharpened the image a little bit and made the background a little more even. I save each iteration in a different file, so that if I go too far, I have an earlier and an original copy.

I might even go one step more on this and remove the colour from the leaves. I don’t mind the shading around the edges, but I’d de-saturate the leaves so the yellows/browns didn’t show.

Here are a few more that I liked, but which I haven’t really edited.

This one says it’s a Venus’s Flytrap. Some have the names on them, but others don’t.

This one is a passion flower. I discovered these around the corner from me a few summers back and was amazed at them!

Several of the plates were wider than others and had been folded to fit into the book.

This is one of the more unusual ones.

Thanks for your advice on what to do about these. It made my decision a lot easier.