Our morning with Joel!

Joel Greenberg, author and raconteur, joined us at Thursday’s gathering of Leafing Through the Pages, the book discussion group of the Sterling Morton Library. The group had selected his recently published Of prairie, woods, & water : two centuries of Chicago nature writing for our final discussion of the year. Happily, Joel agreed to join us and share his unique insight/stories/color about nature writing and nature writers of our region.

The Sterling Morton Library has an extensive collection of works by and about many of these writers including May T. Watts, Donald Culross Peattie, Henry Chandler Cowles, Edwin Way Teale, Jens Jensen, and a host of others! This is a sampling of some of the works on display during our discussion:

• Angle, Paul M. Prairie State: impressions of Illinois, 1673-1967, 1968.
• Bailey, Eli Stillman. The sand dunes of Indiana : the story of an American wonderland told by camera and pen, 1924, c1917.
• Cowles, Henry Chandler. A spring flora for high schools, 1915.
• Grese, Robert E. Jens Jensen : maker of natural parks and gardens, 1992.
• Long, Judith Reick. Gene Stratton-Porter : novelist and naturalist, 1990.
• Pepoon, Herman Silas. An annotated flora of the Chicago area : with maps and many illustrations from photographs of topographic and plant features, 1927.
• Quaife, Milo Milton. Checagou : from Indian wigwam to modern city, 1673-1835, 1933.
• Swink, Floyd and Gerould Wilhelm. Plants of the Chicago region, 1994.
• Tillson, Christiana Holmes. A woman's story of pioneer Illinois, 1919.
• Watts, May Theilgaard. Reading the landscape : an adventure in ecology,1957.
• Woods, John. Two years' residence in the settlement on the English Prairie, 1968.

During Joel’s meeting with us, he described some interesting natural areas in our region to visit. Since our gathering, a sharp-eyed group member found and forwarded this article by Joel -- A Naturalist's Tour of Southern Lake Michigan. If you weren't able to join us for Thursday’s discussion, there is a terrific WBEZ interview by Donna Seaman with Joel (appropriately presented on Earth Day) on Open Books Radio. Scroll through the page to Non-Fiction, select Joel's interview - and share in their remarkable conversation!

Open House at The Morton Arboretum

For many of us, the phrase “open house” conjures up images of houses for sale or parent/teacher conferences. On Sunday, June 29th, we’ll be putting an Arboretum spin on the whole of notion of an open house by opening up our doors/labs/offices from noon until 4:00 p.m. In addition to summertime treats of ice cream and lemonade served in an expansive tent, we invite you to visit the Sterling Morton Library during this special time and learn more about what we do. On the event schedule there is a wide variety of activities, but of special note (and because this is the Sterling Morton Library blog) are the activities hosted by the Library.

Open house attendees will have the opportunity to:

• View a short film from Joy Morton’s 70th birthday party (circa 1925)
• Meet Joel Greenberg, noted author and naturalist
• Explore botanical art techniques used within Arboretum art classes and our very own collection
• Meet Carol Lerner, noted artist and author
• Learn about volunteer projects in the Library
• Visit the May T. Watts Reading Garden and find out about espalier
• Discover a rich collection of birding works
• Encounter a host of gardening and landscape design resources
• View 18th century works by Merian and Catesby
• Find out about our natural history resources
• Meet with Education staff to learn about our lifelong learning opportunities
• Listen to a children’s story

There will be lots of opportunities to meet Library staff, volunteers and other Arboretum colleagues and gain a unique perspective on our work and our passion. Complete details about the event and registration information can be found here.

Hope to see you on Sunday!