Drawing on library strengths in the Cairns Collection (American women writers 1650-1920), history of science, natural history, and the University Archives, this exhibit explores the relationship of women and nature. Themes of the exhibit, which honors the 25th anniversary of the Women's Studies Program at Madison, include nature writing, scientific illustration, and women's careers and training in the natural sciences. The real exhibit, rich in images of nature from the 17th through the 20th century, can be viewed in the Department of Special Collections, 990 Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 7 March - 19 September 2001. The virtual exhibit can be larger than the actual exhibit, by featuring more than one illustration per work, as well as titles we could not fit into our exhibit cases.

Kelley Osborne of the Department of Special Collections undertook the research for the exhibit, selected the items and images shown here, and installed the actual exhibit; Jenifer Ihde, working in conjunction with the General Library System Digital Production Facility, produced the scans, designed this site, and thereby converted the actual exhibit to a virtual one. We are grateful to them, and also to Yvonne Schofer, Memorial Library Bibliographer for English-language Humanities, and Jill Rosenshield, Associate Curator of Special Collections, who had previously identified in Special Collections many examples of women's nature writing.

In conjunction with the exhibit and the Women's Studies Program anniversary, the Department of History of Science featured on 4 April 2001 a University Lecture by Sally Kohlstedt (University of Minnesota), entitled "Natural World: Women and Local Nature Study." Themes of the exhibit are also closely related to the work of the University of Wisconsin System Women's Studies Librarian's Office and to the conference "Women in Print: Authors, Publishers, Readers, and More since 1876" sponsored by the Center for the History of Print Culture in Modern America. The conference, which addresses the world of print that women have inherited, constructed, and consumed over the last 125 years, will be held in Madison 14-15 September 2001.