The hand-painted seed catalogs that once told North Shore gardeners what to plant are on display at the Chicago Botanic Garden's Lenhardt Library through Sunday, September 27.

"America Grows: 250 Years of Garden Stories" features rare books and colorful nursery catalogs published in the United States between 1835 and 1927. The exhibition, which opened Friday, June 5, is part of the statewide Illinois America 250 commemoration marking the nation's 250th birthday. The Botanic Garden frames the show simply on its exhibition page: it is celebrating the country's anniversary "by showcasing the history we know best: gardens."

The materials come from the Lenhardt Library's Rare Book Collection, approximately 2,500 volumes acquired from the Massachusetts Horticultural Society in 2002. Those volumes represent primary sources in botany and horticulture stretching back centuries, according to the library's own description of the collection. For North Shore residents who tend their own plots along the lakefront and the Green Bay Trail corridor, the exhibition offers a direct look at how earlier generations imagined their landscapes before a single bulb went into the ground.

The Lenhardt Library itself has deep roots. The Woman's Board of the Chicago Horticultural Society established it in 1951. When the Botanic Garden opened the Regenstein Center in 1976, the library's then-6,000-volume collection moved to its current home. It now holds approximately 150,000 volumes, including periodicals, special collections, nursery catalogs, and the archives of the Chicago Horticultural Society. The library has received four National Endowment for the Humanities grants since 2005 for conservation and digitization of rare materials, including a $202,000 grant in 2018 for 62 rare "language of flowers" books.

Leora Siegel serves as senior director of the Lenhardt Library, which is open to the public during exhibition hours.

The Botanic Garden is running free guided walking tours tied to the exhibition through Friday, September 25. The tours depart at 11 a.m., noon, 1 p.m., and 2 p.m. on weekdays and cover the Heritage Garden and Fruit & Vegetable Garden over 45 minutes and 0.6 miles. No registration is required.

A family program, "Create a Lego Garden" with artist Alysa Kirkpatrick, is scheduled for Saturday, August 15, from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Lenhardt Library. Lego creations stay at the garden. Both programs are free with garden admission.

If you go

What: "America Grows: 250 Years of Garden Stories"

Where: Lenhardt Library, Regenstein Center, Chicago Botanic Garden, 1000 Lake Cook Road, Glencoe

When: Wednesday–Sunday, noon–4 p.m., through Sunday, September 27

Cost: Included with garden admission; no separate ticket or registration required