Icones Farlowianae

The creation of Icones Farlowianae: Illustrations of the Larger Fungi of Eastern North America was a long and complex journey. It involved no less than four botanists, two professional artists, two commercial printers, one warehouse, and numerous photographers and editors. The work spanned more than forty years and cost an estimated $50,000 at a time when a lavish new house cost less than $9,000.

Icones, from the Latin “icon,” meaning an image or figure, is a collection of illustrations representing a specific object or subject. Icones Farlowianae was an important project for Professor William Gilson Farlow who, although carrying a full teaching and administrative schedule for most of the years he labored over it, believed that it would serve as a much needed guide to the fungi of eastern North America, especially for those who did not possess a large collection of fungi to use in conjunction with identification.

 

Web Exhibit Created 2000, Updated 2003 by Lisa DeCesare.

Special thanks to Professor Donald Pfister, Judith Warnement, and Gretchen Wade.