Romancing the Rose: Flowers in American Culture

June – September 2000

Ah! May the red rose live alway,
To smile upon earth and sky!
Stephen Foster (1826—1864)

Flowers serve as emblems in our culture. They help us celebrate and they help us mourn. They please us aesthetically and they heal us physically. They signify sporting events such as the Rose Bowl and they adorn the winners of horse races. From the formal garden and the decorations on fine china to the floral design on a common tissue box, flower imagery is omnipresent. This exhibition examines the role of flowers in our lives both historically and from a contemporary perspective.

A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose
Gertrude Stein (1874—1946)

This exhibition was prepared by , with assistance from Rijn Templeton, Kathy Wachel, David Schoonover, Carlette Washington-Hoagland, Cynthea Mosier and Dean Koster.

The Main Library’s North Exhibition Lobby provides a distinctive venue to highlight the Libraries’ collections and provide outreach opportunities to the larger community. Exhibitions focus on topics consistent with the scholarly and cultural concerns of the University and draw them from the holdings of the Libraries, supplemented when appropriate with materials from other sources.