A world-class botanical library, the CalBG Library specializes in systematic, floristic and evolutionary botany and the botany, horticulture, natural history and ethnobotany of California.
The CalBG Library contains some 32,000 books and approximately 1,100 print journal titles, with access to electronic journals and books through The Claremont Colleges Library. Special Collections holds 2,200 rare herbals, historic scientific literature, and illustrated botanical books. CalBG Library holdings can be found in The Claremont Colleges Library catalog https://library.claremont.edu/. The Library provides support services for the staff and students of CalBG, members and volunteers of the organization, members of The Claremont Colleges and the general public. Founder Susanna Bixby Bryant’s plan for her botanic garden included a research-quality library. She built a considerable personal collection in her lifetime, and that collection continues to be the foundation of the Library today. The collection also includes journal article reprints, maps, newspaper articles regarding CalBG, and nursery and seed catalogs. A list of the Library’s California Topographic Maps is available here.
