As spring makes its debut and Manhattan’s cultural institutions continue creating limited capacity, COVID-safe opportunities for enrichment (other than Netflix), a new exhibition has links to one of our oral history collections.

Columbia affiliates can access the New York Botanical Gardens’ oral history interviews online before or after visiting the exhibition, Kusama: Cosmic Nature.

Lillian Weber tell us that after her interviewer asked her religion (?!), she was offered the job of secretary at the NY Botanical Gardens. She discusses how shows were mounted at the Gardens with student helpers and performing tasks that far exceeded her role as secretary. She speaks to how the Garden grew in size and staffing between 1940 and 1955.