Did you know that the Medical Center Library has a garden? As the weather gets warmer, we welcome you to our visit our terrace on the north side of Seeley Mudd building facing the Duke Hospital to explore the garden.
Susan Carlton Smith Cavanagh, former Assistant Curator of the Trent Collection and a botanical illustrator, was the first to suggest a medical garden for the library. In 1976, she and the Curator of the Trent Collection, G.S.T. Cavanagh, established the initial plantings on the Mudd building's northwest terrace. To the right, they are pictured in the garden circa 1978. They created an initial guide to the garden that Christine Davis, a graduate botany student, revised and expanded in 2002.
The Medical Center Library's garden emphasizes the close ties between botany and medicine, and provides students and scholars with an introduction to the importance of plants to medicine.