Elisabeth C. Miller Library

Photo courtesy Brian R. Thompson

Elisabeth Miller was very engaged with the founding and early years of the horticultural library at the University of Washington that bears her name. Her vision of a community resource, that also serves students and professional horticulturalists, is now a library with an international reputation of leadership in horticultural literature of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Housing 16,000 books and over 200 current periodicals, the library is a community treasure that includes a youth collection, historical nursery catalogs, and gardening archives of the region. The librarians, all avid gardeners with years of experience, host plant-themed art exhibits, along with Story Time programs to engage future gardeners, and make available the best information from print and electronic resources.

The Miller Foundation has continued the vision of Mrs. Miller with its annual support of the library, including all aspects of operations, as well as meeting special needs. Among them are the new catalog and circulation system, plus two elegant cases to display items from the rare book collection dating back to the 17th century.