Gene Bauer collection of botanical prints and ephemera, 1972 July-1974 May

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Summary

Creators:
Bauer, Gene
Abstract:
Collection contains 28 of artist and horticulturalist Gene Bauer's botanical booklets and accompanying envelopes addressed to Elaine Conze, former president of the Gardeneers Garden Club in Palos Verdes, California. The informational booklets were sent from July 1972 to May 1974 and feature Bauer's screenprints with varying designs of plants on the covers, interior pages, and envelopes.
Extent:
1.04 Linear Feet (1 box)
Language:
Materials are in English.
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item]. Gene Bauer collection of botanical prints and ephemera, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Background

Scope and content:

A collection of 28 booklets and envelopes created from July 1972 to May 1974 by artist and horticulturist Gene Bauer. The booklets were produced monthly to highlight native California plants and were mailed to members from the California Garden Club, Inc.'s 26 districts. Bauer selected plants by visiting public gardens throughout California and emphasized a plant for each region represented by members of the Club. The booklets in this collection were all addressed to Elaine Conze (1912-2008), member of California Garden Club, Inc., and former president of the Gardeneers Garden Club in Palos Verdes, California.

The booklets feature Bauer's screenprints with varying designs and angles of plants on the covers, interior pages, and accompanying envelopes. Bauer originally drew colored pencil sketches of the plants, then hand-screened them. The cover pages of Bauer's booklets are signed and include a screen print on cardstock, with illustrations inside the interior images screen printed on colorful tissue paper. She mailed the envelopes through the United States Postal Office and adorned them with screen print images and pictorial stamps. Some plants, trees, shrubs, and flowers depicted range from unique species of lilies, buckwheat, and maple trees, to poppies, palm trees, fir trees, and other plants all native to California.

The versos of the booklets include the edition numbers of printed booklets made, with Elaine Conze often receiving the 18th or 19th edition of the total series. Textually, the booklets include poetry, essays, and messages from Bauer, a state map identifying locations of plant growth, and historical information about the plant species and habitats.

Biographical / historical:

Gene Bauer (1926-2023) was an artist and horticulturalist active in Los Angeles, California. Bauer received a degree in art education from the University of California Los Angeles. She later worked as a high school art teacher for the Los Angeles Unified School District.

In 1970, Gene and her husband Dale Bauer (1923-2022) joined the Redlands Horticultural and Improvement Society. From July 1972 to May 1974, Bauer served as native flora chairperson of the California Garden Clubs Inc. During that time, she produced a monthly series of 28 booklets titled The Golden Native that she distributed to other club members. From 1976 to 1978, Bauer served as arboreta and botanical gardens chairperson for the California Gardens Club Inc. and produced another series of 29 booklets titled Golden Botanical Gardens. From 1977 to 1985, Gene also served as naturalist chairperson of the National Garden Club. She later produced a third series of booklets, titled Living with Nature, which included information about trees, quail birds, mountain chickadees, and daffodils, the latter being a plant that the Bauers were particularly fond of as they maintained a garden of almost a million daffodil bulbs at their home in Running Springs, California.

In September 1997, the Bauers lost their home to the Mill Fire, and Gene lost all her original artwork and personal copies of the booklets she had produced. In 2010, several garden club recipients of the 1970s booklets sent their copies back to Gene, who included reproductions of them in her book, Botanical Serigraphs: The Gene Bauer Collection.

Acquisition information:
Gift of Linda Adler-Braden in memory of Frederick and Delores Braden, January 2025.
Processing information:

Processed by Mari Khasmanyan, May 2025.

Arrangement:

Collection is arranged in chronological order.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at the Huntington Library for more information.

Terms of access:

The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item]. Gene Bauer collection of botanical prints and ephemera, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Location of this collection:
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108, US
Contact:
(626) 405-2191
reference@huntington.org
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