What in the world is pteridomania?
If there is one thing librarians love, it’s strange and little-known words. Interrobang, omnilegent, biblioklept, librocubicultarist – these are a few of our favourites. Today’s word is brought to you by our Special Collections team, featuring images from the collection.
Pteridomania is the name for the Victorian craze for collecting ferns. It became a popular and fashionable hobby in Britain during the 1840s and 1850s. Interest in the natural sciences and increased access to the countryside encouraged and enabled the collection of specimens.
Ferns were popular because they were less known than flowering plants, in addition to being diverse and abundant. People would travel together, armed with knives, hooks, containers and field books for identification, and gather fronds and live plants for their collections. Live plants could be preserved and grown indoors in glass cases known as Wardian cases, or grown outdoors in rockeries or conservatories. Collecting in the field was extremely popular, but you could also obtain specimens from dealers.
A collected fern in the Deakin Library Special Collection album
Fern collecting was a very British pastime, but its popularity also spread to America and Australia. It was undertaken by both amateur botanists and trained scientists; many women became notable collectors of ferns and other botanical specimens. Over-collecting quickly became a known issue, and many areas were stripped of their ferns, leading to calls for their protection.
Ferns were so popular that fern motifs were used in the arts to decorate pottery, fabric, glass and metalwork. The flatness of fern fronds enabled specimens to be used in decoupage, nature printing and stencilling and they were commonly pressed into albums.
Deakin Library’s Special Collection is fortunate to own a beautiful album of fern specimens, collected from the Brisbane Water district of NSW during the 1880s.
Photograph of the album of fern specimens
The album is unusual in that the area where the specimens were collected is identified, and the name of the collector is known. Her name was Hannah Crawford Renwick, and she presented this album to her aunt, Mrs Mary Carey. The album contains 38 pages of fern specimens, all meticulously mounted and carefully arranged, and all identified with their scientific names. There are two pages of flower specimens, also identified, at the end of the album. Although Hannah Renwick is not known, it is possible that she was related to Sir Arthur Renwick (1837–1908) who was a prominent doctor and politician from Sydney.
A collected fern in the Deakin Library Special Collection album
The Special Collection contains a significant grouping of 19th-century botanical albums, which contribute to our research strengths in the natural sciences and social history.
If you are interested in viewing items in the library’s Special Collection, you can make an appointment or visit during open hours. You can also drop by the Waterfront Campus Library on Friday 23 August between 10am and 4pm to see our Local Word Pop-Up Collection Showcase, where we will be displaying a collection of rare Australian fairytale books from our Special Collection against an enchanting digital backdrop. The images from these fairytales will be brought to life through captivating animation, transforming the magic of the books into an immersive experience.