Digital Commonwealth had a busy August with some new collections and additions to existing collections. Of the new offerings, Nahant Public Library’s Florence Johnson Herbarium  collection brings the specimens collected and painstakingly mounted by Miss Flossie Johnson and her grade school students over her long career (1881-1927). Most notable are the specimens stamped “Mass Horticultural Soc., Boston, Nov. 26, 1897.” These were entered into the Horticultural Society’s exhibition, winning a prize of $6 for being “most remarkable, both in point of numbers [184] and the quality of the mounting,” according to the Society’s booklet for that year. In today’s dollars, that prize is about $200.00.

Jamaica Plain Historical Society

• Doyle’s Cafe Memorabilia (6 items)*

Lawrence Public Library

•  Lawrence, Mass. Engineering Department (1 item)*
•  Lawrence Public Library Map Collection (3 items)*
•  Pemberton Mill Disaster (1 item)
•  Walter Milton Kimball (1 item)

Nahant Public Library

• Florence Johnson Herbarium (387 items)