outdoor

Grace Greylock Niles was a botanist, teacher, collector, photographer, free spirit, swamp-explorer, writer, and nature enthusiast. This fascinating and beautifully illustrated book opens the readers' eyes and mind to a world of natural beauty that few would dare to explore. A native of Vermont, the author spent decades exploring the flora and fauna of the northeast, but her special interest in orchids inspired her tireless “bog-trotting.”

This exhibition catalog explores the 2010 monumental work Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads, created by internationally acclaimed contemporary Chinese artist and social activist Ai Weiwei. The work is a reimagining of a Qing dynasty zodiac water-clock system at the Old Summer Palace near Beijing, which was looted in 1850 during the Second Opium War. Ai reinterpreted the original fountainheads in a gold series and a bronze series, as his first monumental public art installation.

One of a series of travel guides written by Perry Mason author Erle Stanley Gardner, this book documents a fun-filled search for the “Lost Dutchman” and “Lost Nummel” mines in Arizona in 1965. The team utilized helicopters, jeeps, desert buggies, and mules in its search, which is captured in many photographs. The book also includes biographies of the search team members. It documents a bygone era of exploration and a form of adventure with wide appeal.