In 1941, Carnegie Museum of Natural History Director Andrey Avinoff began an ambitious project with friend and Curator of Botany Otto E. Jennings.
They wanted to describe and illustrate the flora of western Pennsylvania, based on Jennings’s lifelong study of the region. Jennings and his colleagues brought in the living plants, fresh and unwithered. Avinoff worked quickly to capture accurately the color and manner of growth. Many of these specimens were then dried, pressed, and placed as vouchers in the herbarium.
Selected Avinoff reprints are available in the Museum Store for purchase for $25.