thoreausflowers.com

about the exhibit

In Search of Thoreau’s Flowers: An Exploration of Change and Loss is an immersive and interactive multidisciplinary exhibition that marries art, science, and the humanities through a modern artistic interpretation of Henry David Thoreau’s preserved plants. The installation considers the impacts of climate change and habitat loss on plants around Walden Pond over the arc of one-hundred-and-twenty years. The exhibition opened at the Harvard Museum of Natural History in May 2022 and remained on display through May 2024. A new, expanded version of the show is on view at the Gregg Museum of Art at NC State from September 10, 2025 through January 31, 2026. The core of the show is replicable (outside of Thoreau’s original specimens, which cannot travel) and the team is happy to create new works related to local ecosystems wherever it travels. We welcome inquiries about bringing the installation to other institutions both inside and outside of the United States.

Thoreau was an enthusiastic collector of botanical specimens, which document the world before the intensification of human influence on plant communities and indicate how the biosphere is responding to climate change and habitat loss. We draw upon 648 of Thoreau’s pressed plant (‘herbarium’) specimens preserved in the Harvard University Herbaria. The digitization of these specimens have expanded access beyond the scientific community to humanities scholars, citizen scientists, and artists, in turn facilitating creative partnerships such as that which fueled the current exhibit.

An estimated 30% of plant species from Thoreau’s records have gone locally extinct, and another 35% are close to the same fate, in large part due to human-driven changes in the environment and development. Thoreau’s collection is a botanical time machine that exists in combination with the naturalist’s notes about when and where his specimens were collected. Our installation draws attention to plant responses to environmental change through cyanotypes, data visualization, soundscapes, and spatial augmented reality.

In Search of Thoreau’s Flowers invites visitors to experience emotionally resonant connections to the profound loss of natural diversity caused by human-induced climate change and habitat loss. It urges us to reflect on the beauty of the natural world, calling attention to our collective need to protect and restore it.

Podcast

Learn more about the exhibition by listening to this HMSC Connects! podcast featuring a conversation with our team.

Listen to the podcast

Press

Podcast

Indy Weekly (October 20, 2025)

"Raleigh Exhibition Shows How Thoreau Helped Map Climate Change"

"The show’s general thrust is a gentle reminder that we coexist with the natural world and bear a dependence on, and responsibility to, it that can be joyfully responsive."

Fine Books & Collections (October 1, 2023)

“... masterfully blends art and science to prompt larger discussions about human relationships to nature”

The Boston Globe (June 29, 2022)

calls “In Search of Thoreau’s Flowers” a

“stimulatingly cross-disciplinary exhibition.”

The Harvard Gazette (May 24, 2022)

"...invites visitors to ask, “What do Thoreau’s findings tell us about what plants are winning, and what plants are losing, in the face of climate change today?”

In Search of Thoreau’s Flowers: An Exploration of Change and Loss

In Search of Thoreau's Flowers at the Gregg Museum of Art

“Moving through the exhibition, one cannot help but reflect upon one’s own agency to combat climate change.”

about the exhibit

Podcast

Podcast

Podcast

Press

Podcast

Podcast

RSVP for Rooted: A Community Festival of Nature and Stories on Saturday, November 8, 2025 4-8 p.m.

Contact Us

Get in touch

In Search of Thoreau’s Flowers: An Exploration of Change and Loss

In Search of Thoreau's Flowers at the Gregg Museum of Art

“Moving through the exhibition, one cannot help but reflect upon one’s own agency to combat climate change.”

about the exhibit

Podcast

Podcast

Podcast

Press

Podcast

Podcast

RSVP for Rooted: A Community Festival of Nature and Stories on Saturday, November 8, 2025 4-8 p.m.

Contact Us

Get in touch

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