Ramsey Illustration Collection

85 botanical illustrations by Guy Reed Ramsey, 1926

A standalone collection of 85 flatbed scans (Epson Expression 13000XL) of botanical illustrations by Guy Reed Ramsey, held by the NREM Dendrology Lab at Iowa State University and digitized in 2026 for the Iowa Forestry Media Library. Unlike IFML's per-species leaf-scan datasets, this is a single archive of one artist's work — not a numbered dataset series.

Notice · Under copyright through 2050

This is an unpublished work still under copyright. Guy Reed Ramsey died April 28, 1980; under US law, an unpublished work's copyright term runs until 70 years after the author's death — for this collection, through 2050. Copyright is presumed held by his estate/heirs, not by IFML or Iowa State University. The collection is held under restricted access, not an open license (unlike most IFML datasets, which are CC BY 4.0).

To request access, contact contact@iowaforestrymedialibrary.org with your name, affiliation, and intended use.

Sample plates

A handful of representative plates from the collection. The full set of 85 is not published openly here — see Access below.

Ramsey illustration of Acer macrophyllum (Bigleaf Maple)

Acer macrophyllum — Bigleaf Maple

Ramsey illustration of Cornus nuttallii (Pacific Dogwood)

Cornus nuttallii — Pacific Dogwood

Ramsey illustration of Quercus rubra (Northern Red Oak)

Quercus rubra — Northern Red Oak

Ramsey illustration of Sequoiadendron giganteum (Giant Sequoia)

Sequoiadendron giganteum — Giant Sequoia

Ramsey illustration of Pinus ponderosa (Ponderosa Pine)

Pinus ponderosa — Ponderosa Pine

Ramsey illustration of Fagus grandifolia (American Beech)

Fagus grandifolia — American Beech

About the illustrator

Guy Reed Ramsey (August 15, 1894 – April 28, 1980) was a professional forester. These 1926 illustrations date from his early years studying Pacific Northwest dendrology, before he became Extension Forester at Iowa State College. There, during the Dust Bowl era, he led major reforestation efforts — his program distributed over 800,000 trees to Iowa farmers in spring 1937 alone — and published Drouth Susceptibility of Evergreen Trees in Iowa (Journal of Forestry, 1936). He later retired from forestry and became known as a postal historian, researching Washington state post offices for a project published posthumously as Postmarked Washington.

About the collection

  • Scope: 85 botanical plates covering a broad range of genera, plus paired studies where Ramsey illustrated the same species twice (different season, composition, or detail focus).
  • Provenance: Original illustrations by Guy Reed Ramsey, dated 1926, held by the NREM Dendrology Lab at Iowa State University.
  • Digitization: Flatbed-scanned in 2026 on an Epson Expression 13000XL, then white-balanced, mildly sharpened, and QC-passed to produce the access derivatives.
  • Exclusions: Nine items found mixed into the same physical scan batch were identified as unrelated to this collection (lantern-slide photos, pressed-leaf photographs from other collectors) and one item remains unresolved — none of these are part of the published collection.

Access

The full collection — archival TIFF masters, access JPEGs, and a small web-sized package for email/embedding — is deposited on Zenodo under restricted access. Contact contact@iowaforestrymedialibrary.org for the record link and to request access.

Questions about this collection? Contact the library maintainer at contact@iowaforestrymedialibrary.org.