Pennsylvania Horticultural Society - Jay V. Hare Lantern Slide CollectionJay Veeder Hare (1878-1953) was secretary and treasurer of the Reading Company, parent company of the Reading Railway System, and a member of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s executive council in the 1930s. Mr. Hare gave many lectures on plants and gardens based on his extensive world travels. He obtained lantern slides from commercial photography houses such as T. Takagi Photo Co., in Kobe, Japan and the William H. Rau Company in Philadelphia. His lectures were supplemented by his own photography.
The collection is strong in images from Japan, Italy, Spain, the United States and Switzerland, with representation from Bermuda, England, Ireland, France, Monaco, Germany, New Zealand, and South Africa. The images, many of which are hand-colored, depict typical or famous gardens, well-known city parks, tourist views of areas of spectacular natural beauty such as waterfalls and picturesque coastlines, as well as individual plant portraits. This digital project is supported in part by a National Endowment for the Humanities Sustaining the Humanities Through the American Rescue Plan (SHARP) grant.