Entwined: Botany, Art, and the Lost Cat Swamp Habitat

I’m a real dummy when it comes to botany, so I appreciated the helpful text included in the new exhibit at Brown’s Hay Library. Cat Swamp sounds like a made-up name, but until the early twentieth century it was an actual wetland located on Providence’s East Side. Before such wetlands were federally protected, the swamp was filled in and residentialized, comprising the eight-block area that is now surrounded by Freeman Parkway and Arlington, President, and Elmgrove Avenues. Plants found in the swamp are rendered in painstakingly detailed watercolors by Edward Peckham, where they are displayed in cases next to actual plant specimens from Brown’s herbarium.