McMaster Archives Alive Lecture: “Arborum Cura: John Evelyn’s Sylva from Root to Branch”

You are cordially invited to McMaster’s next online Archives Alive lecture (20 March 2026 at 12 p.m. EST): “Arborum Cura: John Evelyn’s Sylva from Root to Branch.” 

In 1664, the newly established Royal Society of London released John Evelyn’s Sylva as its first official publication; McMaster acquired a first edition of the work in 2019. This charming book-length consideration of “forest-trees” — full of lively and personable advice about the nature, qualities, and proper care of trees and forests — proved to be profoundly influential and is still widely discussed. Why did this learned body choose Sylva to begin its work, and what does a 350-year-old treatise on trees and forestry have to tell us today? Join Archives and Rare Books Librarian Myron Groover for an exploration of Sylva, the environmental and geopolitical contexts in which it was rooted, and the branching paths by which Evelyn’s thinking about conservation bore fruit — in his time and our own.  

Register using this link: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/7017721321147/WN_uP5N7WNOTGCag_1J7dziGA