Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden (RSABG) was founded in 1927 by Susanna Bixby Bryant in Orange County, CA and relocated to Claremont in 1951.

Susanna’s plan for her botanic garden included a research-quality library. She built a considerable personal collection in her lifetime and that collection continues to be the foundation of the library today. Some of Susanna’ personal books can still be found in the library and are still being used.

Today, the library contains nearly 50,000 bound volumes and 750 current print and electronic journals and other periodicals related to the mission of RSABG and the library. Acquisitions are constantly being added in all formats.

The collection is designed for education and research purposes and is geared towards graduate students and advanced researchers. It is composed of books, periodicals, reprints, microforms, pamphlets, article reprints, and digital resources. These focus principally on systematic, floristic, and evolutionary botany, horticulture, California natural history, and the ethnobotany of southwestern North America and California.

The holdings of the library are included in the online catalog of the Claremont Colleges, BLAIS, http://blais.claremont.edu.