This is an image of the library in Highland Gardens, the estate of Andrew Jackson Downing, that was located on upper Grand Street. It comes from an original edition of his "Rural Essays", a compilation of his writings in The Horticulturist- a monthly gardening publication he edited until his death in July of 1852.
From the writings of author Kevin Baker...
"Late one night a guest in the library saw to his amazement a bookshelf swing open on noiseless hinges revealing a secret chamber where Downing labored into the night, under the white plaster busts of his heroes Dante and Milton and Petrarch and Franklin and Linnaeus and Scott staring down at him as he edited the Horticulturist, and wrote his books on landscaping and architecture, and fruit and botany. "
