The Watercolors of Charlotte Hills Beasley
Introduction by David R. Beasley, Commentary by Jim Cruise
Publisher: Davus Publishing, Simcoe, Ontario, Canada, July 2007. Edition is limited to 200 copies.
ISBN: 978-0-915317-22-6 Price: $90. Reviewed by Susan Rubin.

THESE WATERCOLOURS of flowers, floral arrangements, and insects were painted between 1879 and 1882. They were pasted into a Scrapbook that was rescued by James E. A. Beasley on a pile of objects being auctioned from the estate of Annie Rice Davis Beasley in Hamilton, Ontario in 1938. The Scrapbook lay in a cedar trunk for years in the upstairs room over a garage at "The Pines", the Beasley country home on New Street, Burlington and came into the possession of David Beasley, who delighted in the artistry and beautiful colours of the paintings. They were painted by C.H.B., Charlotte Hills Beasley.
 Charlotte Hills was born in Hamilton, Ontario in 1835 in a family that had come to New England in the 1600s and migrated to Canada in 1812. Her father Horace and his brother Albert were early builders and architects in Hamilton. When Charlotte was orphaned at age 14, she became the ward of Alexander Carpenter who built Rock Castle, where she lived till her marriage to Thomas Beasley, third son of the City Treasurer Henry Beasley. Thomas was City Clerk and Secretary of the Board of Education for over fifty years. Charlotte began an extensive garden behind their house on Main St. East, which attracted crowds of visitors and was carried on by her son, Alexander, who inherited his mother's love for flowers and plants. Charlotte died in 1906.
 Dr. David Beasley, who wrote the Introduction, has written two books on art: Understanding Modern Art; the Boundless Spirit of Clay Edgar Spohn and Douglas MacAgy and the Foundations of Modern Art Curatorship. He wrote the definitive biography of Canada's first novelist, the biography of Canada's renowned actor-manager, a political-economic history of the automobile, a best-selling book on library methodology, a travel journal through Turkey, and several novels ranging from detective to historical, one of which, Sarah's Journey, won the Hamilton and Region literary award for best fiction. His latest book, Canoe Trip, is for young adults. Charlotte Hills Beasley was his great-grandmother. He lives in Simcoe, Ontario.
 Dr. Jim Cruise, who has identified the flowers in each watercolour, is one of the most knowledgeable persons in the field of botany. He was Dean of Arts and Sciences at the University of Toronto and Director-CEO at the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto. He lives in Port Dover, Ontario. He wrote:
 "Charlotte Beasley was, without question, an extremely gifted painter. Her flowers are drawn with such accuracy and care as to make identification in most cases positive."
 This book has been bound so as to allow one to take out pages and frame them. The edition is limited to 200 copies.
 ISBN: 978-0-915317-22-6 PRICE: $90 Cdn & U.S. hard cover binding DAVUS PUBLISHING, 150 NORFOLK ST S., SIMCOE, ON N3Y 2W2 CANADA URL: www.kwic.com/davus email: davus@kwic.com