In 1851, Eliza M. French (1809–1889), a self-taught amateur phycologist from New London, Connecticut, assembled this bound seaweed herbarium—likely one of many she produced and sold—with pressed specimens collected from Atlantic coast sites such as Thames River, Fort Trumbull, and East River, New York.​

The volume's colored pages (pale pink, blue, green) use diagonal slits to hold smooth, cream-white writing paper sheets (13×20 cm), where French arranged 18 common littoral algae species: 2 brown (e.g., Mesogloia virescens, Punctaria latifolia), 14 red (e.g., various Polysiphonia, Dasya elegans, Delesseria americana, Rhodymenia palmata), and 2 green (e.g., Bryopsis plumosa, Ulva lactuca). Most sheets show one species in a central layout of multiple fronds, adhered naturally via mucilage after pressing under gauze between absorbent layers; labels in her fine black ink script detail Latin names, sites, months (e.g., July perennial for Palmaria palmata), classes, and orders.​

French used pink, green, and purple cardboard backgrounds to highlight the pressed algae specimens, creating dark and bright contrasts as well as complementary color pairings with the brown, red, and green algae. The overall design of her sheets features a balanced layout: a central arrangement of multiple fronds per species, neatly glued in place, with precise handwritten labels noting scientific names, collection sites

Notable sheets include the title page with a garland of filamentous red Callithamnion corymbosum and green Cladophora; a decorative floral arrangement of the same algae; and French's poem "Flowers are we / Of the wild sea."​

Flowers are we

Of the wild sea

And rocky shore.

Borne by the waves

From hidden caves

When storm clouds lower.

(…)

Who love to rove

The verdant grove

For nature’s sake,

Come and lave

On sparkling wave

And a lesson take.

From the coarse and stern

The heart may turn

For beauty’s power,

But, under the dross

Of the stern and coarse

Lie pearl and flower.

Flowers are we

Of the wild sea

And rocky shore.

Borne by the waves

From hidden caves

When storm clouds lower.

(…)

Who love to rove

The verdant grove

For nature’s sake,

Come and lave

On sparkling wave

And a lesson take.

From the coarse and stern

The heart may turn

For beauty’s power,

But, under the dross

Of the stern and coarse

Lie pearl and flower.

Passed via the Iselin family to Basel botanist Wilhelm Vischer (1933), it was donated to the University of Basel Library in 2016; all 18 sheets are digitzed and accessible online. ↓[2]