The History of Science Collection of rare books grows each year with significant acquisitions that develop established strengths in the collection. Connections highlights an interesting selection of the rare book acquisitions from the past two years. Each "recent acquisition" is displayed with a book or books "from the collection" to show the connections between them. Acquisitions of rare books are usually made with an eye toward a book's significance to the overall strength of the collection for research and study. The connections between "old" and "new" books are sometimes surprising, often illuminating, and always interesting.

One recent acquisition was the Banks' Florilegium, a collection of 738 hand-colored engravings that document the botanical discoveries of Captain Cook's first voyage around the world in 1768-71. A selection of these plates have been hung on the walls of the East Gallery, while the exhibit cases in this gallery display other works on Cook or Banks that already belong to the collection.