The foresight of William Gilson Farlow accounts for both the quality of the library's holdings in 18th- and l9th-century literature and its finding a home at 20 Divinity Avenue. To improve his qualifications for a college position in the United States, Farlow supplemented his Harvard education (A.B. 1866, M.D. 1870) with two years of study in the cryptogamic laboratories of Europe while also acquiring book and herbariurn collections. On his return to America in 1874 he was appointed assistant professor and stationed at the Bussey Institution in Jamaica Plain. Named professor of cryptogamic botany in 1879, Farlow brought his herbarium and library to Cambridge, and continued to add to the library throughout his life.

In June 1919 he bequeathed Harvard his "books, papers, manuscripts and printed matter of every kind relating to the subject of botany...to be kept together...under the title of the Farlow Reference Library, with the restriction that they shall be consulted only in the building in which they may be kept...Harvard University to provide within three years of my death a place for the Library in a suitable fireproof building...." In April 1922, when the Divinity School Library vacated a buildung adjacent to the Botanical Museum housing the cryptogamic herbarium, permission was granted for the Farlow collections to occupy the building and for solicitation of funds to add a fireproof herbarium wing. In 1923 the wing was built and the herbarium and library collections were moved into their new home. Roland Thaxter, Farlow's student, became first curator emeritus; Carroll W. Dodge was in charge of the library. The first visitor, on November 28, 1924, was Lillian H. Farlow.

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