BROOKLYN BOTANIC GARDEN Women in Science PRIMARY SOURCE PACKET

Student Name

INTRODUCTORY READING ". Student Resources in A Brief History of Brooklyn Botanic Garden (excerpts) From https://www.bbg.org/about/history. Accessed online on August 31, 2018.

When Brooklyn Botanic Garden was founded more than a century ago, New York City area was quickly being developed into a cityscape of buildings and paved roads. Creating a public garden was one way to ensure that some green space remained. Today, the Garden has come to represent the very best in urban gardening and horticultural display.

Here are some highlights of the Garden's history.

1897 New York State legislation reserves 39 acres for a botanic garden. Today, the Garden is make up of 52 acres.

1910 Garden founded with botanist Charles Stuart Gager as director. The Olmsted Brothers firm laid out the original site plan.

1911 Brooklyn Botanic Garden officially opens on May 13. Original Native Flora Garden (at the time called the Local Flora Section) laid out. BBG’s first display garden was conceived to showcase and conserve native plants. Its original form was designed by BBG’s first director, Norman Taylor, and included wildflower beds arranged systematically by plant family and evolutionary relationship.

1912 Harold Caparn appointed the Garden's landscape architect. Caparn would go on to design much of the grounds over the next three decades.

1914 Children's Garden program begins. One of the first programs of its kind, this one-acre vegetable garden offers a place where city children can grow their own food plants.

1915 Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden completed by landscape designer Takeo Shiota. It was one of the first public Japanese gardens in the United States.

1916 Rock Garden created. Boulders unearthed on-site were arranged to create miniature habitats for alpine plants.

1917 Laboratory Building and Conservatory (now Administration Building and Palm House) dedicated. The Tuscan Revival–style building was designed by the McKim, Mead & White firm and is now a designated landmark.

1921 Lily Pool Terrace dedicated. Cherry Walk planted.

1925 Bonsai Collection formed through a gift of 32 bonsai from local plantsman Ernest F. Coe. Shakespeare Garden opens, the gift of Henry C. Folger.

1928 Dedication of Cranford Rose Garden, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Walter V. Cranford. Though the garden has been renovated several times since its opening, several of the original plants remain today.

1941 'Kanzan' cherry trees planted to establish Cherry Esplanade.

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1945 First title in BBG's gardening book series, Lilies and Their Culture: Use in the Garden, published.

1947 First bonsai curator, Frank Okamura, joins staff. Classes and handbooks on bonsai soon followed, signaling this art form's continuing popularity.

1955 Fragrance Garden, designed by landscape architect Alice R. Ireys, opens.

1977 Patent received for Magnolia × 'Elizabeth', the first yellow magnolia, developed at BBG.

1980 500-year-old Shogun lantern, gift of the city of Tokyo, placed in the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden.

1982 First Sakura Matsuri held.

1990 New York Metropolitan Flora Project, a 20-year survey of the area's plant species, launched.

1996 Original Discovery Garden opens. Garden website, bbg.org, launched.

2000 Restored Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden reopens.

2003 Brooklyn Academy of Science and the Environment (BASE) founded in partnership with BBG. This public high school, which emphasizes a project-based science curriculum, is a short walk from the Garden, a source of research opportunities for the students.

2004 Osborne Garden and Magnolia Plaza restored. Garden Apprentice Program for teens created.

2010 New Herb Garden opens. Now located in the south end of the grounds, the garden features a small orchard, annual beds, cold frames, and a composting area. BBG celebrates centennial with special events, tours, and exhibits.

2015 New Discovery Garden opens. This one-acre garden for children, designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, features interactive exhibits set in a variety of habitats, including a meadow, marsh, and woodland.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Primary Source Packet

Document 1a – Johnson’s New York and Brooklyn. (excerpt) New York: A.J. Johnson. 1866. Brooklyn Collection, Brooklyn Public Library.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Primary Source Packet

Document 1b – Google maps. Accessed 31 August 2018. Brooklyn Collection, Brooklyn Public Library.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Primary Source Packet

1. Examine Document 1a. What kind of document is this? What do you recognize on this document?

2. On Document 1a, what do you see to the right of Prospect Park? List 3 things you see.

3. Look at Document 1b. What do you recognize on this document?

4. On Document 1b, locate the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. What was in this location on Document 1a?

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Primary Source Packet

Document 2:

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 11 April 1910 Excerpts.

A notable addition to the pleasure grounds of Brooklyn will be effected when the plans for the creation of an extensive botanic garden and arboretum in Institute Park, alongside Prospect Park, are carried out.

The Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences has the income of $50,000, or from $2,000 to $2,500 a year, for the purchase of plants, shrubs, trees, etc., for the planting, and the city has agreed to furnish the land and maintain the garden.

In regard to the project the bulletin of the Institute says: “The park lands lying south of the Museum site and the Prospect Hill Reservoir, known for twenty years as Institute Park, have during the past four years been used only for park purposes, pending the time when they might be developed as a botanic garden and arboretum for the instruction and delight of students in the public and private schools of the city, and the general public, and also as a means for the advancement of botanic science.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Primary Source Packet

1. Read Document 2. What year is it from?

2. According to this article, what is going to be built near Prospect Park?

3. How much does the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences plan to spend on plants in the botanic garden each year?

4. According to the last paragraph of this article, how will the Botanic Garden benefit Brooklynites?

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Primary Source Packet

Document 2a – Rose garden.1931. Brooklyn Daily Eagle Photographs, Brooklyn Collection, Brooklyn Public Library.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Primary Source Packet

Document 2b – Rose garden. No date. Brooklyn Daily Eagle Photographs, Brooklyn Collection, Brooklyn Public Library.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Primary Source Packet

1. Examine Document 2a. This photo was taken inside the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. According to the caption, what kind of garden is this?

2. Look at Document 2a. Is this how you imagine gardens to look? Why or why not?

3. Document 2b is inside this garden. Look at the white wooden structure in this photograph. What do you think it is for?

4. Look at Document 2a and 2b. Do you see a date on either photograph? What year are these from?

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Primary Source Packet

Document 3a – Japanese Pond and Hill Garden. [195-?]. Brooklyn Daily Eagle Photographs, Brooklyn Collection, Brooklyn Public Library.

Caption: The Japanese Pond and Hill Garden in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Designed and built by Takeo Shiota, it is one of the most beautiful Japanese gardens in the Western Hemisphere.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Primary Source Packet

Document 3b – Japanese Garden gardener. 1953. Brooklyn Daily Eagle Photographs, Brooklyn Collection, Brooklyn Public Library.

Caption: Japanese Garden gardener, Frank Okamura, trims shrubbery under the gaze of student nurses Kathleen Connors and Else Gutmann. Japanese Garden was the gift of Brooklyn philanthropist Alfred T.White.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Primary Source Packet

1. Look at Document 3a. According to the caption, what is this place?

2. Describe three things that you see in Document 3a:

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3. According to Document 3b, who was the gardener for this garden?

4. What kind of work do you imagine a gardener would have to do in this garden?

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Primary Source Packet

Document 4a – The rustic beauty. 1953. Brooklyn Daily Eagle Photographs, Brooklyn Collection, Brooklyn Public Library.

Caption: "The rustic beauty of the Rock Garden contrasts pleasantly with the formality of the Japanese Garden. Gardener Charles McGinley cultivates some of the Botanic Garden's 10,000 varieties of plants."

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Primary Source Packet

Document4b “Rock Garden Wears New Party Dress—Not Paris Made.” Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 22 May 1932. Excerpts.

From the middle of May to early June the Rock Garden at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden wears its most beautiful party dress, a colorful creation not “made in Paris” but fabricated from materials and ornaments from all corners of the globe.

Over 600 kinds of plants from mountainous regions in “all the corners of the earth” are growing here—not, of course, all in flower at this time—but now and for the next three weeks the maximum number of types will be found in flower. In fact there is hardly a month in the year when one cannot find some species in bloom.

The Rock Garden of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden is probably unique in that it is not, like most public rock gardens, primarily intended for display, but instead for demonstration and instruction in the selection, proper placing, and treatment of those kinds of plants which are best suited to live in a modern rock garden.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Primary Source Packet

1. Look at Document 4a. According to the caption, what kind of garden is this? Who is the gardener?

2. What do you imagine a gardener would do in this kind of garden?

3. Read document 4b. According to this newspaper article, how many different kinds of plants grow in this garden?

4. According to the last paragraph of this article, what was this garden created for?

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Primary Source Packet

Document 5a – McNamera, C.E. Garden for the blind. 1954. Brooklyn Daily Eagle Photographs, Brooklyn Collection, Brooklyn Public Library.

Caption: Garden for the blind--At Brooklyn Botanic Garden, while his seeing-eye dog, Cindy, stands by, David Margolis breaks ground for $50,000 Garden of Fragrance for the Blind. Also on hand is Karen Starke, 4, chosen 'poster girl' for new garden which will include aromatic and textured plants, raised flower beds, and Braille labels. Brooklyn Botanic Garden Primary Source Packet

Document 5b

Campaign Gets Off to Good Start For Boro ‘Garden of Fragrance. Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 18 May 1954.

Plans for a “Garden of Fragrance” in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, specially equipped so that blind persons may increase their enjoyment of flowers, were off to a good start today as members of the Garden’s Women’s Auxiliary pressed a campaign to raise $50,000 for the project.

Designed after a “Garden of Fragrance” in Brighton, England, the novel flower display would be the first of its kind in this section of the United States.

One novel idea would enable sightless persons, walking along the flower gardens, to press buttons and hear recorded descriptions of the blooms and plants whose fragrance they are already enjoying.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Primary Source Packet

1. Look at Document 5a. According to the caption of this photograph, what kind of garden is being built at the Botanic Gardens?

2. According to the caption of Document 5a, what will this garden contain?

3. Read Document 5b. According to this article, what is the purpose of this garden? Who is it for?

4. According to the last paragraph, what special feature did people hope this garden would contain?

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Primary Source Packet

Document 6 – [Greenhouse]. 1913. Brooklyn Daily Eagle Photographs, Brooklyn Collection, Brooklyn Public Library.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Primary Source Packet

1. Look at Document 6. According to the caption, what kind of building is this?

2. List six things you see inside this building:

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3. Based on what you observe in this photograph, what do you infer that this building would be used for at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden?

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Primary Source Packet

Document 7a – Bug hunter. 1948. Brooklyn Daily Eagle Photographs, Brooklyn Collection, Brooklyn Public Library.

Caption: Bug hunter--Karl M. Maramorosch, research fellow at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, raises the cage under which insects have been feeding on diseased plants and by suction through rubber and glass tubing draws the bugs into the tube. The insects, loaded with virus, will now be transferred to uninfected plants and their work observed.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Primary Source Packet

Document 7b – Work of a virus. 1948. Brooklyn Daily Eagle Photographs, Brooklyn Collection, Brooklyn Public Library.

Caption: Work of a virus--Here on the stem and branches of a sweet clover plant are tumors of the Clover Big Vein disease caused by a virus first identified by the plant pathologist of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Note the tumor on the branch where it has been weakened by rubbing the rim of the pot.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Primary Source Packet

1. Look at Document 7a. According to the caption, what is this man’s job at Brooklyn Botanic Garden?

2. According to the caption of Document 7a, what will this man do with bugs that are carrying a plant virus?

3. Look at Document 7b. According to the caption, what are the large bumps on the stem and branches of this plant?

4. According to the caption of Document 7b, what is the job title of a person who studies plant diseases?

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Primary Source Packet

Document 8a – Wilma Wescott. 1954. Brooklyn Daily Eagle Photographs, Brooklyn Collection, Brooklyn Public Library.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Primary Source Packet

Document 8b – “Want to Grow Own Orchids? Botanic Garden Teaches You.” Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 9 January 1954.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Primary Source Packet

1. Look at Document 8a. What does this woman appear to be doing in the photograph? What is her name?

2. Read the headline of Document 8b. According to this newspaper article, what could you learn to do at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden?

3. Read the first paragraph of Document 8b. What other things could you learn at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden?

4. Skim this article for the name of the woman in Document 8a. What class will she be teaching? (HINT: it’s near the end.)

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Primary Source Packet

Document 9a – “Still Blooming.” Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 9 December 1953.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Primary Source Packet

Document 9b: – Prospectus of Courses, Lectures, and Other Educational Advantages Offered to Members and to the General Public, 1940-1941.Brooklyn Botanic Garden Record, Vol. XXIX No. 4, October 1940. Pages 224-225.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Primary Source Packet

1. Look at Document 9a. What is this woman’s name? According to the caption, what is she doing?

2. According to the caption of Document 9a, what is this woman’s job at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden?

3. Look at Document 9b. This is a list of classes offered in 1940-1941 by instructional staff at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. How can you tell which ones are taught by women?

4. List five classes from Document 9b that are taught by women at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden: 1.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Primary Source Packet

Document 10 Lips, Elizabeth. “Curator Spreads Fame of Boro Botanic Garden,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 26 March 1952.

Excerpt.

The fame of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden has spread even to the countries “down under,” according to Frances M. Miner, curator of instruction at the Garden.

Miss Miner, recently returned from a tour of Australia and New Zealand, declared in an interview yesterday that the first person she met when she landed in New Zealand had been to and admired Brooklyn’s garden.

“They have marvelous gardens. I found it a land of gardens, and there were botanic gardens in almost every town.”

Miss Miner, a graduate of Smith College, declared that she had wanted to go to New Zealand since she first started the study of botany.

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden has given her a chance to see plants from all over the world, and so the flora did not surprise her too much. In fact, there were many North American flowers, blooming in profusion. It was summer in the little island country when she was there during January, and many of the plants were the same as those which will be brightening our landscape in a few months.

In Australia she went especially to see the old Botanic Garden in Melbourne, which is twice the size of Brooklyn’s. Due to a shortage of labor, Miss Miner explained, they have not been able to follow Brooklyn’s example. Only in Melbourne did she find a system of short courses for the public, like here.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Primary Source Packet

1. Look at Document 10. What is the name of the woman in the photograph?

2. Read the transcription of Document 10. What countries did this woman visit?

3. According to Document 10, where did this woman go to college? What did she study?

4. According to Document 10, what city had a Botanic Garden twice the size of Brooklyn’s?

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Primary Source Packet

Document 11a: – “Lecture on Roses Listed By Horticultural Society.” Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 1 June 1952.

Document 11b: – Lambert, Al. Mums the word. 1952. Brooklyn Daily Eagle Photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn Collection.

Caption: "Mums the word at Brooklyn Botanic Garden where Winifred Haddock, 19, an employee, peers happily from midst of some of 50 chrysanthemum varieties at peak of bloom this week."

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Primary Source Packet

1. Read Document 11a. According to this newspaper article, what is the name of the person who will give a talk for the horticultural society?

2. According to Document 11a, what is the title of the talk that this person will give?

3. Look at Document 11b. According to the caption of this photograph, who is the woman in the picture? How old is she?

4. According to the caption of Document 11b, what type of flowers are in the photograph?

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Primary Source Packet

Document 12a: – Busy fellows. 1955. Brooklyn Daily Eagle Photographs, Brooklyn Collection, Brooklyn Public Library.

Document 12b: – Brooklyn Botanic Garden Record, Vol. XXIX No. 2, April 1940. Page 58 excerpt.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Primary Source Packet

1. Look at Document 12a. What do you see these women doing in the photograph?

2. The caption of Document 12a is ‘‘busy fellows’’. A ‘‘fellow’’ is another name for a student or an intern who is working as part of their study.

Based on your observations of this photograph, what do you think these fellows are learning at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden?

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3. Document 12b is from a report at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. What are the names of two women who have used the Brooklyn Botanic Garden for Research?

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Primary Source Packet

Document 13a: – Brooklyn Botanic Garden Record, Vol. XXIX No. 2, April 1940. Page 58 excerpt.

Document 13b: – Figures 4 – 7 from: Gundersen, Alfred. “Flower Buds and Phylogeny of Dicotyledons,” Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, Vol. 66, No. 5 (May, 1939), pp. 287-295

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Primary Source Packet

1. Document 13a is from a report issued by the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. According to the first sentence in this Document, what is the name of the woman who draws flower structures?

2. According to Document 13a, what article was published with her drawings? HINT: The title of the article is in ‘‘ ’’ quotes.

3. Document 13b shows illustrations from a science article. According to the caption, what is the title of this article?

4. Based on what you learned in Document 13a, who created these drawings?

5. List three of the parts of a flower that are labelled in these drawings:

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Brooklyn Botanic Garden Primary Source Packet

GLOSSARY

Arboretum: a botanical garden devoted to trees

Aromatic: something with a pleasant and distinctive smell

Botany: the scientific study of plants

Braille: a form of written language for blind people, in which characters are represented by patterns of raised dots that are felt with the fingertips.

Curator: a keeper or manager of something

Fellow: a student or recent graduate, hired to work on research for a specific project

Flora: the plants of a particular region, habitat, or geological period

Fragrance: a smell

Furnish: to be a source of something; to provide

Maintain: to keep something in good order

Novel: new

Pathologist: a scientist who studies the causes and effects of diseases

Pending: waiting for something

Profusion: an abundance; to have a lot of something

Textured: a rough or raised pattern on the surface of something

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Primary Source Packet