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The Arboretum Administrators: ’ An Opinionated History [The author of this article has been associated with the Arnold Arboretum since 1963. For two years she was secre- tary to the present Director; for four years she worked on a biography of the first Director; on other occasions she has scru- tinized Arboretum history more closely than most. The administration of the Arnold Arboretum, to which this paper is largely addressed, has long interested her. However, she confesses that her association with Dr. Howard and her prolonged study of Sargent have influenced her views. She does not believe that purely "objective" history is worth much or, for that matter, that another person would necessarily produce a less opinionated discussion of this topic. Nevertheless, she feels it only fair to warn readers of her prejudices.] Charles Sargent was a despot. Though it is currently unfash- ionable to praise despotism - and the author instinctively mis- trusts tyranny in any form - both the historical record and the existing Arnold Arboretum justify, in retrospect, Sargent’s brand of directorship. With the advantage of hindsight, one even suspects that the aggressive exercise of power was the only solution to the administrative problems that faced him when the Harvard Corporation appointed him to his post in 1873. He did not make a conscious decision for absolutism; to assume authority came naturally to him. He was a Boston Sargent, and Boston Sargents were traditionally willful people, in public service or the professions, as artists or merchants. One senses authority in the gallery of family portraits reproduced in the Sargent genealogy as one senses it in the gruff likenesses of Charles Sargent which, for better or for worse - but surely for posterity - adorn the Arboretum Administration Building in Jamaica Plain. Sargent confronted a desperate situation: 125 acres of what he called "worn-out farm" and an available income of less than 3 Charles Sprague Sargent circa 1907. 4I James Arnold $3,000 per year from the James Arnold estate with which to convert it into an arboretum. His grasp of the notion of "arboretum" was, at best, vague, and he had no formal training in either horticulture or the botanical sciences. He came to the Arnold Arboretum, on the strength of family reputation and social connections, as a man with an unremarkable record of dalliance. Looking for early evidence of aptitude for his career at Harvard, one notes only that he had managed his father’s Brookline estate quite nicely for a few years. It would appear, therefore, that the Harvard Corporation did not consider either the Arnold Arboretum or its directorship very important. Sargent’s dynamic administration made them change their minds. Under his rule - which lasted more than half the cen- tury being celebrated this year - the worn out farm grew into a handsome botanical garden; a scientific program developed, and the library and herbarium were amassed to support it; ex- 5 plorers collected new plants in exotic places; the endowment increased to perpetuate the institution and its work ad infinitum. By the time Sargent died, in 1927, the Arnold Arboretum had an international reputation as a place of scenic beauty and as a leader in the plant sciences. Four men have administered the Arnold Arboretum since Sargent: Oakes Ames (1927-1935), Elmer Drew Merrill (1935- 1946), Karl Sax (1946-1954), and Richard A. Howard (1954-). Like Sargent, each one has left his mark, by default or design, and some have been better administrators than others. They have differed in personality, style, background, physique, and scientific orientation. In fact, aside from their involvement with the Arboretum, no one characteristic is common to all of them. Their collective recommendations and decisions are re- sponsible for the institution as it is today: the garden at Jamaica Plain, the expanded physical facilities in Weston and Cam- bridge, the research collections, the publications, and the scientific program. Sargent: Benevolent Despot No one can deny that the Arnold Arboretum is, above all, Sargent’s creation. He was, as observed earlier, an autocrat, a man of financial substance from the top of the social heap. Though the United States had no royalty - and Sargent himself thought kings and queens frilly excesses - the so-called Boston Brahmins lived very regally indeed. Sargent’s house- hold servants dressed in livery; Sargent took a dim view of universal sufferage and graduated taxation. He did not possess a democratic soul. He was haughty, stern, abrupt, stubborn, and sometimes tactless; he was also strong, clever, relentless, a good judge of men, and wealthy. What he lacked in scientific experience at the beginning of his career, he compensated for with administrative imagination and money. Though the original situation - the neglected farmland and the insignificant funds - had nightmarish aspects, Sargent had one colossal advantage over every other administra- tor who followed him: he started from scratch. He did not owe obeisance to traditions and he was not bound by others’ decisions. It was for him to interpret the meaning of "arboretum," only barely outlined in the indenture between Arnold’s trustees and Harvard University, and to define the scope of its work. In the initial throes of enthusiasm, Sargent made grandiose plans: impractical planting schemes, forestry plots, an elaborate indoor museum. But nature, experience, and ad- 6I vice - 9bme of which, one notes, he had the wisdom to accept - effectively prevented him from over-committing himself. He altered his proposed planting pattern to conform with ecological necessities instead of textbooks; he gave up his forestry plot altogether; he drew realistic perimeters around his idea of a museum. He was fortunate to be able to draw on the opinions of great men: Asa Gray, Sir Joseph Hooker, F. L. Olmsted, John Muir, and others. Sargent refused to permit institutional poverty to obstruct the growth of the Arboretum. In this respect, his personal fortune and social status were indispensable. What the Arnold income could not pay for, Sargent covered out of his own pocket or begged from his friends. When Olmsted’s firm had to be paid for pre- paring landscape plans, Sargent raised $2,000 in less than twenty-four hours. For decades he authorized expenditures of several thousands of dollars beyond the budget and solicited donations from Boston society to balance his books. For ex- ample, a $30,000 gift from Horatio Hollis Hunnewell built the main section of the Administration Building in Jamaica Plain in 1892. Furthermore, in addition to meeting his immediate needs, Sargent collected funds for the endowment to secure a financial footing for the future. By contemporary standards his patrons were few in number but exceptionally generous with their checkbooks. The Director, appreciative of their confidence, rewarded them with results at the Arboretum, gifts of rare plants, and personal attention. One of the by-products of Sargent’s skillful fund raising was that it won him leverage within the University. Had he not demonstrated his considerable financial talents early in his administration, it is unlikely that the Harvard Corporation would have permitted him to negotiate with the City of Boston to share in the Arboretum venture. As it was, most University officials were lukewarm to the idea, and President Charles Eliot was downright hostile to it. Yet this was undoubtedly Sargent’s most significant decision, and he and Olmsted fought fiercely for public and political support of their scheme. Thanks to the 1882 agreement between Harvard and the City (by which the City took over ownership of the land, leasing it back to the University for a dollar per year, and contracted to build and maintain the roads, provide a water supply and police protec- tion in exchange for use of the Arboretum as a free public park), the Arboretum was masterfully landscaped by Olmsted and was able to develop on a much greater scale than it could have achieved as a private university botanical garden. Administration Building, 1890. Photo by Boston Park Commission. The combination of financial backing, the contract with the City, and geographic alienation from Cambridge made Sargent more independent of Harvard than any of his successors; and because the Arboretum was, so to speak, his baby, he oversaw its development with a thoroughness that no subsequent admin- istrator duplicated. He made daily tours of the grounds, super- vised the growth of the library and herbarium, carried on voluminous correspondence, checked on seedlings in the green- house, and controlled every penny of income and expenditure. He assembled a superior staff (Alfred Rehder, C. E. Faxon, Jackson Dawson, and E. H. Wilson were its prominent mem- bers) as much by luck as by good judgment. He treated them with feudal deference, remaining socially and personally aloof; but he was quick to delegate responsibility to those who could handle it and credit to those who deserved it. Though dread- fully underpaid, the staff were fiercely loyal to him and the Arboretum, perhaps inspired by his dedication and by the cer- tainty that he would come to their aid in a crisis. Despite his administrative load and nagging physical ail- ments, Sargent produced his report on forest trees of North America for the 1880 Census, the classic fourteen volume Silva, the more compact Manual, and many short botanical works. 8 Oakes Ames 9 He crusaded for national park legislation and he travelled ex- tensively in North America and throughout the world. He be- gan every manuscript or trip with the Arboretum in mind and, indeed, his individual efforts contributed significantly to the institution’s reputation. He seemed never to stop working and did not differentiate among weekdays, weekends, and holidays.

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