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Home , Arnold Arboretum, Benjamin Bussey

George Barrell Emerson and the Establishment of the Arnold

Ida Hay

"When shall we be able to point to a complete, or even a respectable, American collection of our indigenous trees and shrubs?" Perhaps more than any other individual, George Barrell Emerson was responsible for filling this need in nineteenth-century .

The was officially estab- tion, and as a boy George had learned as many lished in March 1872, when an mdenture was of the trees and plants around Wells as he signed by which trustees of a bequest of James could. He was pleased that Peck recognized Arnold agreed to turn the fund over to Harvard them instantly from his descriptions. College, provided the college would use it to It was an exciting time at Harvard, its Au- develop an arboretum on land bequeathed ear- gustan age of literary achievement. Under the lier by . Mastermind of this administration of John Thornton Kirkland, the scheme was George Barrell Emerson (1797- college adopted progressive methods of educa- 1881 one of the trustees of the Arnold tion ; students were being urged to think rather bequest. A schoolmaster and educational than recite facts by rote. Upon graduating, reformer, he widely promoted the study of Emerson began a career in education himself. natural history and pursued an interest m trees First as master of a private boys’ school to the extent of publishing a scholarly work on recently established in Lancaster, Massachu- them that remains valuable today. setts, then as the first headmaster for ’s Raised in Wells, , when that state was new English Classical School (later called still part of , Emerson spent English High School), he developed many of much of his boyhood roaming the fields, his own ideas on the best methods of educa- woods, and seaside and working on the tion. In 1823 he opened an institution for family’s farm. After a few years of preparation young women in Boston. at Dummer Academy in Byfield, New Hamp- Emerson lectured widely and published on shire, the young Emerson entered Harvard such topics as the education of girls and College in 1813, concentrating in mathematics women, moral education, health, home eco- and Greek. nomics, and sanitation. When the Boston Soci- Apparently the first thing Emerson did after ety of Natural History was founded in 1830, getting settled at college was to visit Harvard’s Emerson helped to organize it. He was a very botanic garden, hoping to learn from Professor active member, holding several offices, William Peck the names of some plants he had curating one of the collections, and regularly found in Wells that he could not identify. His attending meetings. father, a Harvard-educated physician, had In 1832, at the beginning of Emerson’s sec- taught him the Linnaean system of classifica- ond decade as master of his school, his wife 13

George Barrell Emerson (1797-1881), a leader of movements to improve natural-history education at all levels, m fluenced his brother-in-law James Arnold (1781-1868) to leave the bequest that was used to start the Arnold Arboretum (From, respectively, R C. Waterston, Memoir of George Barrell Emerson, LL.D., 1884, and the Archives of the Arnold Arboretum).). and assistant in the school became ill and died. geological survey, BSNH members proposed to George was left with three children, aged undertake botanical and zoological surveys for seven, five, and three, whose healthy and the Massachusetts legislature. Emerson not proper upbringing was a source of concern to only acted as commissioner fof the surveys but him. After two and a half years, in late Novem- conducted the investigation of trees and ber 1834, he remarried. Emerson’s second wife, shrubs himself. He worked on the project for Mary Rotch Fleming, was a widowed sister of nine summers, whenever school was not in Sarah Arnold, wife of James. With his second session. marriage, George commenced a close friend- One of the goals of the surveys was to collect ship with the Rotch family, including James information on the economic importance of and Sarah Rotch Arnold. During visits to New each subject. To find out more about how Mas- Bedford, George and Sarah found they shared sachusetts’ trees were used and how forests or an interest in shell collecting, and James led woodlots were managed, Emerson sent a circu- them to neighboring geological sites. lar with twenty questions to some fifty land- owners in the state, and their responses on Trees and Shrubs Report provided valuable information. On his own By 1836 Emerson had been chosen president of fact-finding excursions, Emerson visited ship- the Boston Society of Natural History. The fol- yards in Boston, New Bedford, and other lowing year, inspired by a recent state-funded towns, as well as numerous sawmills, machine 14

George B. Emerson traveled throughout Massachusetts to observe its trees, and he noted particularly large mdmduals of each species. In Hmgham, he admired this old Amemcan elm at Rocky Nook. Emerson reported its dimensions as thirteen feet m cmcumference and sixty or seventy feet m height, with a crown more than mnety feet in breadth (From L. N. Dane and H. Brooks, Typical Elms and Other Trees of Massachusetts, 1890). 155

shops, and workshops for making furniture, children. This profuse waste is checked, but it agricultural implements, and other articles has not entirely ceased. It is, however, giving using wood. way to better views. Even since this survey was a wiser shows itself. it be Issued in late 1846, Emerson’s Report on the begun, economy May umversal. A brief consideration of the Trees and Shrubs Growing Naturally in the general use of forests on a great scale may have a ten- Forests of Massachusetts turned out to be the dency to produce this effect (G. B. Emerson, most of the volumes in the popular published 1846, p. 2). survey. His ability to present accurate scien- tific information with lucidity and contagious What followed was an enumeration of the benefits forests for man: enthusiasm was universally praised. "It is a provide improving work that every intelligent farmer, educated at and holding soil, moderating the climate, a New England School, may read and under- providing material for fuel and uncountable stand fully-and which is at the same time as necessary objects. Emerson also discussed the truly (not pedantically) learned, as if it had nonmaterial, the aesthetic and spiritual, been prepared for the Academy of Sciences," merits of forests and trees. reported Andrew Downing’s Horticulturist A smgle tree by a farmer’s house protects it, (Anonymous, 1847, p. 566). and gives it a desirable air of seclusion and rest; The main portion of the work consisted of as if it must be a residence of peace and con- tentment.... while an descriptions that, drawn as they were from unprotected, solitary house seems to shiver m the north and firsthand observation, had a freshness and vi- wind, we wish for the mhabitants a tality that took the reader out into the woods involuntarily more cheerful home B. with the observant schoolmaster. The plants (G. Emerson, 1846, p. 9). were arranged according to a natural system of Massachusetts trees, he argued, could be classification based on Lindley’s mterpretation used not just to supply timber, but, thought- of the works of the Candolles. The discussions fully planted, they could beautify many a accompanying the treatment of each species human environment-dooryards, pastures, incorporated such facts as the tree’s usual habi- roadsides, estates, and public grounds. tat, the uses that might be made of its wood or In a section entitled "Continuation and Im- bark, its qualities as fuel, the size it usually provement of the Forests," Emerson argued for attained, and the locations of particularly large conservation, management, and restoration of examples. forest resources. Such ideas were just begin- The introduction presented an instructive ning to be discussed in America. There were overview of Massachusetts forests. Emerson no governmental authorities to regulate forest summarized the report’s chief objective: use nor any forestry schools, and conservation A few generations ago, an almost unbroken for- organizations did not yet exist. Emerson sum- est covered the continent. The smoke from the marized the experience of many landowners Indian’s wigwam rose only at distant mtervals; who answered his circular on such topics as and to one looking from Wachusett or Mount how to plant timber trees, when to thin and Washington, the small patches laid open for the prune them, how many years each species re- cultivation of maize mterrupted not percepti- quired to reach suitable size for harvest, and bly the dark green of the woods. Now, those old the methods and timing of felling. On these woods are everywhere falling. The axe has topics, Emerson realized that his report was made, and is making, wanton and ternble a Much more scientific havoc. The cunning foresight of the Yankee merely starting point. was as well as further seems to desert him when he takes the axe m study needed, develop- ment of the fine art of "the best hand. The new settler clears in a year more disposition of acres than he can cultivate in ten, and destroys trees in the landscape." Emerson was sure that at a smgle burning many a winter’s fuel, which Americans should start to conserve forests and would better be kept m reserve for his grand- plant trees. Educating them to appreciate trees 166

A forest of ashes (Fraxinus americana) m Mame as pictured m Emerson’s Trees and Shrubs of Massachusetts. He wrote, "The ash has been called the painter’s tree. It is, at least while young, remarkable for its gracefulness, for the light and easy sweep of its branches, and for the softness and mellow green of its fohage. It produces a fine effect m contrast with the darker woods, and should, on that account, always have a place where it is the object to exhibit the vanous beauty of the forest trees" (From Trees and Shrubs of Massachusetts, Fourth Edition). was a step in the right direction; founding an relationship as soon as Gray was established at institution with this role would be another the botanic garden. Emerson sought the new step that Emerson would take. professor’s counsel for his report and found Gray especially helpful when composing the Natural History and Landscape Gardening key to identification included in the book. The Emerson’s research into Massachusetts trees two men together measured some of the state’s widened his contacts and fostered his reputa- noteworthy trees. tion as a serious scholar. He was offered the When donated his to Fisher Professorship in Natural History in Harvard, Emerson was instrumental in raising 1838, but declined to take it. A few years later the fund to endow it. After its transfer to the he supported the appointment of Asa Gray to college, Emerson served on the visiting com- the post. The two naturalists began a cordial mittee for the herbarium, and Gray turned to 177

him when funds were needed to advance its trees and shrubs in America. After a discussion work. This behind-the-scenes activity is typi- of the contribution of the French botanists cal of Emerson’s ever present support of Andre Michaux and his son, Franrois Andre, botanical research and of his interest in he stated: education. To these two persons, chiefly, are the French Emerson cherished his summers working in plantations mdebted for their surpassingly nch the countryside among the trees, and he was collections of American trees and shrubs; impressed by the estates he had seen in the which long since gave rise to the remark, as course of his research. In 1847 he purchased true at this day as it was twenty years ago, that thirty acres of land on the northeastern side an American must visit France to see the pro- When shall it be of Chelsea harbor, on a promontory that ductions of his native forests. stretched into Boston Bay. Although the barren said that this statement is no longer true? When shall we be able to point to a site had poor, sandy soil, he was determined to complete, or even a respectable, American collection of clothe it with trees and anticipated his family’s our indigenous trees and shrubs (Gray, m C. S. future in watching them grow. pleasure Sargent, 1889, vol. 2, p. 74~? Emerson was one of the first clients of the newly established landscape-gardening More than once Gray suggested to Harvard’s partnership of Robert Morris Copeland and administration that its botanic garden be Horace William Shaler Cleveland. Cleveland, supplemented by a collection of woody plants. Emerson’s friend and former student, credited From discussions in the horticultural litera- Trees and Shrubs of Massachusetts with influ- ture and reports of recently established arbo- encing his own endeavors, and the two of them reta in England, as well as from unexecuted shared an experimental frame of mind with American proposals, the concept of an arbore- regard to tree planting. On Emerson’s exces- tum as combining a beautiful space with a sci- sively poor and exposed land they set out many entific function was beginning to emerge. Just European varieties of , , , linden, as the naturalistic style of landscape design , elm, ash, mountain ash, and to was introduced from Britain, so too was the find out whether they were more hardy than formula for an all-inclusive garden of hardy the corresponding American trees. Twenty trees and shrubs after which the Arnold Arbo- years later, in the second edition of his report, retum would be patterned. Most active in this Emerson stated that the European species he field was John Claudius Loudon, who may planted had performed better than their native have been the first person to use the word ar- American counterparts at his seaside property. boretum in modern times. His dual facility George Emerson’s relationship with Cleveland with botany and allowed him to undoubtedly made the schoolmaster more develop the notion that an arboretum could aware of the goals of the emerging landscape serve both educational and aesthetic purposes. profession. Certainly he kept abreast of activi- In the creation of an arboretum for Derby, ties such as the founding of Mount Auburn England, and in all his publications mention- Cemetery and became a corresponding ing the arboretum idea, Loudon continually member of the Massachusetts Horticultural emphasized five elements that define this type Society. of garden: it is a tree and shrub collection; it includes only plants hardy in the outdoor cli- Arboretum Concept Refined mate where the garden is located; of these, it Emerson’s conception of a public tree collec- is to be all inclusive, with at least "one of tion grew from many sources. As early as 1844, every kind" being grown; the plants must be in an essay on the longevity of trees, Gray con- arranged in some rational order, preferably ac- demned the lack of a good living collection of cording to a natural system of classification; 188

and the plants must be labeled. He further land. In 1869 Olmsted engaged him to do some stressed that the educational tree collection work for Prospect Park in Brooklyn. The fol- should be accommodated in a pleasing land- lowing year Cleveland moved to Chicago, scape, often suggesting that the best way to where he was placed in charge of South Park achieve this would be to arrange the collec- and the approach boulevards under develop- tions along one main path that forms a circuit, ment by Olmsted and Vaux. There Cleveland so that arrangement could be viewed in order proposed that a fourteen-mile-long parkway by the visitor. connecting the city’s three parks be treated as an arboretum on a grand scale. He thought that Unexecuted American Arboreta the usual enhancement of natural topography Americans were apprised of English arboretum with plantations would not work in Chicago activities through reports in the horticultural because the land was so flat and featureless. literature, and the ideas were given consider- Instead, he suggested, able discussion in American publications. Be- Let the avenue form in its whole extent, an fore the creation of the Arnold Arboretum arboretum, compnsmg every variety of tree there were a few for such in proposals gardens and shrub which will thnve m this climate, America-most notably, Andrew Jackson each family occupymg a distmct section, of Downing’s 1841 plan for the Boston Public greater or lesser extent, accordmg to its impor- Garden and Vaux and Olmsted’s 1858 Green- tance (Cleveland, 1869, p.17). sward plan for Central Park-but went they He proposed using masses of each kind of unexecuted. Included in these were plans tree in botanical sequence along the boulevard of the forth Loudon. many suggestions put by rather than individual specimens, stressing the For Central Park Vaux and Olmsted planned artistic as well as the educational effect of to include native American trees and shrubs in such an arrangement. Unfortunately Chicago’s an that harked back to Loudon’s arrangement political and economic situation, the latter many proposals: exacerbated by the great fire of 1871, prevented The northeast section of the upper park is Cleveland’s vision from being realized. shown as an arboretum of American trees, so that everyone who wishes to do so may become Emerson Masterminds the Indenture acquamted with the trees and shrubs that will In 1855, George Barrell Emerson turned his flourish m the open air m the northern and school over to a but continued to middle sections of our country.... The princi- nephew tutor and counsel former students and pal walk is intended to be so laid out, that stayed while the trees and shrubs bordering it succeed active in educational affairs. He began to spend one another in the natural order of familres, more time on philanthropic activity, serving, each will be brought, as far as possible, into a for example, on a commission responsible for position corresponding to its natural habits, recruiting teachers for schools for freedmen in and m which its distinguishmg characteristics the South during the Civil War. Many affairs- will be favorably exhibited (Olmsted and the need for better natural history education, Kimball, 1973, pp. 230, 335).~. concern over man’s impact on native forests, Right down to the order of tree families, the the importance of trees and naturalistic land- full description of the proposed arboretum is scaping in improving public grounds, and the prophetic of the Arnold Arboretum, with proposals for arboreta-were on Emerson’s which Olmsted would be involved nearly mind during the 1860s. twenty-five years later. At this time James Arnold, too, was think- In the interim, there was another arboretum ing of philanthropy as he revised his will after proposed for an urban park system by the deaths of his wife and only child in 1860. Emerson’s lifelong friend, Horace W. S. Cleve- In this matter, he turned to Francis E. Parker, 19

Seat uf Ben~amm Bussey, Esq., at Oil on canvas by William A. Cobb, 1839. This landscape mcludes the areas of the Arnold Arboretum that have come to be known as Bussey Hill, Hemlock Hill, and the South Street Tract. South Street is plamly mslble, and it is easy to see where Saw Mill Brook-now Bussey Brook-crosses it. The Bussey mansion, apparently surrounded by Lombardy poplars (Populus mgra ‘Itahca’J, appears in the middle ground Bussey had begun buying up farmsteads in 1805 and contmued to do so over the next thirty years. Some of the hedgerows that delineated the separate parcels appear in the painting. On the south slope of the hill, a hlac hedge, still extant today, formed one of these bounds. This view of the Arboretum from Walk Hill, near the Forest Hills Station, remams virtually unchanged today (Archives of the Arnold Arboretum).). who was one of Boston’s finest trust lawyers, the Massachusetts Bank. He and Emerson had skilled in helping others turn their good ideas long been united in their support of the Boston into permanently funded institutions. It was Society of Natural History. On his Jamaica through Parker’s influence that, although Plain estate, on Moss Hill, Dixwell grew as Arnold was convinced that an arboretum was many kinds of trees as he could obtain, and it a much needed resource, he left his will suffi- was this fondness for trees that formed a bond ciently indefinite to allow his trustees flexibil- between him and the Arnold family as well. ity to act. Arnold named another family friend, James Arnold died in 1868. More than three John James Dixwell, as the third trustee of years passed from the time Arnold’s will was what became the arboretum bequest. Dixwell approved by the court until the trustees, was a prosperous merchant and president of Emerson, Dixwell, and Parker, signed an in- 20

denture with Harvard establishing the Arnold surmised that using land already in possession Arboretum. With an arboretum in mind, the of the college would leave the entire Arnold trustees had spent the time weighing how best fund available for development of the arbore- to carry out their duty. To turn the Arnold tum. Apparently, the parties involved agreed fund over to , the oldest and such use of the land would be compatible with most prestigious center of learning in New Bussey’s wishes, clearing the way for a final England, would be a sure way to provide for the pact to establish the arboretum on part of the continuance of the trust. Both Emerson and Bussey property in . In the inden- Parker were graduates, and all three had close ture, signed 29 March 1872, Emerson, Dixwell, social and professional connections with the and Parker agreed to turn the Arnold fund over college. to the president and fellows of Harvard Col- Some time was spent considering the best lege, provided the college allow some 120 acres place to locate the hoped-for arboretum. Since of its Bussey estate and the income of the fund the trustees knew of Asa Gray’s opinion that a to be used for: tree collection was needed to complement the

the establishment and of an Arbore- - herbaceous of the Harvard Botanic support plantings . tum, to be called the Arnold Arboretum, which two sites Garden, they pondered suggested by shall contain, as far as is practicable, all the the of While the professor botany. one, grounds trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants, either around the astronomical observatory, had the indigenous or exotic, which can be raised in the advantage of proximity to the botanic garden, open air at the said West Roxbury, all which its size was limited. Gray also urged the use of shall be raised or collected as fast as is practi- "Brighton Meadows," a flat parcel along the cable, and each specimen thereof shall be Boston side of the Charles River that Henry W. distmctly labelled, and [for] the support of a to be called the Arnold Longfellow was planning to purchase and professor, Professor, who shall have the care and of the present to the college. George Emerson and the management discussed this but another said Arboretum, subject to the same control by poet possibility, the said President and Fellows to which the tract showed much greater than the, promise professors m the Bussey Institution are now Charles floodplain, the undulating, partially subject, and who shall teach the knowledge of wooded land in what was then West Roxbury, . trees m the University which is m the charge bequeathed to Harvard by Benjamin Bussey. ‘ of the said President and Fellows, and shall Bussey had left his farm and funds to the give such other instruction therein as may be college stipulating they be used to start an in- naturally, directly, and usefully connected stitution for the study of , horticul- therewith. And as the entire fund, mcreased ture, and related subjects. After his death in by the accumulations above named, under the best and with the 1842 the property was subject to the life tenan- management greatest is sufficient to the cies of Bussey’s heirs. At the time Arnold economy, barely accomplish proposed object, it is expressly provided that it trustees were contemplating the disposition of shall not be diminished by supplementing any the fund left in their care, Harvard established other object, however meritorious or kindred the Bussey Institution, having gained the in its nature. approval of Bussey’s granddaughter to utilize seven acres of the West Roxbury estate. With the site and an endowment secure, Harvard’s new president, Charles Eliot, con- establishment of the Arnold Arboretum sulted with Emerson on the education pro- achieved many of Emerson’s and his col- grams for the agricultural center in 1869, and leagues’ objectives. Here would be a living after completion of the building for instruction collection to augment the "cabinet" of the in 1871 the Bussey Institution officially Boston Society of Natural History. With one of opened to students. George B. Emerson wisely every kind of tree and shrub, each labeled and 21

available for study, and arranged after Loudon’s Cleveland, H. W. S. 1869. The Public Grounds of How to Give Them Character and models, it would be Emerson’s report come Chicago: Expression. Chicago: Charles D. Lakey. alive, a living inventory of the region’s arboreal resources. Emerson, G. B. 1846. Report on the Trees and Emerson in touch with the Arboretum Shrubs Growing Naturally m the Forests of kept Massachusetts Boston: Commonwealth of the He and director during ensuing decade. Massachusetts. Charles Sargent shared an interest in the writings of Vermont conservationist George 1878. Reminiscences of an Old School Teacher. Boston: A and Son. Perkins Marsh, and Emerson urged Sargent to Mudge educate the public on the potential effects of S. May, and T. J. Mumford. 1876. Memoir forest destruction. One of the first efforts in of Samual Joseph May Boston: American Umtarian Society. this direction was publication of A Few Sug- gestions on Tree Planting (1875) in which Loudon, J. C. 1835. Remarks on laying out public Sargent argued for planting trees and for halt- gardens and promenades. Gardener’s ing the uncontrolled clearing of forests. George Magazine 11: 644-649. B. Emerson was so pleased with the pamphlet 1840. The Derby Arboretum London: that he wrote Sargent, "If the Arboretum had Longman, Orme, Brown, Green and never produced or would never produce any- Longmans. thing else, I shall be richly paid for all I have Morison, J. H. 1881. George Barrell Emerson, LL.D. done for it" (Arnold Arboretum Archives, G. B. Umtanan Remew 16: 59-69 Emerson 9 March correspondence, 1876). Olmsted, F. L., and T. Kimball, eds. 1973 Forty Years Emerson was also instrumental in Sargent’s of Central Park. appointment as investigator on forest trees for Cambridge, MA MIT Press. the Department of the Interior’s Tenth Cen- Raup, H. M. 1940. The genesis of the Arnold sus. In March 1881, when Sargent and Olmsted Arboretum. Bulletin of Popular Information, were at the height of their campaign to con- 4th senes, 8: 1-11 vince officials to the Arboretum into city bring Sargent, C. S., ed. 1889. Scientific Papers of Asa Gray. Boston Emerson died at the the park system, 2 vols. Boston Houghton, Mifflin. Brookline home of his daughter, Lucy Lowell. Waterston, R. C 1884. Memoir of Barrell In memorial tributes written upon his death, George Emerson, LL D Cambridge, MA: John Wilson Emerson was remembered fondly for his inspi- and Son. rational leadership in the field of education and for his activities promoting the study of Wmthrop, R. C. 1887. Tnbutes of the Massachusetts Histoncal Society to Francis E Parker. natural not the least of which was history, Cambridge, MA: John Wilson and Son. his influence on the founding of the Arnold Arboretum. Now an Arnold Arboretum Associate living in Ida was on the staff of the References Northampton, MA, Hay Arnold Arboretum for over twenty years. This article is Anonymous. 1847. Reviews A Report on the Trees and excerpted from her book, Science in the Pleasure Shrubs of Massachusetts. Horticultunst 1: Ground, which will be published in December by 565-67. Northeastern University Press.