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George Barrell Emerson and the Establishment of the Arnold Arboretum

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George Barrell Emerson and the Establishment of the Arnold Arboretum George Barrell Emerson and the Establishment of the Arnold Arboretum 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 New England. The Arnold Arboretum 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 Benjamin Bussey. 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 Boston’s Raised in Wells, Maine, when that state was new English Classical School (later called still part of Massachusetts, 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.
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