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. Brooklyn Botanic Garden Primary Source Packet 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 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 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 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: • • • 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 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.