Bulletin of Remarkable Trees Vol. 2 No. 5
Spreading the Morton Arboretum's message throughout Chicagoland and beyond
As many of us know, the Morton Arboretum has living collections, design, and excellent examples of native wildlife worth celebrating. Even in the Arboretum’s earlier days, people with an interest in plants made a particular effort to seek out this treasured tree museum.
Because my grandfather was a senior member of the Arboretum staff, he was often tasked with hosting a variety of local (and some not so local!) garden clubs, gardening hobby groups, professional organizations, and students of horticulture and landscape architecture. In his journals, he meticulously detailed the many people that came through for tours and lectures.
Local Garden Clubs
Visitors from local garden clubs were recurring characters in my grandfather’s journals. He frequently mentioned conducting tours and showing these groups of garden enthusiasts around the Arboretum grounds.
“Before my lecture at 2:00PM to the Wheaton Garden Club, the Yardstick (Wheaton), Glen Ellyn Garden Club, Hill and Dale Garden Club (Cary), the Niles Women’s Club, and the Woman’s Club of Arlington Heights I’ll try to get a note off to you on our new letterhead. Like it? We weren’t too enthused about a change, but think it is nice looking.” - Letter from E L Kammerer to his brother, Robert Kammerer, May 17, 1956
Groups from the North Shore, to the collar counties of Chicago, and as far west as Elgin would plan trips to the Arboretum to hear lectures on flowers, trees, and nature study:
“Worked on Bulletin in AM. Blue Island Garden Club here in early afternoon.” - May 13, 1932
“Escorted Wild Flower Preservation Society through Arb this AM (about 20 cars).” - May 14, 1932
“Did some planting in the rock garden after lunch. Guided Kennilworth Garden Club later. Mr Morton down about 5:00.” - May 18, 1932
“Lectured to Glencoe and Elgin Garden Clubs in Adm Building at 2pm.” - May 16, 1940
“I lectured today at the Arb at 2PM to several garden club groups - including Wheaton, Geneva, and Crystal Lake.” - May 10, 1951
Sometimes the groups could be quite large!
“A busy day at the office - assisting as host to 60 employees of the Chicago Park District. Had lunch with them.” - October 10, 1946
The Garden Club of America
The Arboretum played host to a wide variety of meetings and symposiums when my grandfather was working there. One group that he mentions repeatedly and specifically is the Garden Club of America (GCA).
“An eventful day at Arboretum. Mrs. Cudahy acting as hostess to 7 member garden clubs of the Garden Club of America. I made arrangements for all the tables and conducted several escorted walks. Lunch at the Thornhill Bldg. Don Wyman Lectured on Flowering Crabapples at 2:30pm.” - May 7, 1946
The “Don Wyman” he refers to here is Donald Wyman, noted crabapple enthusiast, horticulturalist and Head of Living Collections at the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard University from 1936 through 1970. Based on letters in both the Morton Arboretum’s archives and my grandfather’s personal papers, they seem to have corresponded frequently. Wyman penned the Arnold Arboretum’s Bulletin of Popular Information and wrote prolifically on horticulture and gardening. While reading notes on his collection of papers housed in the Arnold Arboretum’s archives, it was striking to me what similar career trajectories he and my grandfather had. Both were head of collections at their respective arboretums, both men wrote bulletins for their institutions, frequently lectured to the public, and traveled to similar horticultural symposiums and events. They even both designed and championed hedge collections for their arboreta!
I’m very intrigued by this simiarity, and I’ll definitely be coming back to the connections between the Morton Arboretum and Arnold Arboretum in a later issue. But for now, back to the GCA.
It seems that the Arboretum played host to various Garden Club of America functions and meetings relatively frequently:
“A very busy day at the office - making arrangements for tomorrow’s Garden Club of America Meeting at the Arb.” - September 25, 1951
“Bedlam at the office today - final preparations for GC of A meeting (Thornhill at 2PM). I lectured to the group at 2:45PM - ‘Plant Materials.” - September 26, 1951
“A very busy day at the office - The National Convention of the Garden Club of America. Lunch at Thornhill.” - May 23, 1957
GCA Luncheons with various notable characters:
The Morton family were inarguably part of Chicago’s high society, and there were often posh visitors to the Arboretum. My grandfather reported in his journals on the various fundraising and society functions which the Mortons and the Arboretum hosted.
In a 1955 letter to his brother, he wrote about a GCA meeting with some interesting lunch guests:
“I’m in the midst of my first nose cold of the season - so am feeling rather miserable. Obviously the result of the rush and furore which proceeded the meeting of the Garden Club of America out here yesterday. There were 96 at lunch in the Thornhill Building - with me seated at table #1 with Mr. and Mrs. Sterling Morton, CEG [Clarence E Godshalk], Mrs. Edward Byron Smith and Mrs. Clarke (Lake Forest), Mrs. Melvin Savin of NYC and Wakefield Rhode Island, and Mrs. Samuel Pillsbury of Minneapolis (she didn’t pass out any cake mix!) An elaborate lunch - Walter and I had done all the table centerpieces as well as other arrangements for the building. In the morning I conducted two tours of the Hedge Garden and Ground Cover Collection.”
Students and Visiting Classes
Being a graduate of the University of Illinois Landscape Architecture program himself, my grandfather often took time out of his daily work to give tours and lecture to visiting students from U of I and elsewhere:
“Yesterday at this time Walter and I were eating lunch at the Howard Johnson Restaurant in Des Plaines. We drove up to Highland Park early in the morning to pick up some horticultural books presented to the library by the granddaughter of W.C. Egan, a pioneer horticulturalist in the Chicago area. The North Shore arboreta are lovely at this time of year.
Found Professors Stanley White and Walter Keith and a group of 16 Landscape students from Illinois here at the Arb when I returned. I knew they were coming, but had already made arrangements to pick up the books. Didn’t have much time with them but did show them our new Rhododendron - Azalea Collection. Stanley White has certainly aged since I last saw him. He will retire soon, following professors Shaffer and Johnson who are scheduled for retirement in Sept 1954 and ’55 respectively. This will mean practically a new staff in the Landscape Dept. - Letter from E L Kammerer to Robert Kammerer, May 20, 1954
“Yesterday Stanley White and Walter Keith (Univ of Illinois Landscape Dept) were here with 25 students on an all day field trip.” Letter from E L Kammerer to Robert Kammerer, May 17, 1956
It’s clear from his letters and journal entries that my grandpa truly loved sharing the beauty of the Arboretum with everyone who came to visit. Having worked there for his entire career, I’m sure he had quite a deep and detailed knowledge of the collections. He undeniably helped to foster and spread a love of plants, specifically the trees of the Arboretum, throughout Chicagoland and beyond.
With all the snow the Chicago area has seen these past few weeks, it seems like wishful thinking to imagine spring springing up anytime soon. Nonetheless, I have plenty of springtime content to come in the next few Bulletins!
I’ll be writing about the Chicago Flower and Garden Show, specifically the contributions of Arboretum staff (including my grandpa) to exhibits and judging.
I’m also planning a deep dive into the Morton Arboretum’s hedge garden, looking further into the Arnold Arboretum’s connection to Morton, and, of course, celebrating Arbor Day! (Which is the last Friday in April in Illinois.)
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Curious with the Garden Club connections, what role if any did the Arboretum have with the development of the Botanical Garden ? Thank you for continuing this history.