In 1894 the Metropolitan Park Commission in Boston, Mass., commissioned the firm of Olmsted, Olmsted & Eliot to survey of the plants of the woodland reservations. The firm appointed Warren H. Manning to lead a team of volunteers in consultation with local botanists to accomplish the work. The results were compiled, edited, and published by Walter Deane in 1896 under the title, Flora of the Blue Hills, Middlesex Fells, Stony Brook and Beaver Brook reservations, of the Metropolitan Park Commission, Massachusetts. Another outcome of the successful amateur-professional collaboration was the founding of the New England Botanical Club (NEBC) in 1896. The NEBC supported this project by allowing materials from the Club’s library and archives to be included in this collection. 

ABOUT THE COLLECTION

This collection presents the historic materials from various collections associated with Walter Deane’s Metropolitan Park census and includes nearly 2,000 specimens, 40,000 pages of manuscript material, and published books, articles, and maps.