Archives and Specimens from the Boston Metropolitan Park Flora

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.

Correspondence

Correspondence are from the archives of George Edward Davenport, Walter Deane, and George Golding Kennedy.

Correspondence A-B

Abbott, Harriette
Adams, Oscar Fay
Allen, Glover Morrill
Allen, Glenville F
Allen, John Alpheus
Allen, Sarah C.
American Museum of Natural History
Andrews, Margaret G
Angiust, Lou M
Atlantic Monthly
Audubon, Maria R.

Babbitt, Elizabeth
Bailey, Eliza R. [Mrs. W.W. Bailey]
Bailey, J. Whitman
Bailey, Margaret Emerson
Bailey, Whitman
Bailey, Liberty Hyde
Bailey, William Whitman
Barnes, Cecil
Barnes, Charles Reid
Barnes, Mary Ward
Barritt, Leon
Batchelder, Annie V
Batchelder, Charles Foster
Baynes, Ernest Harold     
Barnes, Mary K. (née Ward)
Barritt, Lean
Batchelder, Annie V.
Batchelder, Charles Foster
Baynes, Ernest Harold
Bebb, Michael Schuck, 1833-1895
Bennet, Sam S.
Benson, A Emerson
Bent, Arthur Cleveland
Biesbroeck, George Van
Bird Lore
Black, Sidney Fay
Blanchard, William Henry
Blaschka, Rudolph
Blewitt, Arthur Edmund
Blish, A.
Booth, Mary E.
Boston Society of National History
Boyer, M. G.
Brainerd, Ezra
Bray, William
Breasted, James Henry
Brewster, William
Britton, Elizabeth Gertrude (née Knight)
Brown, Stewardson
Brown, William
Browne, George Henry
Brownell, J. Quincy
Bull, Emily L.
Burgess, Edward Sandford
Bush, Benjamin Franklin
Buttrick, Stedman

Correspondence C-D

C____, E. R.
Cabot, Frederick Pickering
Cady, Elisha H.
Cairness, C. W.
Campbell and Sullivan
Carless, William E.
Carr, Alber B.
Carr, C. U.
Carr, Gladys V.
Carr, Ruth
Cassino, Samuel Edson
Chapin, Walter Henry
Chase, (Mary) Agnes (née Merrill)
Chase, Virginius Heber
Cheney, Robert F.
Christensen, Abby W. and Christensen, A.H.
Churchill, Joseph Richmond
Churchill, Winslow W.
Cilley-Clark, Martha Bowton
Clark, Ellery H.
Clark, Hubert Lyman
Clulow, George
Clute, Willard Nelson
Collins, Frank Shipley
Collins, James Franklin
Cook, Alice B.
Coolidge, Charles Austin
Coolidge, James Ivers Trecothick
Cooper Ornithological Club
Coues, Elliott
Coulter, John Merle
Couille, Frederick Vernon
Crawford, Jospeh
Curtiss, Allen Hiram
Cushing, Mary

Dallinger, Frederick W.
Darling, Charles P.
Davis, Charles Albert
Davis, William Morris
Deam, Charles Clemon
Dean, Fred T.
Deane, Charles E.
Deane, Florence
Deane, Henry Towner
Deane, Mary H.
Deane, Ruthven
Deane, Walter
DeMeritte, Edwin
Demetrio, Carl Hermann
Denny, Henry G.
Dewey, Lyster Hoxie
DeWolfe and Fiske Co.
Dexter(?), Lewis
Dexter, Lucy W.
Dexter, Mary Deane
Diemar, Lena H.
Dienemann Nchf., P.
Diller, Jospeh Silas
Diller, Laura (née Paul)
Dodge, Elinor
Driggs, Alfred Waldo
Duff, John
Dwight, Jonathan

Correspondence E-G

Eames, Arthur Johnson
Eames, E.H.
Earnshaw and Crowell
Eastwood, Alice
Eaton, Alvah Augustus
Eaton, Richard Jefferson
Edes, Henry Herbert
Eggert, Henry
Eggleston, Willard Webster
Elliott Nursery
Emerton, Clara
Emerton, Ephraim
Essex Institute
Evans, Alexander William

Faber, Helen R.
Faber, Richard R.
Farlow, William Gilson
Farwell, Oliver Atkins
Faxon, Charles Edward
Faxon, Edwin
Faxon, Edward
Fay, Miss
Fay, Charles Ernest
Federation of the Bird Clubs of New England
Fernald, George B.
Fernald, Merritt Lyndon
Finley, Irene
Finley, William L.
Fisher, Albert Kenrick
Fitzpatrick, Thomas Jefferson
Fletcher, Lawrence B.
Foord, William M.
Forbes, Fayette Frederick
Foster, Theodore B.
Franklin Book Shop
Fuller, Douglas

Ganong, William Francis
Gardiner, J.H.
Garrison, Frank W.
Gattinger, Augustin
Gault, Benjamin I.
Gilbert, Arthur Witter
Gilbert, Robert A.
Glatfelter, Noah Miller
Goodale, Caroline J.
Goodale, George Lincoln
Gray Herbarium
Greene, Edward Lee
Greenman, Anne T.
Greenman, Jesse More
Greig, Edward R.
Grenfell, Wilfred Thomason
Guild, Courtenay

Correspondence H-J

Haberer, Josph Valentine
Hall of Fame (NYU)
Hammond, Eleanor Prescott
Hannaford, Howard D.
Hansen, George
Harger, Edgar Burton
Harken(?), Walter
Harper, Roland McMillan
Harrinton, E.W.
Harris, F.K.
Harris, William S.
Hartford Fire Insurance Co.
Harvard
Harvard Cooperative Society
Hay, George Upham
Heading, Alice J.
Hedrick, Ulysses Frentiss
Held, William C.
Heller, Amos Arthur
Henderson, Walter Cleaveland
Henshaw, Henry Wetherbee
Henshaw, Samuel
Herriot, William
Hervey, Eliphalet Williams
Hicks, Gilbert Henry
Higley, M.R. [Mis. G.T.]
Hill, Albert Frederick
Hill, Ellsworth Jerome
Hitchcock, Albert Spear
Hoar, Edward S.
Holm, Theodor
Holzer, U.
Hoover Co.
Hopkins, Richard J.
Hoppin, Charles P.
Hoppin, Gilbert H.
Horner, Annie M. [Mrs. James]
Hosmer, Susan C.
Howe, Reginald Heber (flyer)
Huber, Lucretia M.

Jackson, Robert Tracy
Jenks, Charles W.
Jenks, Paul R. and Jenks, B.T.
Jenney, Charles Francis
Jesup, Henry Griswold
Jones, Horace F.

Correspondence K-M

Kelsey, Alice
Kennard, Frederick Hedge
Kennedy, George G.
Kennedy, Harris
Kennedy, Mildred
Kettell, Tammy
Kidder, Nathaniel T.
King, Harriet G.
King, Helen Louise
Kirk, Abby
Knowlton, Annie Hunter
Knowlton, Clarence Hinckley
Knowlton, Frank Hall
de Koven, Annie L.
Koyama, T.

Lane, William Coolidge
Larabee, Rollin North
Lee, Constance G.
Lee, John Thomas
Light, Mary Foster
Linder, Charles
Lippincott, JB Co.
Loyd, Curtis Gates
Locke, Elsie
Lombard, Percival Hall
London Harness Co.
Long, Bayard Henry
Lord, Rosamond Lane and Lord Milton
Lothrop, Oliver A.
Lovett, Alice B.
Lowell, Abbott Lawrence
Lowell, Agnes P.
Lowell, James Arnold
Ludlum, Emma Ruthven
Lunell, Joël
Lyon, Ralph

M_____, Nellie C.
Macbride, (James) Francis
MacDonald, W.R.
MacDougal, Daniel Trembly
Mackay, Alexander Howard
Mackenzie, Kenneth Kent
Mackintosh, Richards Bryant
Macoun, James Melville
Macoun, John
Marles, Josephine Peabody
Mathews, Ferdinand Schuyler
Maugham, J.
Maxon, William Ralph
McAtee, Waldo Lee
McDonald, Francis Eugene
McMillan, Edith Endicott
McMillan, Ellen
McMillan, G.N.
Meehan, Thomas
Mershon, William B.
Michie, H. Stuart
Miller, Gerrit Smith
Millet, Emily
Millspaugh, Charles Frederick
Miner, Jack
Moore, Edmund T.
Morize, André
Morong, A.B.
Morong, Thomas
Morris, Edward Lyman
Morse, Lucy A.
Moxy, J.E.
Munter, William H.
Museum of Fine Arts

Correspondence N-P

Nash, C.W.
Neare, Alice
Nelson, James Carlton
New England Botanical Club
New England Telephon & Telegraph Co.
Noon, Mary Woods (née) Atkinson
Norton, Arthur Herbert
Norton, Evelyn
Noyes, Penelope
Nuttall Ornithological Club

Old Cambridge Shakespeare Association
Oldys, Henry
Oliver-Oyster
Osterhout, Winthrop John Vanleuven
Ottley, Alice Maria
Owen, Maria Louisa

Palmer, Frederic
Palmer, Thomas Chalkley
Pammel, Louis Hermann
Park, W.N.
Paton, Lucy A.
Payne, John H.
Pearson, Thomas Gilbert
Pease, Arthur Stanley
Peck, Charles Horton
Peebles, Florence
Penhallow, David Pearce
Penhallow, Sarah
Pennell, Francis Whittier
Pennock, C.J.
Perkins, Thomas
Peters, Edward Dyer
Philbrook, Augustus E.
Phillips Brooks House
Pickard, Samuel Thomas
Pickering, William Henry
Plimpton, George Arthur
Plitt, Charles Christian
Pollard, Charles Louis
Pope, Alexander
Porter, Thomas Conrad
Pringle, Cyrus Guernsey
Prouty, Edith M.
Purdie, Evelyn
Putnam, Bessie Lucina
Putnam, Frederic Ward

Correspondence R

R., Josephine
Rablin, John R.
Rackermann, Felix
Rand, Annie M.
Rand, Edward Lothrop
Rand, John C.
Rand, Katharine
Rattan, Volney
Rau, Eugene Abraham
Raymond, Stanley A.
Rechenberger, E.
Redfield, John Howard
Redstone, Edward H.
Reed, Guilford Bevil
Reed, James
Rehder, Alfred
Reverchon, Julien
Reynolds, Mary C.
Rich, William Penn
Richards, D.
Richards, Harriet E.
Richards, Josephine L.
Richards, Percival D.
Richardson, Charles E.
Richardson, E.
Richardson, Martha Bebb
Richardson, Mary Neal
Richardson, Naomi
Richardson, W.F.
Richardson, William L.
Richter, Lajos
Riddle, Lincoln Ware
Ridgway, Robert
Rieber, Charles H.
Ritchie, John
Roberston. J. Ross
Robertson, Alexander
Robertson, Charles
Robinson, Benjamin Lincoln
Robinson, John
Robinson, Mabel P.
Robinson, T.
Rogers, Mary C.
Rogers, May E.
Rogers, Robert
Rolfe, Alfred G.
Rolfe, William James
Rollins, William
Rooney, Bridget M.
Ropes, William Ladd
Rose, Joseph N.
Ross, Ellen
Rotch, A. Lawrence
Rous, F. Peyton
Rothschild, John
Rovirosa, Jose N.
Roxbury Historical Society
Roy, Jessie D.
Roy, William
Ruffini, Giovanni
Rugg, Harold G.
Ruggles, Byron P.
Rumph, J.H. and family
Rusby, Henry H.
Rushmore, Stephen
Ruskin, John
Russell, Mrs. R.H.
Russell, Paul George
Rust, Mary O.
Ruth, Albert
 

Correspondence S-T

Sargent, Herbert Eugene
Schantz, Orpheus M.
Scidmore, Eliza Ruhaman
Scribner, Frank Lamson
Scudder, Winthrop
Seymour, Arthur Bliss
Seymour, Frank Conkling
Sears, Mary Balch
Sheffield, Gertrude P.
Sheppard, Susan
Shute, Fred A.
Siedhof, Carl F.A.
Smiley, Frank Jason
Smith, Harriet M.
Smith, John Donnell
Smith, Lyman Bradford
Smith, Ralph Sidney
Soule, Caroline Gray
Spaulding, F.B.
Spaulding, Perley
Sprague, A. C.
Stantial, Aylmer
Stantial, Eileen
Stantial, Helen
Stantial, Isabelle
Stearns, Elmer
Steere, Jane M.
Steere, Rebecca P.
Steves, Orin Alva
Stone, George Edward
Stone, Jean H.D.
Stone, Phebe J.
Stone, Witmer
Stowell, Ruth K.
Stoyanovitch, Stona
Street, Rosalind L.
Suksdorf, Wilhelm Nikolaus
Swan, Charles H.

Tallan, Mary G.
Tatnall, Edward
Taylor, Norman
Terry, Emily Hitchcock
Teslan, Kenneth S.
Thacher, Jeanie I. W. [Mrs. George W]
Thaxter, Roland
Thayer, Evelyn Forbes
Thayer, Harriet L.
Thayer, John Eliot
Thayer, Nora
Thayer, Ruth
Thomas, Jocelyn Parker
Thornber, John James
Thorndike, Albert
Ticknor, Thomas(?) B
Tiffany and Co.
Townsend, Charles Wendell
Trelease, William
True, Rodney Howard
Tsuda, Umè
Tuttle, Margaret M.

Correspondence U-Z

Underhill, Lora A.
Underwood, Lucien Marcus
Underwood, William Lyman

Vasey, George
Victorin, Marie, Frère

W______, Grace D.
Wakefield, John R.
Walton, George Lincoln
Ward, Lester Frank
Ware(?), Alice
Ware, Robert Allison
Warner, Cornelia Blakemore
Warner, Worcester Reed
Watson, Benjamin Marston
Wayne, Arthur T.
Waynflete School
Weatherby, Charles Alfred
Webster, Joseph K.
Wiegand, Karl McKay
Weiseman, T. Walter
Wellington, James Lloyd
Wendell, Barrett
Wendte, William
Weston, William Henry Jr.
Wheeler, John Adams
Wheeler, Leston Ansel
Wheeler, Margaret L.
Whitney, Margaret F. G.
Whittle, Charles L.
Wilde, Charlotte Endicott
Wilkinson, Edward
Williams, Arthur
Williams, Emile Francis
Williams, Henry M.
Williams, Robert Statham
Williams, Robert W.
Williams, Thomas Albert
Willson, Robert Wheeler
Wilson Ornithological Club
Winsor, Justin
Winter, Clark
Wood, Casey
Woodford, Arthur B.
Woodhouse, Samuel Washington
Woodward, Norman Porter
Woodward, Richard William
Wright, Alice White

Journals & Manuscripts

Journals & Datebooks:

Year
Journals
Datebooks
1899
1899:July-Dec.
 
 
 
1900
1900:Jan.-June
1900:July-Dec.
 
 
1901
1901:Jan.-Dec.
 
 
 
1902
1902:Jan.-Nov.
1902-1903
 
 
1903
1902-1903
 
 
 
1904
1904:Jan.-Dec.
 
 
 
1905
1905:Mar-Dec.
 
 
 
1906
1906:June-Dec.
 
 
 
1907
1907:Jan.-Dec.
 
 
 
1908
1908:Jan.-June
1908:July-Dec.
 
1909
1909:April-June
1909:July-Dec.
 
1909
1910
1910:Feb.-June
1910:July-Dec.
 
1910
1911
1911-1912
 
 
1911
1912
1911-1912
 
 
1912
1913
1913:Mar.-Nov.
 
 
 
1914
1914:Jan.-Aug.
1914:Aug.-Oct.
 
1914
1915
1915:April-Aug.
1915:Aug.-Dec.
 
1915
1916
1916:Jan.-Aug.
1916:Sept.-Oct.
 
1916
1917
1917:June-Aug.
1917:Aug.-Sept.
 
1917
1918
J1918:June-Aug.
1918:Sept.-Oct.
 
1918
1919
1919:May-July
1919:Aug.-Sept.
 
1919
1920
1920:May-July.
1920-1921
 
1920
1921
1920-1921
1921:June-July
1921:Aug.-Sept.
1921
1922
1922:June-July
1922:Aug.-Sept.
 
1922
1923
1923:June-July
1923:Aug.-Sept.
 
1923
1924
1924:June-July
1924:Aug.-Oct.
 
1924
1925
1925:June-July
1925:Aug.-Sept.
 
 
1926
1926:May.-Sept.
 
 
 
1927
1927:June-July
1927:Aug.-Sept.
 
1927

 

Manuscript Materials:
A lecture on the Middlesex Fells by George E. Davenport.
Card index of preliminary work on the Flora of the Blue Hills, Middlesex Fells, etc.
Card index #2
Card Index #3
Notebook labeled "Botanical Notes Deane 1882"
Notebook labeled "Botanical Notes 1881-1887 Deane"
Preliminary lists of New England plants
Preliminary list of plants of the Metropolitan Park Reservations with notes by Dr. C.W. Swan
Preliminary list of plants of the Metropolitan Park Reservations annotated by Warren H. Manning

Photographs

Published Works

Specimens

Almost 1,600 specimens collected for the original survey of all four reservations are housed at the Harvard University Herbaria.  You can download a .csv file that includes the scientific names and herbarium barcode.  Specimen records and images are available by searching using the barcode number in the Index of Botanical Specimens.  The barcode search field is located in the lower right.

Related to the original survey, a survey of the Middlesex Fells Reservation was conducted by Bryan Hamlin and Walter Kittridge from 2003-2011.  A .csv file  and specimen records in the database are also available for these specimens.

Desmodium cuspidatum, a threatened species, collected in 1894 (left) and 2008 (right)