Title: Botany Department Records, 1846-1988, n.d.

ID: RG 9/015

Extent: 10.25 Linear Feet

Predominant Dates: 1874-1980

From its inception, Oberlin College recognized the importance of exposing, educating, and instructing its students in the natural sciences. During the 19th century, Botany was one such prominent field of scientific exploration at Oberlin. The College’s Botany department provided exemplary training in this science, and it produced many graduates who went on to become leading Botanists and teachers. Furthermore, recognizing the importance of exposing its students directly to their chosen field of study, the Botany Department oversaw the establishment and development of the College Herbarium. This collection of over 200,000 specimens was recognized for its extensive representation of plants from all over the state, country, and world.

Upon the recommendation of John J. Shipherd in 1834, the young Dartmouth graduate James Dascomb (c. 1833), was recruited by the College to teach Chemistry, Botany, and Physiology. By 1860, the college was offering a total of 19 science courses, two of which were devoted solely to Botany.

Dascomb was an avid plant collector. Thus, he approached the teaching of Botany through the systematic identification and classification of different plant specimens. Dascomb was also instrumental in founding the College Herbarium. The 1878 donation of his personal collection of New England and Ohio plant specimens formed the foundation of the Herbarium collection. Dascomb encouraged his students to follow his example, resulting in additions being made by Jacob D. Cox (c. 1851), Caroline A. Dickinson Ripley (c. 1852), Edward S. Steele (c. 1872), and Albert A. Wright (c. 1865).

In 1873, Albert A. Wright returned to Oberlin to teach Geology and Natural History. Upon Dascomb’s retirement in 1878, Wright started teaching Botany, operating from the first floor of the Spear Library from 1886-1891. During his long tenure at Oberlin, Wright enhanced Oberlin’s Botany course by extending the range of classes offered and adding to the Herbarium. In 1884 Wright purchased for $300.00 the collection of Dr. Henry Beardslee, State Botanist of Ohio. In doubling the size of the College Herbarium, Wright succeeded in increasing the collection’s representation of Ohio and United States plants. Finally, Wright introduced the use of the compound microscope in class work. “Probably no other man was so prominent a factor as...[Wright]” , wrote Albert Lothrop years later, in recognizing the importance of natural science and of new scientific methods which called for more specialized equipment and higher scientific standards.

The Botany Department was officially formed in 1893 with the appointment of Francis D. Kelsey (Montana, Sc.D 1890) as Professor of Botany. He was the first Oberlin faculty member to teach only Botany. According to Frederick Grover, this step illustrated Oberlin’s educational vision at a time when Botany tended not to be treated as a distinct science or given departmental ranking. Kelsey served a relatively short term. However, during his five-year tenure, the department educated an increasing number of students and worked to improve the Herbarium.

In 1897, Herbert L. Jones (Harvard University, A.M. 1892) succeeded Kelsey. During Jones’ one year as Professor of Botany (he died in 1898) he made great strides in setting the department on a course for the early 20th century. While Jones remained committed to the development of the College Herbarium (which had become a national resource for botanists), he nonetheless shifted the study of Botany from being simply the identification and classification of plants to that which also addressed plant functions through such classes as Plant Histology, Plant Physiology, Morphology, Cytology and Ecology. According to Frederick O. Grover, Jones modernized the department by exposing students to the entirety of their subject, and by creating opportunities to do professional work or teacher training.

By 1920, the Oberlin College Botany Department was widely recognized as a program that produced sound graduates who were prepared for professional placement and postgraduate study. Yearly summer field trips to the Western United States (started in 1919 and offered through the long tenure of George T. Jones) allowed students to be exposed to plant life far different from what they would find in Ohio. Furthermore, with the College’s 1928 purchase of Chance Creek (55 acres of land between Vermillion River and Chance Creek), the Botany Department was able to provide a natural laboratory setting for its students. However, like other small academic units across the nation, the department faced many financial, spatial, and institutional restrictions, which limited its ability to command campus wide attention, and attract students and resources.

Between 1891 and 1904, the Botany department was located in Finney House (built in 1835 and located where Finney Chapel now stands). In 1904, the department moved to Lincoln House (built in 1893 and located on Tappan Square). Despite its recent renovations, Lincoln House barely met the Botany Department’s needs; modest space existed for instruction, and even less for the Herbarium Collection. Lincoln House was also considered an unsafe structure, and susceptible to fire. In 1914, in accordance to the provisions of Charles Martin Hall’s will, Lincoln House was moved from Tappan Square to be attached to Metcalf House (located just north of Severance Hall). While this move provided more room for departmental activity, the issue of fire safety still had not been adequately addressed. In 1927, the College’s first fireproof structure was built as a two-story addition to the Botany building. This addition housed the Herbarium and was made from the bricks of the razed French Hall, the latter structure formerly stood on Tappan Square. Furthermore, in the early 1930’s, the department received funds to allow it to build and then enlarge a greenhouse. The latter facility exposed Oberlin students to living varieties of plants and flowers in the course of their Botanical studies.

The Botany Department constantly competed with other academic departments for scarce institutional resources. It seems that improvements made over time only met the bare minimum of departmental needs. Due to limited institutional funds, the department fell short in its effort to provide valuable equipment in a proper laboratory environment. The number of available microscopes often dictated class size. In some instances, courses were dropped altogether due to a lack of equipment.

The department also faced staffing limitations. Despite the fact that the department enrolled respectable numbers of students in its courses (163 students took Botany courses in 1950), the department did not produce a large number of majors. As institutional resource allocators sought to balance departmental staffing against teaching loads, the Botany Department suffered. Until 1950, the department had three staff members: a full professor, an associate professor, and an instructor. However, in the early 1950’s, the teaching faculty of the Botany department was decreased from three to one. The departure of department head Paul B. Sears,noted botanist, ecologist, and conservationist, to Yale University, signaled the diminishing influence of this department. Similar cuts were seen in the Chemistry and Geology and Geography departments. However, not all departments experienced cuts. During this time, staff numbers in the Physics and Zoology departments remained constant.

The department’s battle for institutional support was further weakened when the college sought new ways to restructure its curriculum. Where possible, departments, which had previously stood as individual units, were merged together. The General Faculty Committee in a 1945 "Report on Post War Problems" addressed this issue. In outlining several ideological, financial, and curricular issues facing the college, including the manner in which the sciences were being taught at Oberlin, this committee argued that the sciences had become too particularized and specific. The report further called for the reorganization and integration of these subjects. In doing so, it was hoped that the College could offer students more courses outlining the basic fundamentals in research and the scientific method. It was also concluded, that through such a collaboration, materials, equipment, and staff time would be better shared and allocated.

Sensing that this small department was loosing ground to larger units, Arts and Sciences Dean Blair Stewart (1945-1959) initiated a study in 1953 to investigate ways to strengthen Botany at Oberlin. M.A. Johnson, Chairman of the Department of Botany at Rutgers University, conducted this study. He reported that the department was clearly limited by its space and small staff. The question of merging the departments of Botany and Zoology was raised. In emphasizing the possibility of a merger, Johnson stated that both disciplines would still require a great deal of individual financial support and autonomy. Otherwise, its graduates would not have the opportunity to specialize in either of these specific areas.

In response to the issues raised in these reports, the Botany and Zoology departments did seek to collaborate in offering an introductory Biology course between 1953 and 1955. The association was short lived and problematic. Both departments found that coordinating combined class lectures, topics, and lab time worked against their own departmental needs and autonomy. Each also found that neither was able to cover the basic introductory material of their own subjects. The latter had previously been taught in separate lower level classes.

During the late 1950’s, when the college planned for the construction of Kettering Hall of Science, the Botany and Zoology departments, along with several of the other sciences, were scheduled to be housed there. To many observers, it seemed logical that with the departments’ new physical proximity, they should also be merged. National trends in higher education indicated that many institutions were merging their Botany and Zoology departments as these two disciplines began to address such similar topics as molecular biology, plant physiology, and environmental biology. Hence, after nearly twenty years of discussion, it was decided at the December 8, 1958 College Faculty Council Meeting that the departments of Botany and Zoology be merged to form the Department of Biology. Other departments experienced similar fates. In 1960, the Geography department was merged into the Geology department.

Upon the decision of the Faculty Council, department head George T. Jones (Oberlin College A.B. 1920, A.M. 1923) prompted several of his former students to write to the College expressing their concern at such a merger. The general fears expressed by these students, who had gone on to teach botany themselves, was that with such a merger, botanical subjects would get lost under the larger zoology subjects. Furthermore, they feared that the introductory biology classes (which tended to cater to pre-medical students) would not provide enough introductory material to interest Biology majors to focus on Botany. However, the merger was approved, and the Biology Department was officially recognized on July 1, 1961.

Botany study at Oberlin was further curtailed in 1964 with the sale of a portion of the College Herbarium to Miami University for $10,000. While the sale was initially criticized as a direct blow for Botany instruction at Oberlin, space needed to preserve the herbarium far outweighed its utility in the classroom. Furthermore, the College retained those specimens, which documented plant life in Northeastern Ohio (over half of the collection), and the funds from the sale supported the purchase of new laboratory equipment and instructional materials. By 1992, additions to the collection placed its number of Specimens at 150,000. In response to increased space demands, and a curriculum, which focused increasingly on plant functions rather than on identification and classification, the remaining half of the herbarium was sold for $10,000 to the Ohio State Biodiversity Center. The funds were used to establish a George Jones memorial endowment fund to support Camden Bog, a restoration ecology center near Oberlin College. In 1994, the Chance Creek property was sold to the Lorain County Metro Parks System.

The study of Botany has remained an integral part of Oberlin’s curriculum. Despite departmental mergers, staffing reconfigurations, and budgetary restrictions, in 1995, the botanical curriculum was better staffed and supported than it was upon its merger with Zoology in 1961.

Department Heads

James Dascomb 1834-1878

Albert A. Wright 1878-1891

Worrallo Whitney 1891-1893

Francis P. Kelsey 1893-1897

Herbert L. Jones 1897-1898

Frederick O. Grover 1898-1933

Susan P. Nichols 1933-1938

Paul Sears 1933-1950

George T. Jones 1950-1963

SOURCES CONSULTED

3/2 William Frederick Bohn Papers

Series I. Administrative Records

9 Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences

Sub-group I. Administrative Records of

Dean of Arts and Sciences

(Governance Files)

Series 3. College Faculty Council

Sub-group IV. College of Arts and Sciences

Academic Departments and Programs

Series 1. Academic Departments

Sub-group V. Committees

Series 1. College Faculty Committees

College Planning Committee

Curriculum Committee

Educational Planning Committee

Series 2. General Faculty Committee

“Report on Post War Problems” 1945

30/107 Jones Family Papers

28/3 Paul Sears Faculty File

Vertical File Botany Department

Forms of Material (links to similar genres)

Languages of Materials

Administrative Information

Acquired: 12/11/1981. Accession Nos: 1981/029, 1983/034, 1984/032, 1990/011, 1990/070, 1991/031,1995/029, 1996/109, 1999/074, 2001/094, 2004/005, 2006/033.

Restrictions: Some restrictions may apply.

Acquisition Note: The records of the Botany Department were accessioned by the Oberlin College Archives in eight different installments: 1981/29, 1983/34, 1984/32, 1990/11, 1990/70, 1991/31, 1996/109, and 1999/74. Furthermore, three published works of F.D. Kelsey, which had previously been kept in the Oberlin College Library’s Special Collections, were transferred to the Archives in accession 1995/29. The Susan P. Nichols scrapbook was transferred from Special Collections in 2001 [2001/94]. The botany notebook of Alberta Scofield was received from Vera Penny in 2004 [2004/5]. The framed specimen was given to the Archives by Constance Goldberg in 2006 [2006/33].

Related Materials:

The following collections in the Oberlin College Archives contain materials which relate to, or contribute to a further understanding of the Botany Department.

00/00/2 Annual Reports of the President: 1905-1930

2/7 Ernest Hatch Wilkins Presidential Papers: Old Building Files, Building Files

3/2 William Frederick Bohn Papers

Series I. Administrative Records

5 Office of the Secretary

Subgroup II. Administrative Records and Departments of Offices

Series 1. Academic Departments and Programs

Subseries 1 . College of Arts and Sciences

Series 3. Annual Reports Received

9 Office of the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences

Subgroup I. Administrative Records of Dean of Arts and Sciences

(Governance Files)

Series 3. College Faculty Council

Subgroup IV. College of Arts and Sciences

Academic Departments and Programs

Series 1. Academic Departments

Series 3. Program Review Files

Series 4. Visiting Committees (External Reviews)

Subgroup V. Committees

Series 1. College Faculty Committees

Series 2. General Faculty Committee

30/17 Albert A. Wright Papers

30/107 Jones Family Papers

Vertical File Botany Department

Finding Aid Revisions: Processed by Mary-Margaret Giannini, 10 April 1995. Revised by Mary-Margaret Giannini, June 1996; Rebecca Deeb, May 2001; Melissa Gottwald, September 2001; May Tran with assistance from Alice Culbert, March 2004; April 2005, March 2007, April 2007; Anne Cuyler Salsich, December 2013 and June 2018.

Collection Material Type: Official Records

Scope and Contents:

Records relating to the early history of the Botany Department consist of account books, faculty files and grade books, student files and papers, and other miscellaneous writings and materials. This record group is arranged into nine series : I. Account Books ; II. Faculty Files; III. Grade Books ; IV. Miscellaneous Files; V. Miscellaneous Printed Materials; VI. Student Files; VII. Student Papers; VIII. Herbarium, further divided into two subseries: 1. Correspondence; 2. General Files, and IX.. Non-Textual Materials, divided into three subseries: 1. Negatives—Glass and Film; 2. Photographic Prints, and 3. Framed Specimen.

The faculty files, miscellaneous printed materials, and student papers constitute the most significant series in this departmental record. Included in these file units are botanical listings and identifications kept by Oberlin students and faculty members. Several published botanical sources containing notations regarding the identification of specific plant species are also included. Because these records document the manner by which plant classification and identification was conducted in the late 19th century, they can be used to compare these methods against present day botanical practices.

The student files series contain the records of Oberlin Botany pupils who proceeded onto professional placement and graduate work. Their files (along with the "List of Botany Majors" and "Student Recommendations" located in Series IV) detail the numbers of students pursuing Botany degrees at Oberlin, their postgraduate placement, and their professional development.

The account books enumerate the financial life of the department from its earliest days up to its merger with the Zoology department. Here one can follow the department's continuous financial struggles. The budgeting of departmental funds by specific accounts is recorded, along with yearly salaries, appropriations, and expenditures.

Series VIII contains materials concerning the Oberlin College Herbarium and is divided into two subseries. The first subseries, Correspondence, 1952-86, contains several decades of correspondence between George T. Jones, curator of the Herbarium, and other colleges, universities, and botanical institutions. The exchanges involve sale, exchange, loaning, and identification of plant specimens. Personal comments by George T. Jones in the letters communicate difficulties and changes in the Botany Department, Herbarium, and the College in general. The second subseries, General Files, 1874-1987, includes a History of the Herbarium, detailed inventories and descriptions of its collections, and extensive lists of Lorain County and Ohio plants included in the collection. The subseries also contains maps and descriptions of regional flora, and microscope records and slides data.

The balance of this collection is made up of faculty grade books and miscellaneous files.

While this collection covers a broad time span, it provides a limited picture of the academic activities of the Botany Department. Standard administrative records: departmental meeting minutes, annual reports, personnel files, budget reports and correspondence, do not exist. Documents relating to the administrative and curricular issues faced by the department may have to be found in other record groups and collections. For example, detailed accounts of the 1953-55 collaboration between the Botany and Zoology departments, and of their 1961 merger, require further investigation.

Records from Dean's Office of the College of Arts and Sciences (9), the Office of the Secretary (5), the personal papers of George T. Jones (30/107) , Annual Reports of the President (00/00/2) , and the papers of Albert A. Wright (30/17), may well fill in many of the gaps in this departmental record. The Annual Reports of the College President contain yearly summaries from the Botany Department (1905-1930), which add to the body of documentation for this academic unit.

SERIES DESCRIPTIONS

Series I. Account Books, 1899-1960 (5 vol.) (0.41.f.)

Consisting of five volumes, these account books record the annual expenditures of the Botany Department. Money expended on staff salaries, student assistants, laboratory equipment and supplies, and other departmental expenses are recorded here. Series is arranged chronologically.

Series II. Faculty Files, 1889-1903, 1938, n.d. (11f) (0.61.f.)

Included in the loose papers of F.D. Kelsey, Herbert L. Jones, and Albert A. Wright are field notebooks, plant lists, and published works. Of particular interest are the lists of Lorain county plants kept by Jones and Wright. Other items of note include Kelsey's Oberlin College Laboratory Bulletins, which were used in classroom instruction. A scrapbook given to Susan P. Nichols upon her retirement in 1938 contains correspondence and photographs of faculty, staff, students, and Botany Department facilities. Series is arranged alphabetically by faculty member.

Series III. Grade Books, 1900-1963 (82 vol.) (0.81.f.)

The Botany faculty grade books are arranged alphabetically by faculty member, and chronologically thereunder. Each grade book contains the student listings and grades for various Botany classes.

Series IV. Miscellaneous Files, 1888-1960, 1971, n.d. (12f) (0.6 I.f.)

Items include a listing of Botany majors (1888-1957), letters of recommendation for Botany students (1930-1950), notes on former students (1940-1960), the syllabus from a 1971 botany course, notes on the Arboretum, and reports by Frederick Grover on Lincoln House (1913), the Botany Department (1900), and the Herbarium (1957). Arrangement is chronological by item.

Series V. Miscellaneous Printed Material, 1846, 1872-74, 1888-89, 1892-93, 1898,

1905, 1933, 1936, 1988, n.d. (10f) (1.0 I.f.)

This series contains several published plant listings and catalogs. Included are the Catalog of North American Plants (1888), Fourth State Catalog of Ohio Plants (1888), List of Plants Contained in the 6th Edition of Gray's Manual (1893), and Evolution, Racial and Habitudinal, by Rev. John T. Gulick (1905).

Series VI. Student Files, 1938-1978 (18f) (0.8 I.f.)

Files include letters sent to the department by students after they had graduated from Oberlin, as well as co pies of recommendation written by department staff members on behalf of Botany students. Series is arranged alphabetically. Some files may be restricted.

Series VII. Student Papers, 1878, 1882-89, 1902, c. 1909- c.1913, n.d. (14f) (0.6 I.f.)

Records include the student papers of Henry C. Beardslee (c. 1887), Frederick E. Leonard (c. 1889), and Alfred E. Rick seeker (c. 1894). They consist of field notebooks, plant lists, and small herbariums. Of particular interest are the 1883 field notebooks of Fred E. Leonard, which list those plants he identified while visiting Utah. A children's story entitled "The Bungle Book" by Stephen R. Williams (c. 1892) is also included. Series is arranged alphabetically by student.

Series VIII. Herbarium, 1874-1987, n.d. (73f and 4 vol.) (3.0 l.f.)

Series is divided into two subseries. Subseries 1 consists of correspondence, 1952-1986, between George T. Jones and other colleges, universities and botanical institutions concerning the sale, exchange, loaning, and identification of specimens in the College Herbarium . The college and university correspondence is arranged alphabetically. Subseries 2, General Files, 1874-1987, n.d., also arranged alphabetically, contains files relating to the Oberlin College Herbarium's history and specimens, Lorain County, Ohio, and New York plants, Winter Term projects, microscope records and slide data, and materials relating to the teaching of science (Oberlin College and high school level). Subseries 3 consists of materials relating to George T. Jones, 1947-87. The subseries includes Mr. Jones' writings on the Oberlin College Herbarium as well as lists of plant species compiled by the professor, among other items.

Series IX. Non-Textual Materials, 1893, 1924-26, 1932, 1935, n.d.

(94 items) (2.45 l.f.)

This series is divided into three series: Series 1. Negatives--Glass and Film; Series 2. Photographic Prints; and Series 3. Framed Specimen. The negatives in Series 1 consist of 3 ¼ x 4, 5 x 7, and 6 3/8 x 8 3/8-inch glass plate negatives and a few film negatives of various plants from the corresponding dates of 1924-1926, 1932, 1935, and undated. Series 2 holds only one packet of prints and the original drawing from which they were taken. Series 3 holds a framed specimen collected from Rich Woods and Plum Creek Woods, part of the botany class project of Grace Dexter (OC 1894) [2006/033].

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