Skip to main content Skip to main navigation

Horticultural Society of New York records

Call Number

MS 3033

Date

1811-circa 2010 (bulk, 1900-circa 2010), inclusive

Creator

Horticultural Society of New York

Extent

119.29 Linear feet in 110 boxes of various sizes, 108 volumes, and a drawer of oversize material.

Language of Materials

English .

Abstract

Records of the still-active Horticultural Society of New York, founded in 1900 "to collect and diffuse information on all topics relating to the culture of plants" and "to stimulate the knowledge and love of horticulture." Sponsors of the International Flower Show (1910-1970), Bryant Park Flower Show (1960s-1970s), New York Flower Show (1985-1996), and various educational and beautification programs throughout New York City.

Historical Note

New York City claims several horticultural "firsts." The first commercial nursery in America opened in what is now Flushing, Queens, in 1737. James Beekman built the country's first greenhouse on his Manhattan estate overlooking the East River in 1764. And in 1801 Dr. David Hosack opened his Elgin Botanic Garden—the first public botanical garden in the United States—on the site of Rockefeller Center. The first horticultural society in the nation, too, was formed in New York City in 1818. This early organization, the New York Horticultural Society, survived until the late nineteenth century. It should not be confused with the similarly-named Horticultural Society of New York, the subject of this finding aid and the source of the records described herein.

The Horticultural Society of New York (a.k.a. "HSNY" or "the Hort") was established in 1900 "to collect and diffuse information on all topics relating to the culture and care of plants, fruits, flowers, and vegetables, and by all possible means to stimulate the knowledge and love of horticulture" through monthly meetings, formal lectures, and seasonal flower shows. Among its founders was botanist and taxonomist Nathaniel Lord Britton (1859–1934), first director of the New York Botanical Garden. Early members included banker J. P. Morgan, stained-glass designer Louis C. Tiffany, and others whose wealth afforded the leisurely pursuit of horticulture on estates tended by (largely) English-trained gardeners.

In its early years the HSNY held meetings and shows at the American Institute of the City of New York. In 1906 it launched a quarterly journal to disseminate scientific abstracts and book reviews.

Beginning in 1910, the HSNY participated in and later sponsored the annual International Flower Show (IFS), a grand floral exhibition at Madison Square Garden, the Grand Central Palace, and ultimately, the New York Coliseum, that ran until 1970 (with the exception of two years during World War II).

The Hort also held large spring flower shows at the New York Botanical Garden and the American Museum of Natural History, and regular seasonal exhibitions in its headquarters. Prizes awarded for professional and amateur flower arrangements at each event inspired friendly competition as members sought to improve their growing and showing skills while learning from the experience of others.

For about a decade starting in the late 1960s the HSNY sponsored the Bryant Park Flower Show, the brainchild of longtime supporter Henrietta Sedgwick Lockwood. And in 1985 it began its signature New York Flower Show, which exhibited annually through 1996 (with the exception of 1994) on Hudson River piers.

The Society established its first office in 1920 in the Bankers Trust Building at 14 Wall Street, in quarters shared by the Garden Club of America. Membership swelled over the next thirty years, from 300 in 1920 to nearly 4,000 by 1950. To accommodate this increase the HSNY moved in 1948 to rooms in the Essex House at 160 Central Park South, where it stayed and exhibited until 1969. That year it relocated to 128 West 58th Street, a storefront space which provided additional room for staff, conferences, lectures, and shelving for the Hort's sizable library of botanical titles.

Along with regular lecture series and flower shows, the Hort's library has been one of its main attractions. Begun in 1924 as a working library for members (today it is open to the public, but only members have borrowing privileges), the collection grew rapidly, particularly through the generosity of collector Kenneth K. Mackenzie, whose 1934 bequest of 6,000 volumes included over 1,300 works by the great Swedish botanist and "father of modern taxonomy" Carolus Linnaeus (1707–1778). Although these rare titles were eventually sold, the Hort's library today retains a respectable 12,000 volumes that draw gardeners, houseplant enthusiasts, artists, writers, designers, and students who use the collection to enhance their work.

Over time the Hort has extended its mission to reflect the interests of the day, as is clear from some of their varied educational and beautification programs past and present, among them

Apple Seed: An environmental and science education program for 3rd- to 6th-grade students.

Food for Life: Transformed abandoned lots into edible gardens.

Green Branches: A late 1990s program to plant gardens around public library branches. (A related Read & Seed Program offered summer reading and gardening activities at the Green Branches libraries.)

GreenHouse (formerly GreenWorks): Horticultural therapy and vocational training for Rikers Island inmates.

GreenTeam: Transitional employment opportunities for at-risk youth and ex-offenders.

Neighborhood Plaza Program: Beautifies low-income communities across New York City.

NYDIGS: Affordable horticulture-based workshops, activities, and conferences.

Tree Corps and Community Gardening: Urban horticulture programs of the 1970s and 1980s.

In 2006 the Horticultural Society of New York moved to its current location, 148 West 37th Street, from where it continues "to sustain the vital connection between people and plants" through "social service and public programs [designed to] educate and inspire . . . a broad community that values horticulture for the many benefits it brings to our environment, our neighborhoods, and our lives."

[This note draws partly on an undated history of the Horticultural Society of New York found in Subseries II.D, Archives Files, Historical Timeline Notes, box 63, folders 1-4. For information on the HSNY's current programs and activities, visit www.thehort.org.]

Arrangement Note

The Horticultural Society of New York Records are divided into the series and subseries outlined below. Although the material appears to be strictly organized, the researcher should be aware that there are many points of overlap in the collection. For example, although most photographs will be found in the Photographs series, some photos can also be found to some degree in other parts of the collection. Similarly, although there is a Flower Show series, related material can be found in other series, such as ephemera and posters in Print Matter or in the administrative files.

Series I. General Administration Files, 1900-2007
Subseries I.A. Board Minutes & Working Files, 1900-2007
Subseries I.B. Financial, 1933-1994
Subseries I.C. Executive Directors' Files, 1960s-1990s
Subseries I.D. Presidents' Files, 1930s-1990s
Subseries I.E. Miscellaneous, 1933-1984

Series II. Library & Archives Files, 1926-circa 2010
Subseries II.A. Accession Records, 1926-1989
Subseries II.B. Library Committee, 1936-1988
Subseries II.C. Librarian Files, 1970s-2008
Subseries II.D. Archives Files, 1930s-circa 2010

Series III. Flower Show Records, 1908-2000s
Subseries III.A. Meeting Minutes & Working Files, 1915-2000s
Subseries III.B. Print Matter and Ephemera, 1908-1996
Subseries III.C. Photographs and Scrapbooks, 1916-1998

Series IV. Records from Other Horticultural Societies, 1925-1980
(does not subdivide)

Series V. Photographs, 1917-2006
Subseries V.A. Events, 1959-2006
Subseries V.B. Programs, 1969-1995
Subseries V.C. Facilities and Staff, 1941-2003
Subseries V.D. Images used in HSNY publications, 1980-2000
Subseries V.E. Other Images, 1917, 1940s-2002 (bulk, 1950s-1970s)

Series VI. Print Matter, 1811-circa 2010
Subseries VI.A. Hort Periodicals, 1900-1998
Subseries VI.B. Other Hort Print Matter, 1901-circa 2010
Subseries VI.C. Miscellaneous Print Material, 1811-1997

Series VII. Audiovisual, 1964-2003
Subseries VII.A. Audio Formats, 1968-1996
Subseries VII.B. Moving Images, 1964-2003

Series VIII. Reference Files, 1850-2005
Subseries VIII.A. People, 1910-2009
Subseries VIII.B. Subjects, 1850-2006

Series IX. Memorabilia, 1900s-1998
(does not subdivide)

Scope and Contents

The records of the Horticultural Society of New York (HSNY or Hort) extend from the organization's founding in 1900 through about 2010. They are preserved in various formats: manuscript and typed board meeting minutes, typescript financial statements, published periodicals, ephemera, posters, photographs, and a handful of artifacts (lapel pins, award plaques, etc.). They fall into nine categories partly imposed by the N-YHS archivists who processed the collection. Refer to the Arrangement Note following this one for an outline of how the records are divided and their respective date ranges. Fuller descriptions are provided in notes at each series and subseries level, but, briefly, the collection contains

General Administration Files: Includes the minutes of the HSNY Board of Directors for 1900–2007, its financial statements for 1959–1974, financial reports for the International Flower Show for 1930–1942, and the working files from the HSNY executive director's and president's offices. Also here is documentation on the acquisition and subsequent sale of the collection of botanical books and illustrations bequeathed to HSNY by Kenneth K. Mackenzie in 1934.

Library & Archives Files: The Hort maintains an active research library today, and the material in the present collection documents its development and administration by way of accession registers, committee meeting minutes, and files on resources, funding, programming, and initiatives.

Flower Show Records: Documentation of the flower shows sponsored by or organized by the HSNY between 1916 and 1998, the main ones being the International Flower Show, the Bryant Park Flower Show, and the New York Flower Show. Included are the myriad supporting periodicals for these events—programs, schedules of prizes, classes, and premiums—as well as photographs and a few scrapbooks spanning 1916–1998.

Records from Other Horticultural Societies: From its earliest years the Hort worked closely with other plant and gardening associations. That likely explains how this material came to be part of the larger collection. Most of it pertains to the Brooklyn chapter of the National Plant, Flower, and Fruit Guild.

Photographs: Images of the activities, places, people, and plants associated with the Hort in myriad formats: glass plate lantern slides, 35mm slides, transparencies, photographic prints (black-and-white and color), and negatives.

Print Matter: Over its long existence the Hort has issued a broad range of publications in fulfillment of its mission to "diffuse information on all topics relating to the culture and care of plants." These include periodicals, yearbooks, bulletins, program calendars, and ephemera. The collection includes a small but interesting portion of early and mid-nineteenth century publications issued by other organizations that the HSNY kept for their focus on horticulture.

Audiovisual: HSNY recorded its meetings, lectures, programs and flower shows audiocassettes, 16- and 35mm film, Betamax and VHS tapes. Many of the latter save television appearances by Hort representatives on programs such as Good Day New York and the Today Show. Note that N-YHS lacks playback equipment, so this material is restricted.

Reference Files: These are ready-reference files kept by the HSNY for research purposes. They are split between personal names and topical subjects and include images, journal articles, news clippings, brochures, and biographical material.

Memorabilia: The collection includes a small number of artifacts, such as award ribbons and medals, lapel buttons and pins, and a few commemorative plaques bestowed on the HSNY for its horticultural contributions.

Access Restrictions

Open to qualified researchers.

Photocopying undertaken by staff only. Limited to twenty exposures of stable, unbound material per day. (Researchers may not accrue unused copy amounts from previous days.)

Note that N-YHS lacks playback equipment, so the material in Series VII. Audiovisual, 1964-2003, is restricted.

Use Restrictions

This collection is owned by the New-York Historical Society. The copyright law of the United States governs the making of photocopies and protects unpublished materials as well as published materials. Unpublished materials created before 1 January 1978 cannot be quoted in publication without permission of the copyright holder.

Preferred Citation

This collection should be cited as the Horticultural Society of New York Records, MS3033, The New-York Historical Society.

Location of Materials

Materials are stored offsite and advance notice is required for use. Please contact manuscripts@nyhistory.org prior to your research visit to coordinate access. Keep in mind that it will take between two (2) and five (5) business days for collections to arrive, and you should plan your research accordingly.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of The Horticultural Society of New York, April 2016.

Collection processed by

Joseph Ditta, Marybeth Kavanagh, & Larry Weimer.

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-21 15:51:31 -0400.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: Description is written in: English, Latin script.

Processing Information

Processed by archivists Joseph Ditta, Marybeth Kavanagh, and Larry Weimer between September and November 2017. They shared the work as follows:

Series I: Ditta
Series II: Weimer
Subseries III.A: Weimer
Subseries III.B - III.C: Ditta
Series IV: Kavanagh
Subseries V.A - V.D: Kavanagh
Subseries V.E: Ditta & Weimer
Subseries VI.A - VI.B: Weimer
Subseries VI.C: Ditta
Series VII: Kavanagh
Series VIII: Kavanagh
Series IX: Ditta

Repository

New-York Historical Society
New-York Historical Society
170 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024