Entrance to the rose garden.

The arboretum now part of the Barnes Foundation was originally founded as a private arboretum on the property of Captain Joseph Lapsley Wilson (1844-1928). Captain Wilson was a veteran of the Civil War, and worked for the Little Schuylkill Navigation Railroad and Coal Company for thirty-eight years. In 1880, Captain Wilson moved from Philadelphia to a property in Merion, and established an arboretum with over two hundred specimens of trees, a number of which are still extant.

Dr. Albert C. Barnes (1872-1951), who had built his own house, "Lauraston," just down the road, purchased Captain Wilson's property in 1922 for the purpose of erecting buildings to house his art collection and educational programs related to his recently chartered educational institution, the Barnes Foundation. The sale included the stipulation that a house would be constructed on one side of the property, which Wilson and his wife would be allowed to rent for the remainder of their lives (this house is now called the "Arboretum House"). Captain Wilson served on the Board of Trustees of the Barnes Foundation, and as its first Director of the Arboretum, until his death on April 12, 1928, at age 83. Dr. Barnes's wife, Laura Leggett Barnes (1875-1966), succeeded Wilson as Director of the Arboretum.

Laura Barnes was born in 1875 to a well-to-do Brooklyn family, and married Albert Barnes in 1901. The origin of Laura Barnes's interest in horticulture is unknown, and her education in the field of horticulture is equally difficult to establish, although she is known to have audited a course entitled "Landscape Architecture" in the School of Fine Arts at the University of Pennsylvania in 1934. She was well-read in the field, taking detailed notes on various articles in horticultural journals, including the Gardener's Chronicle, American Botanist, American Forests, and Horticulture. She also maintained a personal library of horticulture books, now held in the Archives and Library of the Foundation.

John W. Prince, Curator of the Arboretum,
in front of Franklinia alatamaha
(Franklin Tree, planted 1888), 1925.

As part of the Barnes Foundation, the Arboretum was expanded and plants were gathered from different sources within and outside the country, with a striking diversity of species and varieties. John W. Prince served as "Curator of the Arboretum" in the 1920s, a position that does not appear to have continued. The Arboretum was a significant part of the Foundation's programming since the 1920s, stating in its own journal that, "research in arboriculture and horticulture is conducted in the Foundation's own Arboretum under the direction of Joseph Lapsley Wilson, Laura L. Barnes and John W. Prince."

John Dewey, the Foundation's first Director of Education, said in his 1925 dedication speech at the opening of the Barnes Foundation's Paul Cret designed buildings, "These beautiful grounds and trees (a genuine part of the educational work of this Foundation) are also a memorial of the love and affection which Captain Wilson has through so many years devoted to this particular aesthetic phase of Nature. The further development of the Arboretum will, fortunately, continue to have the advantage of the experience of Captain Wilson, as he is one of the Trustees. In addition, the artistic and scientific purposes of the grounds will be under the especial charge of Mrs. Barnes, the Vice-President of the Foundation. Under her direction the beauty of the surroundings will be a worthy setting for the beauty within, while through arrangements still to be made, the outdoor facilities will also become part of the educational resources of the Foundation."

Dr. and Mrs. Barnes contributed financially to the Arnold Arboretum for many years, and as early as 1925, just before E. H. Wilson became Director, Laura Barnes initiated exchanges of plant specimens with the Arnold Arboretum to expand the Foundation's living collections. Specimens sent by the Arnold Arboretum to the Foundation included Davidia involucrata (Dove Tree) and Stewartia Koreana. It is likely that Laura Barnes visited the arboretum, as she maintained a "motoring permit" for two decades. She also maintained correspondence with the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the National Arboretum, the Morton Arboretum, and the Morris Arboretum, exchanging specimens and knowledge with each. Mrs. Barnes even donated a number of ferns to the National Arboretum's "Fern Valley" project.

Greenhouse and experimental gardens, October 10, 1933.

The Arboretum was expanded, changed, and redesigned over time by many noteworthy horticulturalists and landscape architects. In 1924, the Foundation contracted with the Lord & Burnham Company for a greenhouse for the purposes of expanding their plant propagation program (the greenhouse was replaced on the property in 2001-02 with a new model by Rough Brothers, Inc.).

In 1934, Dr. and Mrs. Barnes commissioned a formal garden plan from landscape architect Frank Andrew Schrepfer, University of Pennsylvania professor of Landscape Architecture. Schrepfer's work included the rose garden and the Wisteria arbor. In an article written for the journal Landscape Architecture, Schrepfer wrote that "in addition to the education value of the [living] collection, the planting is being arranged to achieve the finest possible landscape and garden effects. Thus, most plants have a dual purpose to serve: as a part of the general collection and as parts of the general esthetic scheme." Several years later a structured perennial garden was designed by Frederick W. G. Peck, a landscape architect who also designed the Fairmount Park Azalea Garden, as well as Pastorius Park.

Formal perennial garden.

Schrepfer also taught the first horticulture course held at the Foundation, offered from 1934-35, and aimed to address "the aesthetics of plants, trees, and their formal organization." In 1940, with the assistance of noted botanist Dr. John M. Fogg of the University of Pennsylvania, Laura Barnes established the Arboretum School. Instructors included Laura Barnes and Dr. Fogg, as well as Frederick W.G. Peck.

The first course brochure for the school described the program as offering "courses in the practical, scientific, and esthetic phases of Botany, Horticulture and Landscape Architecture." The organization of the program was described as follows:

"Each class will meet twice as week and will be conducted in three series with 15 lectures in each series. Although each session will follow the preceding session in logical sequence, a student would not need to have attended the preceding session in order to attend the subsequent classes. Many of the lectures will be illustrated and the Arboretum will be used as a laboratory for field study."

Laura L. Barnes receiving an honorary
doctorate from St. Joseph's University, 1957.

The classes offered during the 1940-41 year consisted of Botany 1 (The Families of Flowering Plants), Botany 2 (Plant Geography and Distribution), Botany 3 (Plant Identification), Landscape Architecture 1 (History of Landscape Architecture), Landscape Architecture 2 (The Theory of Design), Landscape Architecture 3 (Design in Practice), and Horticulture 1, 2, and 3 (Plant Materials). Over the subsequent years, the content of the courses changed.

Laura Barnes herself taught such courses as "Plant Materials," "Cultivated Shrubs," and "Cultivated Trees" in the Arboretum School from 1940-1966. She also became President of the Board of Trustees of the Barnes Foundation upon her husband's death in 1951. She wrote and even published several articles, including: "Ferns for a Garden," "Rock Garden Plants" and "Cultivation of Hardy Ferns" (published in the Arboretum Bulletin of the Associates, July 1939).

On April 29, 1966, Laura Barnes died. The bulk of her estate was left to Bryn Mawr hospital, Jefferson Hospital, and the University of Pennsylvania Hospital. Her collection of paintings, separate from that of her husband and the Foundation, was given to the Brooklyn Museum of Art. She had been recognized for her horticultural work during her lifetime, receiving the Schaffer Memorial Medal from the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society in 1948, named an honorary member of the American Society of Landscape Architects in 1955, and awarded an honorary doctorate of horticultural science by Saint Joseph's University in 1957.

John M. Fogg in Uppsala, Sweden, 1970.

Dr. Fogg succeeded Laura Barnes as Director of the Arboretum upon her death in 1966. Dr. Fogg continued and even expanded the Arboretum's interaction with other institutions. As a professor of botany (1925-54), past dean (1941-44), and vice provost (1944-53) at the University of Pennsylvania, and as Director of the Morris Arboretum (1954-67), Fogg was well-connected and in turn connected the Arboretum of the Barnes Foundation with his wide-ranging interests. Fogg traveled frequently, visiting gardens and botanical institutions worldwide, often taking with him students from the Arboretum School as well as from the university. Detailed reports of these "tours" were printed in the Newsletter of the Arboretum of the Barnes Foundation, published between 1968-1979.

Wisteria on the Administration Building.

It was during Dr. Fogg's tenure as director, in 1968, that the Arboretum established its herbarium. Like the living collections, the herbarium's growth was due in part to an active exchange with other institutions. Dr. Fogg also actively expanded the collections of the arboretum, including the collections of vines and salix (willows). Along with his frequent collaborator Edgar T. Wherry, he led an effort to revitalize, identify, and label the collection of ferns begun by Laura Barnes in the 1930s. He also established a heath garden, rock garden, herb garden, and a flowering shrub garden in the arboretum, none of which are extant today. The formal gardens, established in the 1930s, were also renovated and replanted in the 1970s.

In 1979, Fogg retired, and was in turn succeeded by John S. Penny, who served as director from 1979-81 and again from 1983 until 1985. Elizabeth B. Farley was Acting Director 1981-83. Timothy Storbeck served as Director from 1985 until 1994, Chela Kleiber was Acting Director from 1995 until 1997, and Martin Kromer was Director from 2000 to 2001. Jacob Thomas became Director in 2002. The Arboretum School has offered its program in horticulture continuously from 1940 through the present day, with 40 students currently in the program.