John Milton Fogg Papers, 1931-1982

A Guide

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

[Description of item], [date]. Arboretum, Directors' Files, John Milton Fogg Papers. The Barnes Foundation Archives, Merion, Pennsylvania. Reprinted with permission.

Acquisition Information

These records were housed in filing cabinets in the Arboretum House of the Barnes Foundation prior to processing.

Processed By

Holly Frisbee. Finding aid written by Holly Frisbee, March 2009.

Access Restrictions

This collection is open for research to qualified researchers by appointment only. Please contact the Archives and Library Department for information on access and research.

Use Restrictions

The John Milton Fogg Papers are the physical property of the Barnes Foundation Archives. The Foundation holds literary rights only for material created by staff of the Foundation and material given to the Foundation with such rights specifically assigned. For all other material, literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. Researchers are responsible for determining the identity of rights holders and obtaining their permission for publication and for other purposes where stated.

Related Material

Biographical Note

John Milton Fogg, Jr. (1898-1982) was born on November 8 at 1707 Arch Street in Philadelphia, in the house where his father and grandfather practiced dentistry. The Fogg family later moved to the suburb of Oak Lane, where Fogg attended Germantown High School and developed an interest in rose gardening. He enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dentistry, but a trip to Florida convinced him of his passion for plants. Fogg was awarded a Jessop Fellowship, which allowed him to study botany at the University of Pennsylvania and work part time at the Academy of Natural Sciences Herbarium. In the summer of 1923, Fogg served as teaching assistant for a botany course in the Elizabeth Islands of Massachusetts. Fogg spent the summer documenting the flora of the area, and published his first paper on the subject in 1924. In 1925, Fogg received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and began to focus on research and taxonomy, traveling to British Columbia and Newfoundland. Hired as an instructor at the University of Pennsylvania, Fogg worked with Bayard Long to classify the plants of the western New Jersey Shore. In 1927 he enrolled in the doctorate program at Harvard University and, in 1929, published his dissertation, Flora of the Elizabeth Islands. He married Helen Biggs the following year and the couple later had two daughters.

In 1934, the University of Pennsylvania acquired the Morris Arboretum and hired Dr. Fogg to survey and identify its plantings. The following year, Fogg and fellow University of Pennsylvania professor Edgar T. Wherry were approached to survey the complete flora of Pennsylvania, a task that would consume much of their careers. In 1940, Laura L. Barnes solicited Fogg’s help with the establishment of a horticulture school at the Barnes Foundation in Merion. Fogg helped Mrs. Barnes organize a curriculum for the program and suggested lecturers. In 1940, he became the school’s first instructor of botany. In 1941, Dr. Fogg was appointed Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and, in 1944, Vice Provost of the University of Pennsylvania, a post he held until 1953. The following year Fogg began consulting for the pharmaceutical company, E.R. Squibb & Sons, and over the next three years traveled in India, Burma, and Thailand researching medicinal plants. Fogg was named director of the Morris Arboretum in 1959. It was around this time that his research turned to magnolias, and he was eventually named International Registrar for magnolias in 1964. That same year, Dr. and Mrs. Fogg led a group of students and teachers from the Morris and Barnes Arboretums on a horticulture tour of Europe. The Foggs would conduct seventeen such botanical tours in their remaining years, traveling to Mexico, Asia, Africa, and across the United States.

Upon Laura L. Barnes’s death in 1966, Dr. Fogg was appointed Director of the Arboretum of the Barnes Foundation. As director, Fogg assembled several important living collections including magnolias, cotoneasters, heath, and vines. Focused on creating teaching and learning opportunities on the grounds, Fogg created rock and shrub gardens, a rose garden arranged by subfamily, and an area for the exploration of soil content. He expanded the arboretum’s horticulture library to include books on botany and flora surveys, and assembled a 9,000-specimen herbarium from his own collections and through exchanges with colleagues. Fogg wrote and published dozens of books and articles on a range of subjects, including Weeds of Lawn and Garden in 1945 and the Checklist of Cultivated Magnolias in 1975. In 1970 and 1975 he published revised editions of the Checklist of the Woody Plants at the Arboretum of the Barnes Foundation, first assembled in 1945. In 1978, he co-founded the American Magnolia Society. The Atlas of the Flora of Pennsylvania was published in 1979 with co-authors Edgar T. Wherry and Herbert A. Wahl. That same year, Dr. Fogg retired as arboretum director, although he continued to teach classes. He died in 1982 at the age of 83.

Scope and Content

This collection ranges in date from 1931 to 1982, and consists of correspondence, writings, research, and materials related to tours, written and collected by Dr. John Milton Fogg, Jr., botanist, University of Pennsylvania professor (1925-1966), Dean (1941-1944), and Vice Provost (1944-1953), instructor at the Arboretum School of the Barnes Foundation (1940-1979), director of the Morris Arboretum (1959-1966), and director of the Barnes Foundation Arboretum (1966-1979).

The correspondence series consists primarily of letters from Dr. Fogg’s tenure as Director of the Barnes Foundation Arboretum, and includes correspondence with nurseries, colleagues, various botanical organizations, and students from 1938-1982. Subjects include plant purchases and exchanges, taxonomy, publications, and travel. Earlier material focuses on research projects, such as the flora surveys of Pennsylvania and western New Jersey, and medicinal plant research conducted for E.R. Squibb & Sons.

The writings series includes completed works, research notes, and teaching materials, created by Dr. Fogg and his colleagues from 1931-1965. Completed works are primarily reprints from journals or typescript originals with corrections, while Dr. Fogg’s research and teaching notes are generally in manuscript. Subjects include hollies, Rauwolfia (snakeroot), paleobotany, woody plants, and weeds.

During Dr. Fogg’s tenure as director of the Morris and Barnes Foundation Arboretums he led a series of group botanical tours for students and colleagues. The materials from these tours are collected in the series “Tours,” and date from 1966-1977. The series includes correspondence with hotels, sites, and colleagues abroad, brochures and maps, photographs, itineraries, and travel documents. Fourteen of the Foggs’ seventeen tours to Europe, Asia, Africa, and across the United States are represented here.

Assorted materials, including resumés and recommendations from colleagues, student information, newspaper clippings, and newsletters, are collected in the miscellaneous series. This series dates from 1949-1967.

Subject Terms

Personal Names:

Institutions:

Subjects:

Places:

Form and Genre Terms:

Inventory

The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.