Document Archives Record
Metadata
Collection |
MS 38 |
Title |
Kate Sessions Collection |
Object type |
Documents |
Catalog Number |
MS 38 |
Creator |
Sessions, Kate Olivia |
Year Range from |
1876 |
Year Range to |
1940 |
Scope & Content |
Abstract: This collection focuses on the early life and European travels of Kate Sessions, San Diego horticulturist and "Mother of Balboa Park." The collection contains personal diaries and correspondence, as well as scrapbooks, unpublished manuscripts and several articles on Sessions. Biographical/Historical Notes: Kate Olivia Sessions was born in San Francisco on November 8, 1857. In 1868, her family moved to a ranch in East Oakland where she grew up surrounded by nature, often riding her pony through the countryside and helping her mother in the family garden. She graduated from Oakland High School in 1875. Sessions traveled to Hawaii in 1876 to better her health and entered a San Francisco business college upon her return. In 1877, she entered the University of California at Berkeley, where she studied chemistry and also completed courses on botany, horticulture, and agriculture. Her thesis was entitled "Rock Soap: Chemical Composition, Mineralogical Nature, Geological Occurrence, Technical Value. (Report of Progress)." Sessions received a Bachelor's Degree from the College of Sciences in 1881 and taught in the Oakland primary school following her graduation. In 1884, Sessions moved to San Diego to teach and serve as principal at the Russ School. A year later, Sessions partnered with Mr. and Mrs. Solon G. Blaisdell who purchased the San Diego Nursery. The partnership with the Blaisdells dissolved in 1887 and Kate assumed the operation of the Nursery; she also operated a nursery in Coronado and a flower shop in downtown San Diego. In 1892, Kate leased a portion of City Park from the San Diego City Council for the building of a nursery. In exchange, she was named City Gardener and agreed to provide trees for the city’s landscaping projects. She continued to operate the nursery in what is now Balboa Park until the park’s development in 1903 forced her to move. That same year, Sessions opened a nursery in Mission Hills. She sold her flower shop to Alice Rainford in 1909, in order to focus on her nursery. In 1925, Sessions’ friends helped her finance a trip to Europe, where she spent several months traveling through England, France, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland and Germany, visiting botanical gardens, exchanging ideas with prominent horticulturists, and obtaining many new plant specimens to introduce in California. In the 1920s, Sessions transitioned to working and living in Pacific Beach, where she operated a nursery for the remaining years of her life. Kate Sessions died in 1940. Sessions is known for her contributions to San Diego and California horticulture. She traveled to Europe and Baja California, bringing back colorful and drought-resistant plants. Sessions was the first woman to receive the Meyer Medal from the Council of the American Genetics Association and is known as the "Mother of Balboa Park." Scope and Content: This collection contains Kate Sessions’ personal diaries and correspondence, including four diaries from her college years in San Francisco, dated 1876-1879, and several volumes of travel journals from her 1925 trip to Europe. The earlier diaries chronicle her life after graduating high school and during the first two years of college at UC Berkeley. The correspondence consists primarily of letters written during Sessions’ 1925 Europe trip addressed to her close friends Mrs. Miles (first name unknown) and Alice Rainford, as well as other miscellaneous correspondence written during that period. The rest of Sessions’ personal correspondence are letters written during her time in San Diego, many pertaining to membership or awards bestowed upon her by different organizations, as well as other personal correspondence. There are also two letters written by Sessions’ acquaintances about her during her illness and after her death, by Max Matousek and Alice Carroll, respectively. The two scrapbooks in the collection were put together by Sessions’ close friend Alice Carroll, and contain news articles, photographs, and memorabilia dating from her childhood in Oakland through her death in 1940. The collection also contains an unpublished manuscript, researcher’s notes and correspondence by M.M. Frechette (first name unknown) who was in the process of publishing a book on Sessions’ trip to Europe in collaboration with Sessions when she passed away in 1940. Frechette’s papers include direct correspondence between her and Sessions regarding the book and her memories of Europe. The unpublished manuscript includes a general biographical introduction of Kate Sessions written by Frechette, as well as typed transcriptions of Kate’s "Letters from Europe." The collection also includes several published articles on Sessions including a 1943 article by T.D.A. Cockerell. Finally, the collection contains two books: one from Sessions’ personal library, and another that was given as a gift by Sessions to the daughter of a friend. |
Quantity |
2.0 Linear feet (3 boxes) |
Notes |
Detailed "entries of interest" have been included in collection inventory because no preservation copy of the diaries is available. It is hoped that these detailed notes will assist with easier access to the diaries and thus reduce the need for excess handling. Collection processed as part of grant project supported by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) with generous funding from The Andrew Mellon Foundation. |
Finding Aid |
http://www.sandiegohistory.org/archives/archivalcollections/ms38 |
Names |
American Forestry Association. Arnold Arboretum. California Academy of Sciences. California School for the Blind. California Theater. Ebell Society. National Botanic Gardens of South Africa. San Diego Business and Professional Women's Club. San Diego Society of Natural History. University of California, Berkeley. Vilmorin-Andrieux et cie. Wade's Opera House. Winchester College. Agassiz, Louis, 1807-1873 Brandegee, Townshend Stith, 1843-1925 Butterfield, H. M. (Harry Morton), b. 1887 Carroll, Alice C. Cassino, Samuel Edson, 1856-1937 Clayton, Will Cockerell, Theodore D. A. (Theodore Dru Alison), 1866-1948 Davidson, George, 1825-1911 Davidson, Winifred Eastwood, Alice, 1859-1953 Eigenmann, Rosa Smith, 1858-1947 Frechette, Miss Grant, Julia Dent, 1826-1902 Grant, Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson), 1822-1885 Grant, Ulysses S., 1852-1929 Hittell, Theodore Henry, 1830-1917 Hull, Mary Judd, William Henry Lewis, Dio, 1823-1886 Livermore, Mary Ashton Rice, 1820-1905 Matousek, Max Meyer, Frank Nicholas Miles, Herbert E., Mrs. Moore, Justin P. Phelps, Elizabeth Stuart, 1844-1911 Rainford, Alice N. Sessions, Frank Sessions, Kate Olivia, 1857-1940 Sessions, Milton Shattuck, Mary Wangenheim, Julius Wark, William O. |