A collection of document archives relating to Kate O. Sessions, horticulturist, landscaper, city gardener, and nursery and cut flower business owner in San Diego, dating from 1891-1940, from the City Clerk’s Archives, City of San Diego, CA. Miss Sessions is considered the mother of San Diego’s Balboa Park, formerly known as City Park or the Fourteen Hundred Acre Public Park; and the location of the 1915 Panama- California Exposition, the 1916 Panama-California International Exposition and the 1935-1936 California Pacific International Exposition. Documents consist of those Miss Sessions personally submitted to the City of San Diego, as well as those submitted by others but referencing her. The collection features a 1891 letter by Frederick Law Olmsted (considered the father of U. S. landscape architecture) responding to Miss Sessions’ inquiry regarding the planning of City Park accompanied by her handwritten notes presenting his letter to the Common Council of the City of San Diego.

69 documents including 2 photographs, sketches, maps

public documents Box 16 Folder 25, Box 29 Folder 5, Box 54 Folder 7, Box 78 Folder 5, Box 86 Folder 7, Box 112 Folder 20, Box 154 Folder 1, Box 175 Folder 9, Box 93 (not organized in folders) (wrapped in pink paper), Box 115 Folder 17, Box 23, Folder 5, Box 35 Folder 1, Box 12827, Box 13841, Box 13849, Box 17332, Box 15388, Box 17101, Box 13850, Box 9878, Box 9590, Box 15787