Descriptive Summary
Preferred Citation
UCLA Catalog Record ID
Acquisition Information
Biography
Scope and Content
Related Material
Indexing Terms
Descriptive Summary
Title: Arthur Monrad Johnson colletion of botanical
drawings,
Date (inclusive): 1914-1941
Collection number: 48
Creator: Johnson, Arthur Monrad
1878-1943
Extent:
3 boxes (2.5 linear feet)
Repository:
University of California, Los Angeles. Library.
Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library History and Special Collections
Division
Los Angeles, California 90095-1490
Abstract: Approximately 1000 botanical drawings, most in pen
and black ink on paper, of the structural parts of angiosperms and some
gymnosperms, by Arthur Monrad Johnson. Many of the illustrations have been
published in the author's scientific publications, such as his "Taxonomy of the
Flowering Plants" and articles on the genus Saxifraga. Dr. Johnson was both a
respected botanist and an accomplished artist beyond his botanical
subjects.
Physical location: Collection stored off-site (Southern Regional
Library Facility): Advance notice required for access.
Language of Material: Collection materials in English
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Arthur Monrad Johnson colletion of botanical drawings (Manuscript collection 48). Louise M. Darling
Biomedical Library History and Special Collections Division, University of California, Los Angeles.
UCLA Catalog Record ID
Acquisition Information
The collection was a gift from the UCLA Botanical Garden/Herbarium to the
Biomedical Library sometime in the late 1980s.
Biography
Arthur Monrad Johnson (1878-1943) was Professor of Botany at the University
of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and director of the Campus Botanical Garden
from 1927 until his death in 1943. Before that he held academic positions at the
University of Minnesota, Harvard University, and the University of
Wisconsin.
Born in 1878 in Norway, he came to the United States with his parents while
still a child. He received a B.S., M.A. in Arts, and Ph.D. in Botany from the
University of Minnesota, and had further art instruction from Minneapolis
Institute of Art and San Francisco Art School. Dr. Johnson's scientific
publications included a major textbook in taxonomy and important articles on the
genus Saxifraga. His drawings, watercolors, and oils of botanical subjects and
landscapes were displayed at invitational exhibits in a number of major American
cities.
Scope and Content
The collection contains 84 folders of approximately 1000 hand-drawn
illustrations, plus a few reprints and documents. The drawings are mostly in
black ink on light or heavy paper; a few are on cardboard, another few lightly
tinted in watercolors. A preponderance of the illustrations deal with the
structural parts of angiosperms, with fewer focused on gymnosperms. The order
Rosales contains the greatest number of drawings, keeping with Dr. Johnson's
special interest in the family Saxifragaceae.
The organization of Dr. Johnson's drawings for this finding list presented
some problems. The collection came to the library in 49 packets, accompanied by
a list of subjects included in each packet. Twelve of them named specific topics
such as Buds, Fruits, Shoots, Tendrils; four large groups were labeled
"Miscellaneous"; the rest bore taxonomic labels at levels varying from Sub-class
to Order to Family. Upon investigation of the packets it became clear that over
the years many had become quite mixed in their contents. One further obstacle
arose from the outdated systems of classification used by Johnson: mainly that
of Adolph Engler (A. Engler and E. Gilg, 1924), sometimes combined with Richard
Wettstein's subclasses (R.V. Wttstein, 1924).
The present organization of the drawings maintains Dr. Johnson's first twelve
categories. As many items as possible in the "Miscellaneous" folders were
identified and placed with their appropriate fellows. For the taxonomic
classified portion we followed the system used by the Integrated Taxonomic
Information System (ITIS) (http://www.itis.gov) and the USDA Plants Database
(http://plants.usda.gov./). To accommodate the current cladistic approach to
systematics, the names and relationships used on the Angiosperm Phylogeny
Website (APW)(http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/research/APweb/) have been noted when
they differ from those given in ITIS. Thus, terms in brackets are not accepted
by APW, and notes such as "APW: Rhamnales = Rosales" or "APW: Crassulaceae
assigned to Saxifragales" can be found throughout.
The collection is organized into the following series:
- Series 1. Anatomy. 1 folder
- Series 2. Buds. 1 folder
- Series 3. Flowers. 1 folder
- Series 4. Fruits. 4 folders
- Series 5. Inflorescence. 1 folder
- Series 6. Leaves. 1 folder
- Series 7. Pollen. 1 folder
- Series 8. Roots. 1 folder
- Series 9. Shoots. 2 folders
- Series 10. Spines. 1 folder
- Series 11. Tendrils. 1 folder
- Series 12. Teratological Forms. 1 folder
- Series 13. Ginkgophyta. 1 folder
- Series 14. Coniferophyta. 1 folder
- Series 15. Magnoliophyta: Liliopsida/Monocots. 12 folders
- Series 16. Magnoliophyta: Magnoliopsida/Eudicots + Magnoliids. 45
folders
- Series 17. Various Materials. 9 folders
Related Material
Washington State University Libraries, Manuscripts, Archives, and Special
Collections list the following entry: Arthur Monrad Johnson Papers, ca.
1915-ca.1940. 650 items consisting of notes, drafts and drawings of Johnson's
study of the genus Saxifraga.
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this
collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Subjects
Johnson, Arthur
Monrad, 1878-
Angiosperms -- Drawings
Botanical artists --
Archives
Botanical illustration
Botany -- Drawings
Plants -- Classification
Genres and Forms
Botanical illustration
Drawings