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Guide to the Kate Sessions Collection
MS 38
MS 38
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Title: Kate Sessions Collection
Identifier/Call Number: MS 38
Contributing Institution:
San Diego History Center Document Collection
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
2.0 Linear feet
(3 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1876-1940
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 The collection contains personal diaries and correspondence, as well as scrapbooks, unpublished manuscripts and several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.
creator:
Sessions, Kate Olivia, 1857-1940
This collection is open for research.
The San Diego History Center (SDHC) holds the copyright to any unpublished materials. SDHC Library regulations do apply.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donations from multiple donors were consolidated to create this collection. Accession numbers 770928, 761217, 751219, 830105A,
2002.031, 440601, 650714 and 980404.
Kate Sessions Collection, MS 38, San Diego History Center Document Collection, San Diego, CA.
Collection processed by Katrina White on July 11, 2011.
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.
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.”
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.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Several pressed plant specimens have been separated from Sessions’ diaries and individually encapsulated. The back cover to
the book titled "Flowering Plants and Ferns: Cambridge Biological Series" is partly detached. The book titled "Dollikin Dutch"
is very fragile. (July 11, 2011)
The collection is arranged into five series:
Series I: Personal Diaries
Series II: Correspondence
Series III: Scrapbooks
Series IV: Manuscripts and Articles
Series V: Miscellanea
Items within each series are arranged by subject.
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.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Agassiz, Louis, 1807-1873
American Forestry Association.
Arnold Arboretum.
Brandegee, Townshend Stith, 1843-1925
Butterfield, H. M. (Harry Morton), b. 1887
California Academy of Sciences.
California School for the Blind.
California Theater.
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
Ebell Society.
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.
National Botanic Gardens of South Africa.
Phelps, Elizabeth Stuart, 1844-1911
Rainford, Alice N.
San Diego Business and Professional Women's Club.
San Diego Society of Natural History.
Sessions, Frank
Sessions, Kate Olivia, 1857-1940
Sessions, Milton
Shattuck, Mary
University of California, Berkeley.
Vilmorin-Andrieux et cie.
Wade's Opera House.
Wangenheim, Julius
Wark, William O.
Winchester College.
Angel Island (Calif.)
Austria
Balboa Park (San Diego, Calif.)
Berkeley (Calif.)
Bolzano (Italy : Province)
Champlain, Lake
Como, Lake (Italy)
Correspondence
Diaries
Gardening
Gibraltar, Strait of
Gravetye Manor Gardens (England)
Hawaii
Horticulture
Hudson River (N.Y. and N.J.)
Lisbon (Portugal)
London (England)
Luxembourg
Matterhorn (Switzerland and Italy)
Meyer Award
Munich (Germany)
Naples (Italy)
New York (N.Y.)
Nuremberg (Germany)
Nurseries (Horticulture)
Oakland (Calif.)
Paris (France)
Pompei (Italy)
Rome (Italy)
San Diego (Calif.)
San Francisco (Calif.)
San Jose (Calif.)
Travel
Venice (Italy)