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Table of contents What's This?
  • Conditions Governing Access
  • Conditions Governing Use
  • Preferred Citation
  • Scope and Contents
  • Biographical / Historical
  • Processing Information

  • Language of Material: English
    Contributing Institution: San Diego Natural History Museum Research Library
    Title: Kate Sessions Papers
    creator: Sessions, Kate Olivia, 1857-1940
    Identifier/Call Number: LA.2010.0810.001
    Physical Description: 1 Linear Feet
    Date (inclusive): 1879-1940
    Abstract: The Kate Sessions Papers contain one box of archival material, mostly manuscript notes, drafts, and typescripts relating to horticulture and landscaping. Includes notebooks, news clippings, and a small amount of correspondence.

    Conditions Governing Access

    The collection is open to researchers by appointment. Contact the Research Library Director, San Diego Natural History Museum.

    Conditions Governing Use

    Copyright may be reserved. Consult the San Diego Natural History Museum Research Library Director for more information.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item], Kate Sessions Papers. Research Library, San Diego Natural History Museum.

    Scope and Contents

    The collection consists of 36 folders and 1 scrapbook. Includes two volumes of class notes from Sessions 1879 undergraduate courses at the University of California, Berkeley. Correspondence with botanists, including Alice Eastwood.

    Biographical / Historical

    Kate Sessions was a horticulturalist and landscape architect. Born Katherine Olivia Sessions in San Francisco, California on November 8, 1857, she attended the University of California, Berkeley (A.B. 1881), and moved to San Diego, teaching briefly at the Russ School before purchasing a nursery in 1885. She contracted with the city of San Diego to lease property in Balboa Park in exchange for tree planting in the park, ultimately becoming known as the "Mother of Balboa Park." She co-founded (with Alfred D. Robinson) the San Diego Floral Association in 1907. Sessions died on March 24, 1940 in San Diego.

    Processing Information

    This is an unprocessed collection in the archives of the San Diego Natural History Museum Research Library; not all of the contents of this collection have been fully inventoried.

    Subjects and Indexing Terms

    Botany -- California
    Horticulture
    Horticulture -- California -- San Diego County
    Landscape gardening