Finding Aid to the Kate Sessions Papers LA.2010.0810.001
San Diego Natural History Museum Research Library
1788 El Prado, Balboa Park
San Diego, CA 92101
library@sdnhm.org
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.
The collection is open to researchers by appointment. Contact the Research Library Director, San Diego Natural History Museum.
Copyright may be reserved. Consult the San Diego Natural History Museum Research Library Director for more information.
[Identification of item], Kate Sessions Papers. Research Library, San Diego Natural History Museum.
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.
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.
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
Box 74
Box Inventory
36 folders and 1 scrapbook. Includes research, correspondence, drawings, news clippings, article manuscripts, speech notes.
Two bound volumes of 1879 course notes from Sessions undergraduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley. One
scrapbook (with alphabetical index tabs) of plant species notes.
Artifact Shelf
Kate Sessions Herbarium 1875
Kate Sessions Herbarium
