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1862
In 1862 Cornell's first president wrote that a university needs a garden
In 1862 Cornell's first president, Andrew Dickson White, wrote a colleague that a great university should include a botanical garden. At the university's opening ceremony in 1868, the naturalist Louis Agassiz remarked that no other area could compete with Cornell's surroundings for the study of natural history.
Two gorges
A conservatory in 1875 and two gorges started the gardens
When the university built its first women's dormitory in 1875, it included a conservatory for growing plants and a specimen tree collection. Cornell's farm also held two deep gorges that flanked the early campus. They stayed undeveloped, filled with native plants and wildlife, and became the start of the on-campus gardens and arboretum.
1935
In 1935 the arboretum was approved and a work camp planted it
In 1935 the decision to create an arboretum was finally made, and it became a separate department. From 1935 to 1940, the federal government's Civilian Conservation Corps Camp SP 48 devoted 170 to 200 workers to planting trees, constructing dikes and building trails to develop the Arboretum.
“...have the care and trusteeships of generation after generation”
Bristow Adams, Cornell emeritus professor, in a 1949 broadcast
Ugly Mix
Christmas tree thieves met a spray called Ugly Mix
During the 1980s people stole pines and firs for Christmas trees, in some cases trees worth several thousand dollars. The countermeasure, created by Gerardo Sciarra at the Plantations, was a harmless but visually unpleasant spray called "Ugly Mix": hydrated limestone, an anti-desiccant and water. The technique was later recommended to others worried about tree theft.
A new name
The Plantations became Cornell Botanic Gardens in 2016
Liberty Hyde Bailey proposed the name Cornell Plantations in 1944, and by 1948 it numbered 1,000 acres. By the 2010s the name was proving problematic, because of the association of the word with plantations in the American South and slavery. In 2015 the Black Students United organization demanded a change. Cornell Botanic Gardens was chosen as the new name in 2016.
Day 2, midday
It comes after Taughannock Falls. Then Robert H. Treman State Park.
More stories from this trip idea
The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article Cornell Botanic Gardens, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.