Three Trees Whose Relatives Are Largely In the Tropics (3.19472)
Date: 1940sCreator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Illustrations of three types of leaves layered one on top of the other.
Text at center left: Three trees whose relatives are largely in the tropics
Illustrations from center outward:
- Silver Bell
- Fringe Tree
- Paw-paw
Extent: 1 sheet
Arboretum Landscape Teaching Aid Series: Cut-Over and Grazed Land (3.19502)
Date: 1940 – 1960Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Primarily textual teaching aid depicting Arboretum landscape. This material describes the grazed and cut-over land that was added to the Arboretum, including the effects of fencing out cattle.
[Illustration of a tree stump] Header: CUT-OVER AND GRAZED LAND was added to the Arboretum in 1910 [image of a cow's head with its tongue out]
Text and illustrations from top to bottom:
- [Depicted in stylized scroll] THE RECORD:
- 1. No big trees in this area [illustration of a tree with a large red "X" over it]
- 2. Many stump sprouts [sketch of stump sprouts]
- 3. Many aspens and big-toothed poplars [sketch of aspens and poplars]
- 4. Young oaks, many of the same age [sketch of oaks]
- INTERPRETATION of THE RECORD:
- 1. Aspens and big-toothed poplars grow in sunny places.
- 2. The even age oaks show by their annual rings that they started growing on the year that the Arboretum fenced cows from this area.
- 3. The wild flowers have returned steadily to this area. There was only thistles, milkweed, dandelions, and other tough ones, there when the cattle were fenced out. Now there are trilliums, spring beauties, blood-root, may-apple, and many, many, others.
Extent: 1 sheet
Arboretum Landscape Teaching Aid Series: Forest Met Prairie (3.19510)
Date: 1940 – 1960Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Primarily textual teaching aid depicting Arboretum landscape. This material is depicted in the shape of a bur oak leaf. It describes how a line of bur oaks indicates where the climax forest and climax prairie met.
Header: FOREST met PRAIRIE [illustration of grass and trees]
Text and illustrations from top to bottom:
- The Record
- 1. a curving line of bur oaks
- 2. the heavy corky bark of the bur oaks, in comparison with bark of red oak.
- 3. the change in soil profiles at edge of oaks this [illustration of soil] to this [illustration of darker soil]
- Interpreting the Record
- 1) Because bur oaks, with their corky bark were best able to withstand the fires that swept the prairies (often set by Indians) and
- 2) because bur oaks are best at withstanding dry prairie winds
- 3) because bur oaks are seldom found in the heart of the woods
- We Read that: this line of bur oaks marks the place where the climax forest met the prairie climax
Extent: 1 sheet
Through a Magnifying Glass (3.24609)
Date: 1944Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Illustrations of lichens, flowers, buds, leaves, twigs, and seeds of various plants, created to accompany "Through A Magnifying Glass" article featured in Morton Arboretum Bulletin of Popular Information. Includes descriptive text next to each plant image.
Plants depicted in three sections, from left to right, top to bottom:
Section 1: There are lichens in the spruce plot,
- Pixie cups -- Cladonia chlorophaea
- British soldiers -- Cladonia cristatella
- Awl lichen -- Cladonia coniocraea
- Vernal Witch hazel -- Hamamelis vernalis
- A magnolia bud wears deep velvet
- The persistent leaves of bayberry are copper and rose underneath, set with amber globules
- Butternut buds wear camels' faces
- Birch seeds and the scales of their cones play several variations on the same theme, including European white, gray, cherry, and river
- Queen Anne's lace has design in its "bird-nest" seed heads
- Spore capsules of mosses show many patterns. This one is Funaria hygrometrica, with a seta that twists and untwists with changing humidity
- A buckeye bud may reveal a flower cluster and several leaves
Extent: 1 sheet
The First Flowers of Spring (3.24625)
Date: 1945Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Illustrations of Hazel and Skunk Cabbage with identifying text, created to accompany "The First Flowers Of Spring" article featured in Morton Arboretum Bulletin of Popular Information. Illustrations depict flower parts, including bracts, style, ovary, staminate catkins, spadix, spathe, stigma, and hooded sepal, with smaller illustrations of other members of the arum family.
Header: The First Flowers of Spring
Plants depicted from top to bottom:
- Hazel -- Corylus americana
- Skunk Cabbage -- Symplocarpus foetidus
- Other members of the Arum Family (from left to right) --
- Calla lily
- Jack-in-the Pulpit
- Green dragon
- Sweet flag
- Water arum
Extent: 1 sheet
Forest Nature Trail Guide, front cover/page 1 illustrations and layout w/ preliminary sketches (3.24651)
Date: 1946Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Sheet 1: Original illustrations and layout for the front cover/page 1 of The Morton Arboretum Forest Nature Trail Guide booklet. Key lines included.
Illustrated map of trail area depicting foot path through native forest and the meadow. Text "FOREST NATURE TRAIL STARTS HERE" points arrow to beginning of Forest Nature Trail on map near Parking 10. Meadow Road, Forest Road, and Ash Collection identified in map for reference to trail location on grounds.
Sheet 2: Sheet Two: Preliminary sketch of green-colored illustrations.
Extent: 2 sheets
Evergreen Nature Trail Guide, front cover/page 1 illustrations and layout w/ preliminary sketch page (3.24675)
Date: 1940sCreator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Sheet 1: Original illustrations and layout for the front cover/page 1 of The Morton Arboretum Evergreen Nature Trail Guide booklet. Key lines included.
Illustrated map of trail area. Stylized evergreen trees below map.
Sheet 2: Preliminary sketch page (no sketches), "green" written in top right corner.
Extent: 2 sheets
Twelve Oaks (3.24795)
Date: 1944Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Illustration of leaf, acorn, and twigs with buds for twelve different types of oak, created to accompany "The Oaks Of The Morton Arboretum" article featured in Morton Arboretum Bulletin of Popular Information. Drawings are divided into two categories and depicted in columns with descriptive text.
Header: TWELVE OAKS
Leaves, acorns, and twigs as depicted in two categories, from left to right, top to bottom:
Category 1: The Black Oak Group
- Eastern Red Oak - Quercus borealis
- leaf - dull above, glabrous beneath, lobes narrowing toward margin, sinuses about half-way to mid-rib.
- acorn - shallow cup, saucer-shaped, with glossy tight scales, white kernel
- twig with buds - buds red brown, not angled; twigs red-brown, smooth
- Northern Pin - Quercus ellipsoidalis
- leaf - lustrous, deeply lobed, lobes widening toward margin, base truncate or broad-cunate, 5 to 7 lobed
- acorn - top-shaped cup, enclosing half of nut, yellow kernel
- twig with buds - buds red-brown, obtuse at tip; twigs red-brown
- Black - Quercus velutina
- leaf - leathery, thick, petioles yellow, sinuses varying from shallow to deep
- acorn - bowl-like cup, scales form fringe at margin, yellow kernel
- twig with bids - buds pale woolly, strongly 5-sided; twigs red-brown, lenticels conspicuous
- Pin - Quercus palustris
- leaf - thin, lustrous, 5 to 7 lobed, few-toothed, slender petioles, base cuneate
- acorn - saucer-shaped cup, scales with free tips, nut often striped
- twigs with buds - side buds at wide angle; twigs red-brown, smooth
- Shingle - Quercus imbricaria
- leaf - lustrous above, pubescent below, persistent in Winter
- acorn - stalked cup, bowl-like, thin
- twig with buds - buds brown smooth; twigs smooth, gray-brown
- Willow - Quercus phellos
- leaf - lustrous, nearly sessile, acute at both ends
- acorn - talked cup, shallow, thin
- twig with buds - buds brown; twigs fine
- White - Quercus alba
- leaf - glabrous, with deep sinuses, often persistent in winter
- acorn - bowl-like cup, with thickened warty scales, nut edible
- twig with buds - buds red-brown, smooth; twigs red-brown, later ashy-gray; lenticels pale, conspicuous
- Bur - Quercus macrocarpa
- leaf - usually with "wasp-waist" - thick, smooth above, pale-pubescent beneath
- acorn - cup fringed, covering half or more of nut, larger in South
- twig with buds - buds pale-woolly, gray-tan; twigs gray, later corky-ridged
- English - Quercus robur
- leaf - auricled base, nearly sessile
- acorn - cup enclosing 1/4 to 1/3 of nut, long-stemmed
- twig with buds - buds, brown; side buds divergent; twigs brown
- Chinquapin - Quercus muehlenbergii
- leaf - thick, shiny above, pubescent beneath, somewhat sharply-toothed, rounded base, slender petiole
- acorn - cup bowl-shaped, thin, scales indistinct
- twig with buds - buds chestnut-brown; twigs orange-brown
- Basket - Quercus michauxii
- leaf - crenate margin, pale-pubescent beneath, cunate base, 10 to 14 pairs of teeth
- acorn - cup bowl-shaped, thickened, scales wedge-shaped
- twig with buds - buds chestnut-brown, twigs orange-brown
- Swamp White - Quercus bicolor
- leaf - thick, firm, coarsely-toothed, shining above, pale-fomentose beneath, 6 to 10 pairs of teeth, often persistent in winter
- acorn - usually paired, cup bowl-shaped, slightly-fringed, long-stalked
- twigs with buds - buds brown; twigs yellow-brown, with pale, raised lenticels
Extent: 1 sheet
A Bur Oak Twig (3.19473)
Date: 1940sCreator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Detailed illustration of a single bur oak twig with identifying text.
Text: a bur oak twig
Extent: 1 sheet
Winter Buds, #1 (3.19511)
Date: 1940 – 1950Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Large poster depicting 16 types of winter buds, bound in green tape.
Illustrations and text, from left to right, top to bottom:
- white ash
- black ash
- blue ash
- red ash
- sugar maple
- Norway maple
- silver maple
- box-elder
- horse-chestnut
- ohio buckeye
- flowering dogwood
- catalpa
- ironwood
- gray birch
- European white birch
- European alder
Extent: 1 sheet
Trees with Staminate Flowers, Only, in Catkins (3.24610)
Date: 1944Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Illustrations depicting pistillate and staminate flowers, staminate catkins, fruits, and associated outline of four trees, created to accompany "The Flowers Nobody Knows" article featured in Morton Arboretum Bulletin of Popular Information. Descriptive text identifies coloring, anatomy, and bloom time.
Header: Trees with Staminate Flowers, Only, in Catkins
(depicted from left to right, top to bottom)
- Black walnut -- Juglans nigra
- Shagbark hickory -- Carya ovata
- White oak -- Quercus alba
- Ginkgo -- Ginkgo biloba
Extent: 1 sheet
Fragrance and Flavor in Leaf, Bark, Twig, and Fruit (3.24626)
Date: 1943Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Illustrations of variety of leaves, buds, plant habits and bark, created to accompany " Fragrance and Flavor in Leaf, Bark, Twig, and Fruit" article featured in Morton Arboretum Bulletin of Popular Information. Includes identifying illustrations of source trees and identifying text in pen and ink.
Divided into five sections, from top to bottom, left to right:
1) FRAGRANCE IN BRUISED LEAVES
- Sweetbriar - fragrance of green apple sauce
- Sweet shrub - scent of strawberries
- Fragrant sumac - aromatic with a trace of lemon
- Bayberry - aromatic with a hint of balsam
- Mother-of-thyme - fragrant, with a suggestion of new lumber
- Jeffrey pine - a sharp tang of orange peel
- Arbor vitae - in hot sun a smell of "wild strawberries with a hint of resin" - Wilder
- Balsam fir - aromatic and spicy
- Sweet cicely - odor of anise, or licorice
- Sassafras - "fragrance of lemon and a thousand spices" - Thoreau
- Sweet bay - a culinary fragrance reminiscent of soups and stews
- Spice-bush - smooth aroma of mingled spices
- Hay-scented fern - fragrance of new-mown hay
- Sweet fern - resinous and spicy
- Southernwood - smooth sweet fragrance
- Chaste tree - mint with a hint of spice
- Cherry birch - cool, smooth flavor of wintergreen
- Yellow birch - mild taste of wintergreen
- Black cherry - taste of bitter almond
- Slippery elm - inner bark pleasantly mucilaginous
- Juniper - a pleasant aromatic taste
- Sumac - a berry on the tongue gives a taste of "Indian lemonade"
- Balm of gilead - resinous and strongly aromatic
- Flowering quince - good to put in a pocket, or with hankerchiefs
Extent: 1 sheet
Forest Nature Trail Guide, page 2 illustrations and layout with preliminary sketches (3.24652)
Date: 1946Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Sheet One: Original illustrations and layout for page 2, excluding text, for The Morton Arboretum Forest Nature Trail Guide booklet. Key lines included.
Introductory page to trail guide, including map of the trail's location on Arboretum grounds near parking lot 10 (changed in later printing to parking lot 28). Map header text "LOCATION OF FOREST NATURE TRAIL in the Arboretum" points arrow to Forest Nature Trail on map. Thornhill Building, Administration Building, Simonds Rd., and Forest Rd. identified in map for reference to trail location on grounds.
Map identifies 2 other trails in the Arboretum:
- The Thornhill Trail - identified by circles located near Thornhill Building
- The Evergreen Trail - identified by crosses in far left section of the map
Sheet Three: Preliminary sketch of green-colored map.
Extent: 3 sheets
Evergreen Nature Trail Guide, page 2 illustrations and layout with preliminary sketches (3.24676)
Date: 1940sCreator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Sheet One: Original illustrations and layout for page 2 (inside front cover), excluding text, for The Morton Arboretum Evergreen Nature Trail Guide booklet. Key lines included.
Introductory page to trail guide, including map of the trail's location on Arboretum grounds near parking lot 2. Map header text "LOCATION OF EVERGREEN NATURE TRAIL in the Arboretum" points arrow to Evergreen Nature Trail on map. Thornhill Building and Administration Building identified in map for reference to trail location on grounds.
Map also identifies 2 other trails in the Arboretum:
Thornhill Trail - identified by circles located near Thornhill Building
Forest Trail - identified by crosses in far right section of the map
Sheet Two: Preliminary sketch of green-colored map with page number and various ink lines.
Extent: 2 sheets
Oaks of the Arboretum (3.24796)
Date: 1944Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Illustrations of five species of oak, created to accompany "The Oaks of The Morton Arboretum" article featured in Morton Arboretum Bulletin of Popular Information. Illustrations include full tree outline in winter. Each oak is accompanied with descriptive text including its scientific name, soil requirements, branch, and bark descriptions.
Trees and text depicted from left to right, top to bottom:
- Eastern Red Oak -- Quercus borealis maxima
- smooth upper parts; acute-angled branching, dark ridged bark, on well-drained upland
- Pin Oak -- Quercus palustris
- straight central shaft; payramidal shape; short spur-like twigs; dark ridged bark; in moist lowland
- Northern Pin Oak -- Quercus ellipsoidalis
- smooth upper parts; leaves persistent in winter; deflected dead lower branches; on well-drained upland
- White Oak -- Quercus alba
- horizontal branching; leaves persistent in winter; scaly whitish bark; on well-drained upland
- Bur Oak -- Quercus macrocarpa
- gnarled branches; corky ridges; gray, ridged bark; on rich bottom-land
Extent: 1 sheet
Four Plants Whose Relatives Are In Eastern Asia (3.19474)
Date: 1940sCreator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Illustrations of leaves of four types of plants, including two with flowers.
Upper left text: Four plants whose relatives are in eastern Asia
Plants depicted, from left to right:
- tulip tree
- sweet gum
- Jeffersonia
- May apple
Extent: 1 sheet
Arboretum Landscape Teaching Aid Series: Affirmation from Memories of Old Settlers, Part I (3.19503)
Date: 1940 – 1960Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Primarily textual teaching aid depicting Arboretum landscape. This material is depicted in the shape of a head, including sketches of eyes, a nose, and mouth. It describes the childhood memories of an early settler who recalls that a teepee may have been constructed in the area at one time.
Header: Affirmation from memories of old settlers
Text from top to bottom:
- One early settler tells us that, when he was a boy, his father pointed out to him a circular depression that had been made for drainage around a tepee.
Extent: 1 sheet
Winter Buds, #2 (3.19512)
Date: 1940 – 1950Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Large poster depicting 12 types of winter buds, bound in green tape.
Illustrations and text, from left to right, top to bottom:
- bitternut hickory
- witch-hazel
- shadbush
- beech
- black walnut
- butternut
- sassafras
- shagbark hickory
- linden
- mountain ash
- sour gum
- silver poplar
Extent: 1 sheet
Floral forms in historic design : mainly from objects in the Victoria & Albert museum, but including examples from designs by William Morris and C.F.A. Voysey / selected and drawn by Lindsay P. Butterfield with preface and descriptive notes by W.G. Paulson Townsend. (3.24052)
Date: 1922Creator: Butterfield, Lindsay P.
Type: Drawing
Extent: 18 photomechanical prints : collotype, b&w image 37 x 27 cm., on sheet 49 x 36 cm. and image 27 x 37 cm., on sheet 36 x 49 cm. + 1 portfolio (50 x 37 cm.).
Our Native Maples (3.24611)
Date: 1944Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Illustrations of four species of maple, created to accompany "The Maples of The Morton Arboretum" article featured in Morton Arboretum Bulletin of Popular Information. Drawings show tree shape, including top, twigs, branches, size, winged seeds, and leaves. Descriptive text gives details of tree structure (branching, bark, and trunk), habitat, seed ripening schedule, and leaf details including color and sinus structure. Red maple seeds illustration is a cut out piece glued in place.
Illustrations depicted from top to bottom, left to right:
- Sugar maple -- Acer saccharum
- tree - round top; dark smooth on young branches; right-angled branching; sap-sucker holes; stone-gray bark with thick plates loose along one edge; upland
- seeds - ripe in September-October
- leaf - smooth, thin, yellow in Fall
- Silver maple -- Acer saccharinum
- tree - broad top; smooth gray young branches; branches bend downward with tips turning upward; long loose scales on bark; trunk often divides near ground; lowland
- seeds - ripe in May
- leaf - silvery beneath; acute, deep sinuses
- Red maple -- Acer rubrum
- tree - pale gray upper branches; red twigs; dark gray bark; swamp, river-bottom, upland
- seeds - ripe in May-June
- leaf - silvery beneath, V-shaped sinuses, scarlet in Fall
- Box-elder -- Acer negundo
- tree - small tree; bushy spreading top, purplish twigs, bark with narrow shallow ridges; river bottoms
- seeds - ripe in summer; hangs on a winter
- leaf - prominent veins; 3 to 7 leaflets
Extent: 1 sheet
Winter Twigs, page 1 (3.24627)
Date: 1943Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Page 1 of 4, illustrations showing identifying characteristics of different types of winter twigs, created to accompany "Winter Twigs" article featured in Morton Arboretum Bulletin of Popular Information. Illustrations include those with distinctive leaf scars, buds, and pith. Original identifying text has detached.
Illustrations are divided into three sections, depicted from top to bottom, left to right:
1) [Original text] SOME HAVE DISTINCTIVE LEAF SCARS
- Black walnut
- Butternut
- Catalpa
- Maple
- Sycamore
- Sumac
- Ash
- Flowering dogwood
- Beech
- Willow
- Oak
- Linden
- Alder
- Tulip [tree]
3) [Orignial text] SOME HAVE DISTINCTIVE PITH
- Black walnut
- Butternut
- Hackberry
- Tulip [tree]
- Kentucky coffee tree
- Oak
- Alder
Extent: 1 sheet
Forest Nature Trail Guide, page 3 illustrations and layout with preliminary sketches (3.24653)
Date: 1946Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Sheet One: Original illustrations and layout for page 3, excluding text, for The Morton Arboretum Forest Nature Trail Guide booklet. Key lines included.
Illustrated stumps with numbers indicate points of interest along trail as seen on trail map.
Tree stump #1: Four Kinds of Oaks
Identifying characteristics for oak trees and leaves illustrated to the right for Bur Oak, White Oak, Red Oak, Northern Pin Oak.
Tree stump #2: A Limestone Boulder
Identifying characteristics for trilobites and crinoids illustrated to the right.
Tree stump #3: A Granite Boulder
Identifying characteristics for granite boulder illustrated to the right.
Tree stump #4: Wild Black Raspberries
Identifying characteristics for wild black raspberries leaves, stem, flower, and fruit illustrated to the right.
Sheet Two: Preliminary sketch of green-colored illustrations.
Extent: 2 sheets
Evergreen Nature Trail Guide, page 3 illustrations and layout (3.24677)
Date: 1940sCreator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Original illustrations and layout for page 3, excluding text, for The Morton Arboretum Evergreen Nature Trail Guide booklet. Key lines included.
Illustrated stumps with numbers indicate points of interest along trail as seen on trail map.
Tree stump #1: The Ancestry of Evergreens
Tree stump #2: Firs and Spruces
Identifying characteristics for needles and cones illustrated in columns below.
No preliminary sketches available for page 3.
Extent: 1 sheet
Two Cattails (3.19475)
Date: 1940sCreator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Illustrations of two cattails with identifying text. Graphite sketches of the plants are visible at each image.
Drawings as depicted from left to right:
- cattail with pistils and stamens identified
- cattail with seeds identified
Extent: 1 sheet
Winter Buds, #3 (3.19513)
Date: 1940 – 1950Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Large poster depicting 16 types of winter buds, bound in green tape.
Illustrations and text, from left to right, top to bottom:
- honey locust
- black locust
- Osage orange
- hawthorn
- wild crab
- wild plum
- European larch
- ginkgo
- red oak
- white oak
- tulip tree
- sycamore
- Kentucky coffeetree
- tree of heaven
- staghorn sumac
- willow
Extent: 1 sheet
Calligraphy [graphic] : Shakespeare quote. (3.24246)
Date: 1964 – 1965Creator: Chirpe, Rodney.
Type: Drawing
Extent: 1 drawing : pen and ink, b&w 36 x 69 cm.
Maples from Europe and Asia (3.24612)
Date: 1944Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Illustrations of five species of maple, created to accompany "The Maples of The Morton Arboretum" article featured in Morton Arboretum Bulletin of Popular Information. Drawings show tree shape, including top, twigs, branches, and size, winged seeds, and leaves. Descriptive text gives details of tree structure (branching, bark, and trunk), habitat, seed ripening schedule, and leaf details including color and sinus structure.
Illustrations depicted from top to bottom:
- Norway maple -- Acer platanoides
- round top; twigs green-brown; from Europe, Caucasia; ripe in Fall; green on both sides; broad; rounded sinuses; 7-lobed; pale yellow in Fall; milky juice
- Sycamore maple -- Acer pseudoplatanus
- spreading top; from Europe, W. Asia; bark scales off in thin flakes; ripe in Fall; hanging in clusters like grapes; toothed margin; green on both sides; acute sinuses
- Amur maple -- Acer ginnala
- shrub to small tree; slender smooth branches; from China, Japan; ripe in late summer, red; long central lobe; toothed margin; yellow, orange, red in Fall
- Hedge maple -- Acer campestre
- shrub to small tree; from Europe, W. Asia; flattened nutlet; ripe in Fall; not toothed; milky juice
- Japanese maple -- Acer palmatum
- shrub; from Korea, Japan; ripe in Fall; usually red in Spring fading to green; 5 to 9 lobed
Extent: 1 sheet
Spruce Cones (3.24628)
Date: 1943Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Illustration of 3 spruce cones, 2 false cypress cones, 3 fir cones, and 4 larch cones, created to accompany "The Cones of The Arboretum" article featured in Morton Arboretum Bulletin of Popular Information. Identifying text originally adhered to board has detached and is no longer present.
Pine cones depicted, from left to right, top to bottom:
[Original header (not included with art): SPRUCE CONES are pendent, thin scaled]
- Norway spruce -- Picea abies
- Colorado spruce -- Picea pungens
- White spruce -- Picea glauca
- White cedar false cypress -- Chamaecyparis thyoides
- Sawara false cypress -- Chamaecyparis pisifera
- Douglas fir -- Pseudotsuga taxifolia
- Balsam fir -- Abies balsamea
- White fir -- Abies concolor
- European larch -- Larix decidua
- Tamarack -- Larix laricina
- Arbor vitae -- Thuja occidentalis
- Canada hemlock -- Tsuga canadensis
Extent: 1 sheet
Forest Nature Trail Guide, page 4 illustrations and layout (3.24654)
Date: 1946Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Original illustrations and layout for page 4, excluding text, for The Morton Arboretum Forest Nature Trail Guide booklet. Key lines included.
Illustrated stump with number indicates point of interest along trail as seen on trail map.
Tree stump #5: description of geological events in the area over time
Includes a graph illustrating a cross-section of 8 geological layers in a center column, numbered 0 - 4400 along the right, and labeled along the left as follows, read from bottom to top -
1) granite
2) Cambrian sandstone 1900' thick
3) sandy limestone
4) St. Peter sandstone 150' thick
5) Galena limestone 240' thick
6) shale
7) Niagara limestone 350' thick
8) glacial drift
Extent: 1 sheet
Evergreen Nature Trail Guide, page 4 illustrations and layout with preliminary sketches (3.24678)
Date: 1940sCreator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Sheet One: Original illustrations and layout for page 4, excluding text, for The Morton Arboretum Evergreen Nature Trail Guide booklet. Key lines included.
Illustrated stumps with numbers indicate points of interest along trail as seen on trail map.
Tree stump #3: Colorado Green Spruce
Includes generalized identifying characteristics of tree illustrated below.
Tree stump #4: Norway Spruce
Includes generalized identifying characteristics of tree illustrated below.
Tree stump #5: Colorado Blue Spruce
Tree stump #6: White Spruce
Includes generalized identifying characteristics of tree illustrated below.
Several cutout illustrations depicting needle/cone characteristics originally adhered to board have detached and are no longer present. One detached cutout illustration of Colorado Green Spruce needles housed with art.
Sheet Two: Preliminary sketch of green-colored illustrations.
Extent: 2 sheets, 1 cutout
Shortia Galacifolia, Oconee Bells (3.19476)
Date: 1940sCreator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Illustration of Oconee bells plant with identifying text, depicting leaves, five flowers, and one bud. Writing in graphite underneath includes identifying text.
Text: Shortia galacifolia - Oconee bells
Extent: 1 sheet
Arboretum Landscape Teaching Aid Series: The Great Ice Sheet (3.19496)
Date: 1940 – 1960Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Primarily textual teaching aid depicting Arboretum landscape. This material shows how the Arboretum Hills were pushed from Canada and Wisconsin.
Header: THE GREAT ICE SHEET brought THE ARBORETUM HILLS from Canada to Wisconsin
Text and illustrations from top to bottom:
- [Depicted in stylized scroll with an illustration of a body of water between two hills] The Record: The Arboretum hills are made of unsorted clay, sand, gravel and boulders.
- Interpreting the record:
- 1) Ice-deposited material is an unsorted material [arrow pointing right to illustration of ice-deposited material] Water-deposited material is sorted into layers [arrow pointing right to illustration of water-deposited material] The Arboretum hills are made of material dumped by the melting ice.
- 2) Granite boulders are found in this material. No granite bed-rock is found within 200 miles of here.
- 3) Rocks frozen into a glacier are flattened and scratched like this [arrow pointing left to illustration of a rock] (see rock at end of table) Water-borne rocks are rounded and smoothed.
Extent: 1 sheet
Arboretum Landscape Teaching Aid Series: Affirmation from Memories of Old Settlers, Part II (3.19504)
Date: 1940 – 1960Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Primarily textual teaching aid depicting Arboretum landscape. This material is depicted in the shape of a head, including sketches of eyes, a nose, and mouth. It describes the childhood memories of an early settler who recalls pulling up stumps to help create pasture as a boy.
Header: Affirmation from memories of old settlers
Text from top to bottom:
- Mr Henry Schwarz recalls helping, as a boy, to grub out stumps here to make pasture. He says "The stumps were Big and Close"
Extent: 1 sheet
Cedar Apple Rust: On Red Cedar and Hawthorn (3.19516)
Date: 1940sCreator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Informational text about the fungal disease known as cedar apple rust and its effect on Red cedar and Hawthorn trees. Text also includes information regarding laws enacted to prevent damage to apple orchards.
Text as depicted, from top to bottom:
- ON RED CEDAR
- AFFECTED TISSUES EVENTUALLY DIE, LEAVING DEAD AREAS WHERE WOOD-DECAYING FUNGI MAY ENTER.
- ON HAWTHORN
- ACTIVE LEAF SURFACE IS SERIOUSLY REDUCED........
- IF INFECTION IS HEAVY EXTENSIVE DEFOLIATION MAY OCCUR......................
- SEVERAL STATES HAVE ENACTED LAWS REQUIRING THE CUTTING OF RED CEDARS TO PREVENT INJURY TO APPLE ORCHARDS.
Extent: 1 sheet
From a Summer Meadow (3.24613)
Date: 1945Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Illustrations of various meadow leaves, seeds, and flowers with descriptive text next to each image, created to accompany "Let's Look At A Meadow" article featured in Morton Arboretum Bulletin of Popular Information.
Header: From A Summer Meadow
Illustrations are divided into three sections, from top to bottom:
Section 1 - LEAVES with protection (depicted from left to right)
- from a too thristy sun
- Queen Anne's lace - reduced surface
- Prickly lettuce - compass habit
- Milkweed - milky juice
- Mullein (overlapped in next section) - felty covering
- from hungry cattle
- Mullein (overlapped in previous section) - felty covering
- Yarrow - bitter taste
- Thistle - spines
- by air
- Milkweed
- Fleabane
- Goatsbeard
- Thistle
- Dandelion
- by fur
- Barbs of grasses (enlarged)
- Spanish needle
- Cocklebur
- Burdock
- Aster
- Fleabane
- Brown-eyed susan
- Chicory
- Sneezeweed
Extent: 1 sheet
Pine Cones (3.24629)
Date: 1943Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Illustration of nine pine cones, created to accompany "The Cones Of The Arboretum" article featured in Morton Arboretum Bulletin of Popular Information. Identifying text originally adhered to board have detached and are no longer present.
[Original header (not included with art): PINE CONES have scales with thickened tips; mature in 2 years]
Pine cones depicted, from left to right, top to bottom:
- Eastern white pine -- Pinus strobus
- Limber pine -- Pinus flexilis
- Red pine -- Pinus resinosa
- Scotch pine -- Pinus sylvestris
- Ponderosa pine -- Pinus ponderosa
- Austrian pine -- Pinus nigra
- Jack pine -- Pinus banksiana
- Japanese red pine -- Pinus densiflora
- Pitch pine -- Pinus rigida
Extent: 1 sheet