Some New England Trees (3.19470)
Date: 1940sCreator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Illustrations of needles and cones for two types of trees found in New England.
Header: Some New England trees inhabit the mountain tops in the Smokies
Illustrations, top to bottom:
- red spruce
- hemlock
Extent: 1 sheet
Arboretum Landscape Teaching Aid Series: An Old Bridge (3.19501)
Date: 1940 – 1960Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Primarily textual teaching aid depicting Arboretum landscape. This material describes a bridge that was left on what are now the Arboretum grounds, as well as part of the story of the Morton Arboretum's origins.
[Illustration of the bridge] Header: AN OLD BRIDGE was left behind when the HIGHWAY cut through [illustration of the highway]
Text and illustrations from top to bottom:
- [Depicted in stylized scroll] The Record: The old bridge still bears a plate with the date. It rested for many years. Now the Arboretum uses it. (but No Buses, please)
- Interpreting the record: The old bridge must have served many a surrey, and hayrack, and cattle being driven to market, and horses going to the Saturday Horse Fair at Naperville. This was the bridge that Joy Morton crossed on the day of the event described here [to the right of this text is pasted material from the May 1952 "Service Bulletin," Vol. 21, No. 2, including the front cover illustration depicting an antique vehicle and two men putting out a brush fire and partial text describing how Joy Morton found the location where he had his home Thornhill built.]
Extent: 1 sheet
Arboretum Landscape Teaching Aid Series: Know, Know, Know Your Oaks, This Is How They Grow (3.19509)
Date: 1940 – 1960Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Primarily textual teaching aid depicting Arboretum landscape. This material describes the growth direction of five types of oak tree branches. Illustrations depict small human-shaped figures that indicate tree branch growth with arms and run diagonally down the center of the image with descriptive text on either side.
Header: Know, know, know your oaks, / This is how they grow:
Text and illustrations from top to bottom:
- Red Oak, [illustration of figure with arms raised overhead] (arms held to indicate acute-angled branching)
- White Oak, [illustration of figure with arms raised to shoulders] (arms indicate right-angled branching)
- Bur Oak, [illustration of figure with arms raised to shoulder and elbows bent down] (elbows indicated gnarled branching)
- Pin Oak, [illustration of figure with arms extended at sides] (deflected lower branches)
- and Hill's, untidy below. [illustration of figure with arms raised to shoulder, elbows bent down, and fingers splayed] (fingers indicate deflected, dead, lower branches)
Extent: 1 sheet
Four Types of Hawthorns (3.24607)
Date: 1946Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Illustrations of four hawthorn species, created to accompany "Hawthorn Traits" article featured in Morton Arboretum Bulletin of Popular Information. Illustrations include full tree in winter, a leaf, and fruit for each species. Descriptive text accompanies each tree illustration.
Header: FOUR TYPES of HAWTHORNS
Trees and text depicted from left to right, top to bottom:
- Cockspur Hawthorn - Crus-galli Group - most persistent fruit, latest bloom, leathery foliage, short petioles -
- Dotted Hawthorn - Punctuate Group - flattest top, deepest veins, dotted red or yellow fruit
- Downy Hawthorn - Molles Group - largest leaves, first to bloom, first fruit to ripen, largest fruits
- Thicket Hawthorn - Pruinosae Group - thin small leaves, bronze when unfolding, twiggy growth -
Extent: 1 sheet
The Deciduous Conifers (3.24623)
Date: 1945Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Illustrations of two conifer species, created to accompany "The Evergreen Trees" article featured in Morton Arboretum Bulletin of Popular Information. Illustrations include two full trees with two illustrations of leaves underneath. The identifying text "needles in tufts drooping twigs" is glued on separate piece of paper to the surface, top right. The remaining identifying text originally adhered to the board has detached and is no longer present.
[Original header (not included with art): THE DECIDUOUS CONIFERS]
Trees depicted from left to right:
- Bald cypress -- Taxodium distichum
- European larch -- Larix descidua
Extent: 1 sheet
Forest Nature Trail Guide, page 15 illustrations and layout with preliminary sketches (3.24672)
Date: 1946Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Sheet One: Original illustrations and layout for page 15, including some 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 #44: Which oak is this one?
Text handwritten in center panel and identifying characteristics for four types of oak leaves outlined to the right - illustration in the first row is labeled "Are the lobes pointed - or - rounded," the middle row is lableled "deep - or -shallow," the bottom row is labeled "Is the surface leathery or dull".
Tree stump #45: Douglas Fir
Text handwritten in center panel and identifying characteristics for needles and cones illustrated to the right - label "long end bud" points arrow to top center of needles drawing, and label "bracts" points arrow to center left of cone drawing.
Tree stump #46: Honey Locust
Labels handwritten in center panel and identifying characteristics of leaves, thorns, and pods illustrated to the right.
Sheet Two: Preliminary sketch of green-colored illustrations.
Extent: 2 sheets
Evergreen Nature Trail Guide, page 15 illustrations and layout with preliminary sketches (3.24689)
Date: 1940sCreator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Sheet One: Original illustrations and layout for page 15, 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 #36: Balsam Fir
Illustration of cone cutout detached - see note below
Tree stump #37: We All Depend on Evergreens
Includes generalized illustrated identifying characteristics of various trees below, labeled as follows: Oak, Gum, Maple, Other hardwoods, Yellow Pines, Douglas Fir, Ponderosa pine, White pine, Hemlock, Redwood, Spruce, Cypress, Other softwoods.
Single cutout illustration depicting cone characteristics originally adhered to board has detached and is no longer present.
Sheet Two: Preliminary sketch of green-colored illustrations.
Extent: 2 sheets, 1 cutout
Trees Native To This Region (3.33823)
Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:A large illustration depicting a cross-section of hill with several types of trees growing down its slope. The trees are drawn in silhouette and are grouped into four categories based on location. Each tree is also accompanied by a line of color across the top indicating the color of its leaves in Fall as well as an outline of its leaf below.
Header:
- TREES NATIVE TO THIS REGION
- THE COLOR LINE OVER EACH TREE / INDICATES ITS CHARACTERISTIC / FALL COLORING. NATIVE TREES / GIVE US THE BEST COLOR
- TREES OF OUR UPLANDS
- witch-hazel -- white oak -- red oak -- Hill's oak -- sugar maple -- ironwood -- shadbush -- shagbark hickory -- black cherry -- blue ash -- bur oak -- white ash -- linden
- TREES of the EDGE of the FOREST
- aspen -- sumac -- choke cherry -- wild crabapple -- hawthorn -- wild plum
- TREES of our LOWLANDS
- black ash -- slippery elm -- American elm -- walnut -- hackberry -- cottonwood -- black willow -- silver maple
- TREES of our SWAMPS
- [sour gum] tupelo -- yellow birch -- tamarack -- red maple -- poison sumac
Extent: 1 sheet
Bipinnately Compound Leaf Illustration (3.85228)
Date: April 10 2020Creator: Bradley, Pat
Type: Drawing
Description:An illustration of a bipinnately compound leaf.
Extent: 1 page
An Example of Parallel Species (3.19471)
Date: 1940sCreator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Illustrations comparing two parallel species of trees, one in America and one in Europe. Illustrations depict a branch with leaves and fruit.
Header: An example of parallel species
Illustrations from left to right:
- one in southeastern America
- ironwood -- Ostrya virginiana
- one in Europe
- European hornbeam -- Ostrya carpinifolia
Extent: 1 sheet
Growth of Pond: Submerged Plant Stage (3.19492)
Date: 1940 – 1950Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Part of a series of illustrations about the stages of pond growth. This material includes an aerial view of a pond with two bays and a cross-section view of five types of submerged aquatic plants attached to pond bottom.
Header: SUBMERGED PLANT STAGE / PLANTS ATTACHED TO BOTTOM / only their flowers float on the surface
Drawings and text from top to bottom, left to right:
- Pond: sheltered bays are first to show vegetation
- CROSS-SECTION of MARGIN
- Water milfoil--Myriophyllum spicatum
- Water weed--Elodea canadensis
- Eelgrass--Vallisneria spiralis
- Pondweed--Potamogeton crispus
- Hornwort--Ceratophyllum demersum
Extent: 1 sheet
Power sprayer [graphic] / ATB. (3.24242)
Date: 1983Creator: Byrne, Anthony T.
Type: Drawing
Extent: 2 drawings : pen and ink, b&w image 22 x 22 cm., on sheet 28 x 34 cm. image 11 x 22 cm., on sheet 19 x 27 cm. + 1 photocopy, b&w 28 x 22 cm.
Trees with Flowers Borne in Clusters (3.24608)
Date: 1944Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Illustrations depicting four groups of staminate and pistillate flowers with associated outline of six 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 Flowers Borne in Clusters
Illustrations are separated into four sections, from top to bottom:
Section 1: Pistillate and Staminate Flowers on Different Trees
(depicted from left to right)
- White ash -- Fraxinus americana
- Box-elder -- Acer negundo
(depicted from left to right)
- Sugar maple -- Acer saccharum
- Silver maple -- Acer saccharinum
- Sycamore -- Platanus occidentalis
- American elm -- Ulmus americana
Extent: 1 sheet
The Cedars (3.24624)
Date: 1945Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Illustrations of two cedars, created to accompany "The Evergreen Trees" article featured in Morton Arboretum Bulletin of Popular Information. Illustrations include two full trees with illustrations of needles and fruit underneath. Identifying text originally adhered to the board has detached and is no longer present.
[Original header (not included with art): "THE CEDARS"]
Trees, needles, and fruit depicted, from left to right, top to bottom:
- Red cedar -- Juniperus virginiana (with 2 kinds of needles)
- scale-like needles with blue-gray berries
- awl-shaped needles
- Arbor Vitae or White cedar -- Thuja occidentalis (1 kind of needle)
- scale-like needles, small cones
Extent: 1 sheet
Forest Nature Trail Guide, back cover/page 16 illustrations and layout with preliminary sketches (3.24673)
Date: 1946Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Sheet One: Original illustrations and layout for back cover/page 16, for The Morton Arboretum Forest Nature Trail Guide booklet. Key lines included.
Includes a key to tree leaf characteristics. Header text "A KEY To the trees in these woods"
(first section) Leaf simple
Illustrated identifying characteristics of leaves, divided into two categories, "with lobed margin" and "with toothed margin" as labeled. Each section depicts variations in veins, lobes, and thorns
(second section) Leaf compound
Illustrated identifying characteristics of leaves, divided into two catagories, "leaves opposite" and "leaves alternate" as labeled.
Sheet Two: Preliminary sketch of green-colored illustrations.
Extent: 2 sheets
Evergreen Nature Trail Guide, back cover/page 16 illustrations and layout with preliminary sketches (3.24690)
Date: 1940sCreator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Sheet One: Original illustrations and layout for back cover/page 16, for The Morton Arboretum Evergreen Nature Trail Guide booklet. Key lines included.
Includes a key to evergreen needle characteristics. Header text "A KEY TO THE EVERGREENS ALONG THIS TRAIL"
(first section) Needles in Bundles
Includes illustrated identifying characteristics of Evergreen needles in 2's, in 3's and in 5's.
(second section) NEEDLES OVERLAPPING
Includes illustrated identifying characteristics of Evergreen needles, including those with 2 kinds of needles and with 1 kind of needle.
(third section) NEEDLES DECIDUOUS
Includes illustrated identifying characteristics of Evergreen needles, including tufts and 2-ranked.
(fourth section) NEEDLES NOT IN BUNDLES; NOT OVERLAPPING; NOT DECIDUOUS
Includes illustrated identifying characteristics of Evergreen needles, including categories "Needles flat, twigs smooth" and "Needles 4-sided, twigs rough."
Sheet Two: Preliminary sketch of green-colored illustrations.
Extent: 2 sheets
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.).