MAUZ, K. 2021. SUCH A FINE ASSEMBLAGE: THE JESUP COLLECTION OF NORTH AMERICAN WOODS. ARNOLDIA, 78(5-6}: 24-49 
Such a Fine Assemblage: The Jesup Collection of 
North American Woods 
Kathryn Mauz 
n May 18, 1885, an important exhibi- 
tion heralded as a “noble gift to the 
city”! opened at the American Museum 
of Natural History in New York. Beneath the 
high ceilings of the exhibition hall, glass cases 
displayed 350 specimens as the Jesup Collec- 
tion of North American Woods. Each was a 
whole log, about four and a half feet tall, still 
cloaked with bark as in life, with the upper half 
cut away to reveal the wood inside. Many of the 
specimens were accompanied by original water- 
color illustrations of foliage, fruit, and flowers. 
A writer announced of the exhibit in Harper’s 
Weekly, “The average visitor will be impressed 
and surprised by the beauty of some and by the 
extreme oddity of others.... The various col- 
oring of the woods, often rich and sometimes 
startling, and running into the most delicate 
shades, and the strength or grace or whimsi- 
cality of form, as traced in the divers/e] cours- 
ings of the grain, are matters to attract even the 
casual eye, and to stamp as absurd the hasty 
judgement which would say that a collection 
of logs can not be interesting.’ 
Over the coming years, the collection grew 
to include more than five hundred species. It 
represented the scientific and philanthropic 
vision of two noteworthy individuals: Mor- 
ris Ketchum Jesup, one of the founders of the 
American Museum of Natural History, and 
Charles Sprague Sargent, the director of the 
Arnold Arboretum. The collection remained a 
cornerstone of the museum’s exhibits for more 
than six decades. The fact that an exhibition of 
this magnitude could almost entirely vanish 
from the public memory seems almost improb- 
able. Yet, the story of its exile is as intriguing 
as that of its origins. 
A Generous Friend 
On the occasion of the Philadelphia Centennial 
Exhibition of 1876, William H. Brewer, a profes- 
sor of agricultural science at Yale University, 
observed, “America has long been described 
by geographers and naturalists as the wooded 
continent, distinguished for the luxuriance 
and extent of its forests and the number of its 
arboreal species.”* At that time, scientists were 
beginning to comprehend the vastness of North 
American forests, but popular appreciation of 
this forest wealth lagged behind. At the Exhibi- 
tion, audiences were introduced to displays of 
American woods and wood products through 
exhibits mounted by individual states and by 
the United States Department of Agriculture, 
which showcased specimens representing four 
hundred tree species from around the country.* 
Such exhibits distilled an abstract general abun- 
dance into the remarkable variety of trees that 
comprised the country’s forests. The Exhibi- 
tion’s millions of visitors vastly exceeded the 
number of people who had ever traveled across 
the country or explored its forested lands, and 
early efforts to organize around the idea of for- 
est conservation took root at that gathering. 
At the time, there was not a museum in the 
country that possessed a similar, permanent 
exhibit that could perpetuate the transient 
awe from the Centennial Exhibition into an 
enduring educational mission. In 1880, such 
an exhibit—but one even more monumental— 
became Jesup’s vision for the American Museum 
of Natural History. A forest lover himself, Jesup 
was also keenly interested in the uses of for- 
ests and, increasingly, in the roles forests played 
in the wider landscape of human settlement 
and industry. Jesup and the museum’s director, 
Facing page: The Jesup Collection of North American Woods revealed the wonder and scientific diversity of 
North American forests by showcasing wood samples from more than five hundred tree species. As one 
commentator later said, it was “a perfectly unique collection which cannot anywhere be repeated.” 
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