scientific value in your mind when consider- 
ing this collection. They cannot safely be sepa- 
rated. And it is because I have always refused to 
do this in the treatment of the matter that the 
collection is what it is, the best of its kind.”?° 
Bickmore and Jesup at the museum recognized 
that ceding some control to Sargent (and absorb- 
ing additional expense) was necessary both to 
achieving that goal and to maintaining goodwill 
in general.?! 
Nearly two decades after the project’s incep- 
tion, as he and Jesup revisited this same familiar 
disagreement in 1899, Sargent argued, “It should 
contain every tree described and illustrated in 
my Silva of North America.”** Although their 
differences in philosophy did not entirely fade 
over time, Jesup grudgingly found himself obli- 
gated to continue to subsidize these missions— 
well into the 1890s and, for a few species, even 
past the turn of the century—trather than risk 
the appearance of incompleteness once so many 
others had been gathered. Early on he remarked 
to Sargent, “To have our museum contain that 
which cannot be found at any other will fully 
compensate me for the cost.”?° 
A Grand Showing 
Unlike the small blocks of wood Sargent pre- 
pared for his census investigations” or the short 
logs cut lengthwise for display at the Centen- 
nial Exhibition, the museum’s specimens were 
to be whole logs, over five feet long when col- 
lected, and of such diameters as necessary (from 
a few inches to three feet or more) to represent 
the best-grown examples of the trees. Collec- 
tors routinely shipped thousands of pounds of 
specimens at once, where certain individual 
logs could weigh hundreds of pounds when 
freshly cut. At the outset, Sargent anticipated 
that about four hundred species would need 
to be assembled, but that number increased by 
another one hundred or more over time. 
Within the year, Bickmore reported to Sar- 
gent, “We have been frequently receiving the 
magnificent series of logs your agents have 
gathered until they make a grand showing in the 
cellar.”?° After the first full year of fieldwork, 
nearly three hundred were in various states of 
preparation at the museum, with more arriv- 
ing by the month.”° Incoming shipments were 
Jesup Collection 29 
Ta ul 
initially delivered to the museum’s “new build- 
ing” (opened in December 18772’) on Manhat- 
tan Square, west of Central Park. When space 
became limited, the logs were directed instead 
to the historical Arsenal building, where the 
museums collections were originally housed, 
near the eastern boundary of the park. 
When the logs were prepared in the field, col- 
lectors were careful to wrap each one in burlap 
or other “bagging” material, sometimes also 
in rawhide, and to construct crates in which 
the log could be shipped with ample padding to 
preserve the bark intact. Once at the museum’s 
workshop, they underwent a lengthy process 
of preparation for eventual display. Because 
the logs were shipped “green” and were full of 
moisture, the primary concern was for drying 
them carefully to prevent “checking” or split- 
ting that would ruin them for display. Bick- 
more himself devised a method of boring holes 
into the bottom of a log to allow the wood to 
“season” or dry out more evenly.?*® Bickmore 
notified Sargent further, “We have a fire under 
the boilers in the cellar constantly so that that 
is probably the driest room in the building, and 
the heat is gentle & slow and I believe particu- 
larly well adapted to preparing the fine logs that 
are now coming in, and I think there will be no 
necessity of having the specimens kiln dried, 
unless you have reason to suspect they contain 
destructive larvae.’ It was estimated that logs 
could lose up to half their weight in drying, 
and that thorough seasoning could sometimes 
require one or two years.°*" 
Following the drying process, the logs were 
cut to a uniform fifty-six inches in height; the 
upper twenty-four inches was sawn longitudi- 
nally in half, and the top edge of the cut end 
was beveled, resulting in the grain of the wood 
being exposed in three directions. Finally, one 
half of the cut surface was finished with var- 
nish to provide a clear view of the grain. Sargent 
requested that a diagram be made of each log to 
show the pattern of the bark, the widths of the 
sapwood and heartwood, and the growth rings 
apparent in cross-section;*! these data, as indi- 
cators of growth rate, were eventually reported 
for many species in Sargent’s fourteen-volume 
Silva of North America, but the diagrams them- 
selves have not survived. 
