36 Arnoldia 78/5-6 « October 2021 
Practically Complete 
As Sargent’s early work on the forest census had 
concluded in 1884, his focus shifted to taxo- 
nomically oriented investigations in support of 
his Silva of North America and other publica- 
tions. For nearly two decades, the development 
of the Jesup Collection was synergistic with 
that work. Sargent never rested in his ambi- 
tion to add species to the wood collection, even 
when his practice conflicted with Jesup’s finan- 
cial concerns and with the museum’s pragmatic 
considerations for their curation. 
As early as April 1883, after more than two 
full years of collecting effort, Sargent had indi- 
cated that there were twenty-one species needed 
to complete the collection. Still, in February 
1886, he reported that there were another “18 
or really 19,” of which several had already been 
sent for.°! Just a year later, he wrote, “I find 
that there are still a few species which must be 
added to the Jesup Collection in order to make 
it complete, and that, moreover, a few impor- 
tant species are not yet properly represented in 
the Collection.” Sargent reflected in 1889, “I 
consider that the collection is practically com- 
plete,’ but that notion was short-lived. 
Sargent soon organized a special expedi- 
tion to the West Coast and Arizona in 1891 
for several unrepresented species. In January 
1894, Jesup reported that Sargent had sent him 
“the gratifying assurance” that the collection 
“is now complete’”°*—even as Sargent was 
preparing to leave on another collecting trip 
to Arizona to support his work on the Silva, 
resulting in at least one new specimen for the 
museum.® In April 1898, another twenty-eight 
species were called for.®% In May 1900, Sargent 
wrote to museum secretary J.H. Winser, “We 
have been finding a lot more trees in the United 
States during the last year. None of them are 
very large but all have a scientific interest.... 
Now what I want to know is whether I shall go 
ahead and use my discretion in obtaining such 
material as may be necessary to complete the 
Collection.”°’ A year later, Sargent ordered sev- 
eral more specimens from Arkansas, Texas, and 
Missouri, and noted, “I understand there is still 
a good deal more work to do on the collection 
before it can be considered complete.” 
Very late in this process, Sargent occasionally 
accompanied his requests with a lament, such 
as, “If it is not continued, I shall be saved a lot of 
disagreeable bother and letter-writing.” Jesup 
at times wondered at the necessity of so many 
very similar species, the number of duplicate 
specimens that had been sent, and the many 
that needed to be replaced over time because 
of damage or decay. He was also not naive to 
the fact that he was often financing Sargent’s 
research by supporting new collecting trips for 
certain trees, and he once expressed frustration 
about this habit.” In a note to himself on the 
back of one letter, Jesup wrote, “I wonder when 
the getting of specimens is going to stop.”””! Both 
men were clearly tiring of the work of supervis- 
ing and organizing the collection, wanting it to 
be both comprehensive and finished, but Jesup’s 
support continued. Still additional specimens 
were received at the museum late in 1901,” 
but by July 1902, Sargent was again discussing 
sending a collector for more.”? In 1908, the year 
of Jesup’s death, thirty-five specimens (possibly 
the last) were added to the exhibit.” 
Intelligence, Technical Knowledge 
and Enthusiasm 
While Sargent continued to direct the collection 
of new specimens, the opening of the museum’s 
public exhibit in 1885 had added an informal 
duty: the role of absentee curator. Although 
S. D. Dill, an experienced carpenter, had been 
hired specifically to oversee the preparation and 
installation of the logs and related materials, 
as well as to build the cases for them, Sargent 
had ideas of his own about how the collection 
should be handled and displayed. Beyond per- 
sistently lobbying for more space, he involved 
himself in the minutiae of how logs should be 
arranged, directly supervised the preparation of 
labels, and critiqued the display of illustrations 
following his occasional visits to New York. 
Only months into the exhibition, Sargent 
wrote to Jesup with concerns that some speci- 
mens housed in new cases were “already suf- 
fering from extremes of temperature as I feared 
that they would.” He added that he was “very 
anxious & troubled” that Dill’s workroom in the 
Arsenal was inadequately heated and exposed 
the specimens to “danger of destruction by fire 
or at the hands of outsiders.””° Nearly fifteen 
years later, he offered a similar assessment and 
insisted that Dill be provided with a workspace 
