46 Arnoldia 78/5-6 « October 2021 
was “the background theme that links together 
feature displays at the Forestry Center. Some of 
the largest logs are stationed at the entrance and 
around the outdoor covered walkway; inside, 
smaller specimens circle the first-floor display 
room. Other logs fill corners and file along cor- 
ridors.”!95 Following their move, the logs had 
been cleaned, refinished, and given new labels 
by local members of the Society of American 
Foresters and the International Wood Collec- 
tors Society. The historical value of the 505 
logs said to be on display, representing trees 
of such stature that in many cases could no 
longer be observed in the United States, was 
well appreciated, and the collection remained 
a popular exhibit.!°* As the Western Forestry 
Center expanded its educational mission and 
shifted its focus to forests at a global scale, tak- 
ing on the name World Forestry Center in 1986, 
the collection’s relevance was again eclipsed 
by its physical footprint. About January 1994, 
the collection was donated to Agricenter Inter- 
national in Memphis, Tennessee.!*° Although 
exhibited there for several years, the logs have 
since spent more than two decades in storage. 
A Heritage 
Following Jesup’s death, Sargent reflected, “The 
formation of the Jesup collection of North 
American Woods ... was a matter of national 
importance. The preparation of this collection 
enabled us to study the distribution of the eco- 
nomic value of many trees which, before Mr. 
Jesup’s undertaking, were largely unknown. I 
think it can be said that this collection is the 
finest representation of forest wealth that exists 
in any country.”!°° In its time on exhibit, the 
collection was marveled at by audiences for 
more than eighty years altogether. It provided 
not only Jesup and Sargent but some early influ- 
encers of American forestry—including Hein- 
rich Mayr, Carl A. Schenck, Gifford Pinchot, 
Bernhard E. Fernow, Barrington Moore, and 
later even Thornton Munger—with inspiration 
and a platform to promote a growing movement 
supporting the conservation of American for- 
ests. What the logs represent has not changed, 
and their historical significance has only grown. 
Apart from the varied circumstances leading 
to their assembly in New York from all across 
North America, as a group the collection has 
twice crossed the country; it has evaded annihi- 
lation more than once, each time saved by well- 
meaning caretakers facing formidable logistical 
challenges. More than 120 years since the con- 
solidation of the collection, although many of 
the logs are superficially weathered and show 
wear and tear from handling and the elements, 
their number is mainly intact. The wood itself 
has largely not suffered and will be restor- 
able in some future, truly permanent, home. 
Research to document the geographic origins 
of individual logs is ongoing; these findings will 
enable many of them to retake their scientific 
potential, where study of the wood itself may 
contribute meaningfully to the knowledge of 
our environmental past. All of them may yet 
function as emissaries for their species and for 
the forested regions from which they came— 
possibly even more so today than at the time of 
the collection’s unveiling, when many contem- 
poraries believed that such trees would be lost 
from America’s forests in time, even as forests 
generally were disappearing, and that such a 
collection could never again be made.!?’ 
Acknowledgments 
This research was supported in part by a 2019 Sargent 
Award for Visiting Scholars from the Arnold Arboretum 
of Harvard University. For their assistance, the author 
is grateful to the curators of the Harvard University 
Herbaria; Lisa Pearson at the Arnold Arboretum; Rebecca 
Morgan and Gregory Raml at the Archives of the 
American Museum of Natural History; Alex Wiedenhoeft 
and Regis Miller at the USDA Forest Products Laboratory, 
Madison, Wisconsin; John Butler and John Charles Wilson 
at Agricenter International, Memphis, Tennessee; and 
Mark Reed, Beavercreek, Oregon. 
Notes 
! A Noble Gift, Sun (New York}, 17 May 1885, p.8. 
2 American Woods, Harper’s Weekly 29(30 May 1885), 
p.350. 
3 Brewer, 1877: 4. 
4 Norton, 1879: 110. 
° A.S. Bickmore to C.S. Sargent, 12 Sep 1880, Letterpress 
Books, 3a: 273, AMNH. 
© Joseph H. Choate, in Hovey 1907: 5. 
7 C.S. Sargent to M.K. Jesup, 2 Nov 1885, Departmental 
Records, 091, Ser. I, AMNH. 
8 C.S. Sargent to M.K. Jesup, 11 Nov 1880, Departmental 
Records, 091, Ser. I, AMNH. 
° Trustees of the American Museum of Natural History 
1881. 
10 C_S. Sargent to M.K. Jesup, 14 Dec 1880; C.S. Sargent 
to J.J. Bargin, 20 Apr 1881, Departmental Records, 091, 
Ser. I, AMNH. 
