ELOISE BUTLER WILDFLOWER GARDEN AND BIRD SANCTUARY:

An Inventory of Its Records at the Minnesota Historical Society

Manuscripts Collection

OVERVIEW


	Creator:	Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden and Bird Sanctuary (Minneapolis, Minn.), creator.
	Title:	Organizational records.
	Dates:	1878-2022.
	Abstract:	Records documenting the history of the garden; its volunteer support organization, Friends of the Wild Flower Garden; its founder, Eloise Butler; and her successor, Martha Crone.
	Quantity:	4.75 cubic feet (6 boxes and 1 oversize folder) and 2 audio files: MP3 (163 MB).
	Location:	See Detailed Description section for shelf locations.

The Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden and Bird Sanctuary, located in Theodore Wirth Park (first known as Saratoga Park (1889-1890) and later as Glenwood Park (1890-1938)) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was founded in 1907. Known at that time as the Minneapolis Wild Botanic Garden, the preserve was the culmination of the efforts of four high school botany teachers who, concerned with the impact of the growing city on nature, wished to create a resource through which they could give their students the opportunity to make first hand observations of the native flora of the region. Foremost among these instructors was Eloise Butler, a teacher in the Minneapolis schools since 1874. In 1911 Butler became the garden's first curator with a salary of $50.00 per month, paid jointly by the Minneapolis Park Board and the Minneapolis Woman's Club.

The first of its kind in the country, Butler's garden project was different because it was wild. Rather than creating traditional flower beds, carefully cultivating and pruning, Butler intended to interfere as little as possible with the plants. She tried to provide for them an environment as close as possible to that from which each came. In addition the garden was to host only the native flora of Minnesota. The unique garden soon became the object of many school field trips, girl and boy scout outings, and the like. In 1949 the garden's annual report recorded 43,000 visitors. By 1966 that number had increased to 150,000, including 71 elementary school classes and 24 high school, adult, and non-academic children's groups.

During her lifetime, the garden was Butler's project and her personal mission. As curator, Butler personally conducted visitors through the grounds and was said to keep some of her most prized additions to the garden in a hidden section which she showed only to favored visitors. In 1929 the garden was renamed the Eloise Butler Wild Flower Garden in her honor. After Butler's death in 1933 while at work in the garden, the curatorship was taken over by her friend and assistant, Martha Crone. Under Crone's care the garden continued to thrive and many new threatened species were added. Due to the generosity of one of the garden's most devoted benefactors, Clinton Odell, the fenced area was expanded and the curator's salary increased. Odell, a former botany student of Butler's and the creator of the famous Burma Shave signs, was also the founder of the Friends of the Wild Flower Garden, Inc., in 1952. Crone's successor, Kenneth Avery, introduced a number of new management practices including controlled prairie burns and the keeping of detailed phenology records noting the first and last bloom dates for each plant species. Following Crone's retirement in 1959, the Park Board dropped the position of curator, replacing it with the position of head gardener in an effort to bring the Butler garden into line with other city parks and gardens. Avery served in this position from 1959 until 1987, when Cary George took over. Other notable changes in the garden have included the erection of the Martha E. Crone Shelter to serve as an office and visitor center (1969) and, in 1984, the addition of a naturalist program. That the relatively secluded location of the garden and its wildness made it a haven for many varieties of birds was recognized since the garden's early years. In recognition of this fact, the garden was renamed the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden and Bird Sanctuary in 1969.

Eloise Butler

Eloise Butler was born on August 3, 1851 on a farm in the town of Appleton, Maine. Her interest in things botanical began as a child when she and her sister Cora were taught to identify plants by an aunt. After completing high school in Lynn, Massachusetts and attending the Eastern State Normal School in Castine, Maine, Butler began what was to be a 38-year career as a teacher, primarily of high school botany. In 1874 Butler moved to Minneapolis, to teach at Center School. In the years until her retirement from teaching in 1911, Butler also taught at that city's Central and South high schools. During her years as a teacher she continued to pursue her own studies in science, taking courses at the University of Minnesota. Her early research concentrated on desmids, a kind of freshwater algae. In 1882 she identified three new species, two of which were eventually named after her.

With the emphasis on scientific observation that is evident in her personal studies, it is not surprising that Butler felt keenly the lack of resources available to her botany students. What began as an effort to provide a needed teaching tool for students soon grew into a second career for Butler. Four years after the founding of the Minneapolis Wild Botanic Garden in 1907, Butler was appointed curator by Theodore Wirth, who was then superintendent of parks in Minneapolis. Her duties and accomplishments included a topographical survey of the grounds and a detailed catalog of the flora then growing in the preserve, the expansion of the garden to include diverse environments such as a bog and a pond, the collection and transplanting of hundreds of plants native to Minnesota, many of which were threatened, as well as conducting visitors through the gardens. In addition to her activities as curator Butler wrote a regular column for the Minneapolis Tribune newspaper focusing on city gardens.

On April 10, 1933, Butler died of a heart attack while at work in the garden. According to her wishes, her ashes were scattered in the garden.

Martha Crone

Martha Crone was born in 1894 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. While her formal schooling ended in the eighth grade, she continued to cultivate an interest in botany and horticulture throughout her life, particularly after meeting Eloise Butler in 1921. Avid members of the Minnesota Mycological Society, Crone and her husband William shared with Butler an interest in mushrooms and often used their mushroom-hunting excursions as opportunities to collect plants for the garden. Crone became Butler's first assistant and took over the curatorship of the Wild Botanic Garden in 1933 after Butler's death.

Among Crone's many achievements in the garden were the addition of wild ferns and orchids and the transplanting of a rare wild poinsettia shortly before the last patch was destroyed near New Ulm, Minnesota in the late 1940s. While Butler's contributions to her field went largely unrecognized by her peers, Crone succeeded in bringing the garden into the spotlight. In 1951 Crone was recognized by fellow plant experts as one of the finest botanists in the country. In 1956 she was awarded a bronze medal for achievement in horticulture from the Minnesota State Horticultural Society.

In 1952, with the founding of the Friends of the Wild Flower Garden, Inc., Crone added to her duties the jobs of secretary and editor of the Friends' newsletter, The Fringed Gentian. During the winter months when the garden was closed, Crone promoted the garden and the study of botany through her work at the Minneapolis Public Library Science Museum. Even after her retirement in 1959, Crone remained actively involved through the Friends of the Wild Flower Garden, serving as editor of the newsletter until 1971. In recognition of her contributions the Friends sponsored the erection of a visitors' center and office, named the Martha E. Crone Shelter. Crone died at age 95 in Minneapolis.

Friends of the Wild Flower Garden, Inc.

The Friends of the Wild Flower Garden was founded in 1952 by Martha Crone and Clinton Odell as a nonprofit corporation for the purpose of development, preservation, and support of the Eloise Butler Wild Flower Garden. Over the years the group has provided volunteers to work in the garden and financial support for a variety of projects including maintenance, a plant inventory, the purchase of plant materials, signage, publicity, educational and research grants, and the building of the Martha E. Crone Shelter. The group has published its quarterly newsletter, The Fringed Gentian, continuously since 1953.

Biographical and historical data were taken from the collection and from Martha E. Hellander's biography, The Wild Gardener: The Life and Selected Writings of Eloise Butler (North Star Press of St. Cloud, 1992).

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SCOPE AND CONTENTS

The Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden and Bird Sanctuary Records are a somewhat unconventional collection, as they include what could be considered four separate collections from four different creators: Eloise Butler, Martha E. Crone, the garden itself, and the Friends of the Wild Flower Garden, Inc.

While many of the materials created by Butler and Crone, including diaries, correspondence, and notes, are technically personal papers, the informal nature of the garden administration meant that much of this material also served as official organizational records. For example, Butler and Crone, as the first two curators of the garden, received all correspondence regarding the garden at their homes, rather than at the garden, which did not even have a telephone until 1957. Its content is often a mixture of personal news and anecdotes along with information concerning new plants or seeds for the garden, as well as financial and administrative matters. The extremely small number of paid staff assigned to the garden meant that the Friends of the Wild Flower Garden, Inc., with their many volunteers and active financial support, became a major administrative arm of the garden. It is in their records that the bulk of the information concerning garden development, finances, and publicity after 1952 can be found.

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ARRANGEMENT

These records are organized into the following four sections:


		Eloise Butler Papers.
		Martha Crone Papers.
		Garden Records.
		Friends of the Wild Flower Garden, Inc. Records.

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ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden and Bird Sanctuary Organizational Records. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Accession Information:

Accession numbers: 5455; 14,733; 15,199; 15,319; 16,172; 16,317; 16,422; 16,686; 17,011; 17,886

Location of Master Files:

Digital masters of audio cassettes are maintained on the Society's secure digital collections storage servers and are managed and preserved in accordance with archival best practices.

Processing Information:

Processed by: Lara D. Friedman-Shedlov, April 1996; updated August 1998; Alex Kent, January 2010; additions by David B. Peterson, July 2013 and August 2015; addition by Leif Kopietz, July 2022

Digital audio transferred from the master audio cassettes by the Minnesota Historical Society for preservation purposes (April 2018).

Catalog ID number: 990017330580104294

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DETAILED DESCRIPTION

ELOISE BUTLER PAPERS

The Eloise Butler papers include materials created by Butler, as well as additional materials gathered by Hellander about Butler. Among materials created by Butler herself may be found miscellaneous notes and correspondence, articles and other writings, as well as copies of scrapbooks containing newspaper clippings by and about Butler and the garden. There is also a diary kept intermittently by Butler from 1902 to 1917 in which she recorded her thoughts on the garden and her observations of plants, birds, and other wildlife. In addition to these items, Hellander collected other materials providing genealogical and biographical data about Butler and her family, including a file on Cora Pease, Butler's sister and partner in botanizing. Items of particular interest in these files include a lengthy letter from Butler's brother Simpson to their sister Cora outlining the family history on their mother's side, as well as a typescript copy of a journal kept by a cousin of the Butlers' during a visit to them. There are also copies of articles that Cora wrote, many of which mention Eloise. Most notable in the series are two taped interviews (one with a transcript) Hellander conducted with acquaintances of Butler: Lloyd Teeuwen, who worked for Butler in the garden during the 1920s and 1930s, and Jean Babcock Rorbaugh, the granddaughter of the family with whom Butler lived while residing in Minneapolis. In these interviews the subjects describe their experiences with and impressions of Butler during her later years.

Location

Box

146.K.14.14F

Miscellaneous papers, undated, 1887-1928.

Diaries, notes, and transcripts, 1902-1917, [1933?]. 3 folders, including 1 volume.

Articles and writings, 1901-1932.

Scrapbooks, undated, 1911-1928.

Books on desmids. 3 volumes.

Includes Wolle, Desmids of the United States (1884) and Wolle, Fresh-Water Algae of the United States (1887).

Genealogical and biographical information:

Miscellaneous background materials.

Includes correspondence, articles, an inventory of Butler's estate upon her death, and the journal of Winnifred Furness (1869-1870).

Cora Butler Pearce. Articles and miscellaneous papers, 1889-1928.

Interview with Jean Babcock Rorbaugh, August 16, 1988. 1 master audio cassette (46 minutes, 48 seconds) and 1 user audio file: MP3 (44 MB).

Digital version

Interview with Lloyd Teeuwen, May 4, 1988. 2 master audio cassettes (2 hours, 7 minutes) and 1 user audio file: MP3 (119 MB).

Digital version

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MARTHA CRONE PAPERS

The personal papers of Martha Crone contain diaries, notes, newspaper clippings, and travelogues. The diaries, which date from 1929 to 1933 and from 1939 to 1943, record daily chores, family events and outings, as well as activities in the garden. Two files contain miscellaneous notes, many of which appear to be drafts of articles and poems for the Fringed Gentian. There are also papers concerning Crone's activities as a member of the Minnesota Mycological Society and the Minneapolis Bird Club. During the months of the year that the garden was closed, Crone worked for the Minneapolis Public Library Science Museum and was a member of the Minneapolis Science Museum Society. Several folders in her papers contain materials from this organization, including membership rosters, a summary history of the museum, board meeting minutes, and a ten-year run of the society's newsletter, Museum Notes. Crone was well acquainted with Theodore J. Wirth, then superintendent of the Minneapolis parks, and among her papers are two travelogues describing round-the-world voyages taken by Wirth in 1931 and 1935-1936.

Location

Box

146.K.14.14F

Miscellaneous notebook, undated.

Includes miscellaneous ready reference facts, memoranda, diary entries, and many notes on family relationships into the 1960s.

Five-year diaries, 1929-1933, 1939-1943. 2 folders, including 2 volumes.

Second volume includes notes and memoranda dating through 1986.

Diary-notebook, 1930s-1940s.

Notebook on flowers, 1933.

Miscellaneous notes. 2 folders.

May be notes for articles for publication in newspapers or The Fringed Gentian.

Cedar Creek Bog, Crone's Island, 1941-1961.

Location

Box

146.K.15.1B

Birds, including the Minneapolis Bird Club, 1937-1968.

Minnesota Mycological Society, 1923-1977.

Minneapolis Public Library Science Museum Society, 1940-1954. 3 folders.

Includes membership rosters, minutes, summary history, and newsletters.

Theodore Wirth travelogues, 1931, 1935-1936. 2 folders.

Newspaper clippings and magazine articles, undated.

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GARDEN RECORDS

Garden records include guidebooks, maps, annual reports, orders and other administrative and financial records, logs, histories, newspaper clippings, correspondence, and photographs. They also include blueprints for the front and back gates of the garden, curator annual reports, and a biography of Clinton Odell, the founder of the Friends of the Garden, Inc. The guidebooks are particularly helpful as an orientation to the garden and its history as they contain brief biographies of the garden's major figures, information about Theodore Wirth Park in general, and descriptions of many of the flora and fauna to be seen in the sanctuary. The series of newspaper clippings gives a picture of how the garden and its curators were perceived by the public over the years. The garden logs, started by Butler in 1907 and continued by Crone after Butler's death, provide a day-to-day chronicle of the garden's progress, describing new species discovered or planted, dates of blooming, maintenance performed, weather conditions, and other events.

The major part of the series consists of interfiled personal and garden-related correspondence and miscellaneous papers to and from Eloise Butler and Martha Crone. The bulk of this correspondence concerns the procurement of various seeds and plants, as well as contributions from various benefactors, improvements to the facilities, and thank-you notes from visiting individuals and groups. Of particular interest is the transcript of a 1943 WCCO radio interview with Martha Crone in which she describes the garden and its mission.

The garden records also include photographs of the garden and its directors. In addition to a folder of 48 prints which includes portraits of Butler and Crone, as well as many views of the garden, a series of approximately 2200 slides taken by Crone during the 1940s and 1950s provide a detailed record of the wild flora growing in the garden and around the state during that period. The slides also include alphabetically filed photographs of individual flowers in the garden and elsewhere around the state, as well chronologically filed scenic views of the garden in every season over the course of a ten year period.

Location

Box

146.K.15.1B

Guidebooks and maps, undated, 1988, 1992.

Timeline of park system, undated.

Annual reports to the Board of Parks Commissioners, 1934-1959, 1961-1966.

Histories and annals of the garden, 1913-1951.

Includes "Early History of Eloise Butler Plant Reserve, 1907-1926" and "Annals of the Wild Life Reserve, Theodore Wirth Park, Minneapolis, 1914-1931," two items previously cataloged separately.

Biography of Clinton Odell, undated.

Orders, 1945-1958. 2 folders.

Garden logs, 1907-1958. 3 folders.

Blueprint copies of front gate concept "c", circa 1994.

Blueprints for back (east) gate, 1994.

Curator annual reports, 1934, 1953.

Chronological list of seeds sown in the sanctuary, 1907-1933.

Men who worked for Martha Crone: Employment record, 1956-1958.

Correspondence and miscellaneous papers, undated, 1907-1972. 13 folders.

Location

Box

143.J.1.8F

Correspondence: C. O. Rosendahl, 1922, 1925, 1930-1931.

Correspondence between Butler and Rosendahl, chair of the botany department at the University of Minnesota (1922, 1925, 1930-1931), documents Butler's unsuccessful efforts to bring the garden under the auspices of the university.

Correspondence and miscellaneous papers: Theodore Wirth, 1933-1941.

Correspondence with Theodore Wirth, superintendent of parks (1933-1941), is notable for its illustration of relations between the park board and the garden, touching on issues such as the appointment of Crone as successor to Butler, financial responsibility for improvements and maintenance, proposed developments to the garden and to the park, and the status of the garden as a bird sanctuary.

Correspondence and miscellaneous papers: Clinton M. Odell, 1944-1957.

Correspondence with Odell, founder and president of the Friends of the Wild Flower Garden, Inc., documents expansion and improvements to the garden funded by Odell and the founding of the Friends of the Wild Flower Garden in 1952.

Plat: Proposed Extension of the Eloise Butler Wild Flower Garden, October 23, 1944.

Newspaper clippings, undated, 1907-2005. 5 folders.

Print and near print materials, undated, 1879-2006. 8 folders.

Includes articles by Eloise Butler and materials related to the dedication of the Martha Crone Shelter.

Photographs: Eloise Butler, Martha Crone, and miscellaneous scenic garden views, undated, 1878-1945. 48 photographs.

Location

Box

144.E.19.6F

Slides:

Slides were taken by Martha Crone.

Box I: Scenic views of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden, 1948-1958.

Box II: Individual flowers in the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden, 1948-1957.

Box III: Mushrooms, ferns, and birds, 1950-1958.

Also includes miscellaneous slides (many later reproductions from earlier photographs) of Butler, her family, and the Butler farm.

Box IV: Minnesota wild flowers from other gardens, filed alphabetically, A-P, 1948-1956.

Box V: Minnesota wild flowers from other gardens, filed alphabetically, P-Z, 1948-1956; Miscellaneous views of the garden and garden flowers, 1948-1949.

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FRIENDS OF THE WILD FLOWER GARDEN, INC. RECORDS

Friends of the Wild Flower Garden records include minutes, reports, membership rosters, correspondence, proposals, and grant proposals. The minutes, which include annual and monthly board meetings, are an excellent source of information about major developments in the garden from the early 1950s onward. Another file of particular interest is that on the Martha E. Crone Shelter, which provides a comprehensive picture of the project from start to finish, including the impetus, design, fund raising, contracting, and dedication. The records also include a plant guide and numerous narrative histories written and edited by the Friends director and treasurer Gary Bebeau.

Location

Box

143.J.1.8F

Bylaws and miscellaneous papers, undated, 1991.

Mission statement, Board of Directors and volunteer rosters, undated, 1970-1972, 1985-1993, 1998-2009.

Membership and officer rosters, 1970-1994.

Annual meeting minutes, 1955-2002 2 folders.

Miscellaneous annual reports, 1971-1988.

Includes volunteer and nominating committee, editor's and historian's reports.

Treasurer's annual reports, 1953-1993. 2 folders.

Secretary's annual reports, 1952-1975.

President's Report, 1968-1970.

A daily log of the president's activities.

President's timeline, circa 1986.

Board minutes, 1953-1999. 5 folders.

Location

Box

142.I.19.9B

Board minutes, 2000-2014. 7 folders.

Eloise Butler Biography Project, undated and 1988-1989.

Proposals, undated, 1979-1980.

Grant proposals, 1989.

Correspondence and miscellaneous papers, undated, 1961-1988. 2 folders.

Correspondence and miscellaneous papers: grant program, [1979?]-1986.

Correspondence and miscellaneous papers: Martha E. Crone Shelter, 1968-1970.

Watercolors of fringed gentians, undated. 3 items

Appear to be studies for the newsletter logo.

Pencil Sketch: "Spring in the Garden," by Clinton Odell, undated.

Odell was founder of the Friends of the Wild Flower Garden, Inc.

Location

Box

143.G.13.4F

Reports (financial, membership, and donations), 1991-2021. 2 folders.

Plant identification guide, 3rd edition, Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden & Bird Sanctuary, edited by Gary D. Bebeau, The Friends of the Wildflower Flower Garden, Inc., January 2020. 1 volume.

Narrative histories:

Eloise Butler selected writings, the Wild Botanic Garden in Glenwood Park and the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden and Bird Sanctuary, edited by Gary D. Bebeau, The Friends of the Wildflower Flower Garden, Inc., 2022. 1 volume.

Seventy years of the Friends: A History of Friends of the Wild Flower Garden, Vols. 1-3, edited by Gary D. Bebeau, The Friends of the Wildflower Flower Garden, Inc., 2022. 3 volumes.

Appendix 16 to Vol. 1, "70 years of the Friends": Friends membership roster, 1952-2021.

This satisfying pursuit, Matha Crone and the Wild Flower Garden, edited by Gary D. Bebeau, The Friends of the Wildflower Flower Garden, Inc., May 2021. 1 volume.

The Native plant reserve in Glenwood Park, the Martha Crone years, 1933-1958, edited by Gary D. Bebeau, The Friends of the Wildflower Flower Garden, Inc., 2021. 1 volume.

The Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden and Bird Sanctuary, and the Wild Botanic Garden in Glenwood Park, the Eloise Butler years, 1907-1933, edited by Gary D. Bebeau, The Friends of the Wildflower Flower Garden, Inc., 2022. 1 volume.

[0.40 cubic feet empty, letter sized]

Location

Folder

+236

Blueline prints: Martha E. Crone Shelter, 1969. 4 items

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RELATED MATERIALS

The newsletter of the Friends of the Wild Flower Garden, Inc., The Fringed Gentian, is separately cataloged in the Minnesota Historical Society serials collection.

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CATALOG HEADINGS

This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:: Bird refuges -- Minnesota -- Minneapolis.; Botanical gardens -- Minnesota -- Minneapolis.; Botany.; Desmidiciceae.; Floriculture -- Minnesota -- Minneapolis.; Freshwater algae.; Gardens -- Minnesota -- Minneapolis.; Mushrooms -- Minnesota.; Native plant gardening -- Minnesota.; Nature conservation -- Minnesota.; Parks -- Minnesota -- Minneapolis.; Trees -- Minnesota -- Minneapolis.; Voyages around the world.; Wild flowers -- Minnesota.

Places:: Europe -- Description and travel -- 1919-1944.; Glenwood Park (Minneapolis, Minn.).; Minneapolis (Minn.).; Theodore Wirth Park (Minneapolis, Minn.).

Persons:: Avery, Kenneth, author.; Butler, Eloise, 1851-1933, author.; Butler, Eloise, 1851-1933, author. Annals of the wild life reserve, Theodore Wirth park, Minneapolis, 1914-1931.; Butler, Eloise, 1851-1933, author. Early history of Eloise Butler plant reserve, 1907-1926.; Cram, Gertrude Schill, author.; Crone, Martha, 1894-1989, author.; Furness, Winnifred, 1856- , author.; Hellander, Martha E., 1952- , author.; Odell, Clinton M., 1878-1958, author.; Pease, Cora E. Butler, 1848-1928, author.; Rorbaugh, Jean Babcock, author.; Teeuwen, Lloyd, author.; Wirth, Theodore, 1863- , author.; Wolle, Francis, 1817-1893, author. Desmids of the United States and a list of American Pediastrums with eleven hundred illustrations on fifty-three colored plates.; Wolle, Francis, 1817-1893, author. Fresh-water algae of the United States (exclusive of the Diatomaceae): complemental to Desmids of the United States.

Organizations:: Friends of the Wild Flower Garden (Minneapolis, Minn.), author.; Minneapolis (Minn.). Board of Park Commissioners.; Minneapolis Bird Club.; Minneapolis Public Library. Science Museum.; Minneapolis Science Museum Society, author.; Minnesota Botanical Society.; Minnesota Mycological Society, author.; Native Plant Reserve (Minneapolis, Minn.), author.; Wild Botanic Garden (Minneapolis, Minn.), author.

Types of Documentation:: Architectural drawings (visual works).; Diaries.; Drawings.; Oral histories (document genres); Photographs.; Slides (photographs).; Sound recordings.

Occupations:: Botanists -- Minnesota.; Gardeners -- Minnesota -- Minneapolis.

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