Kate Sessions

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Portrait of Kate Sessions
Kate Sessions

Katherine Olivia "Kate" Sessions (born November 8, 1857 , † March 24, 1940 ) was an American botanist , gardener and landscape architect , closely associated with San Diego , California, and the local Balboa Park .

Life and work

Sessions was born in San Francisco , California and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in science in 1881 . In 1883 she moved to San Diego and worked for a year as a teacher and vice principal at Russ School (now San Diego High School).

Soon she turned to her real interest, horticulture. In 1885 she acquired a nursery and within a few years owned a flower shop, horticultural land and nurseries in Coronado, Pacific Beach and Mission Hills. The latter, founded in 1910 and sold to employees in 1926, still exists as Missions Hills Nursery to this day.

In 1892, Sessions signed a lease agreement with the City of San Diego for acreage in Balboa Park (then City Park). In return, she undertook to plant 100 trees a year in the park, which was mostly fallow at the time, and a further 300 trees in the rest of the city. To this day, most of the extensive old trees in the park, grown from seeds imported from all over the world, come from the park. In addition to many other species cultivated by her, the distribution of the jacaranda tree is particularly credited to her . She also collected, grew and distributed numerous native California plants for horticultural use, including through trips to Baja California and Europe .

In 1907, together with Alfred D. Robinson , she founded the San Diego Floral Association, the oldest horticultural association in Southern California, which played an important role in spreading horticultural know-how. Together with the architect Hazel Wood Waterman , she took over the gardening of a group of houses from Alice Lee near Balboa Park.

Sessions died at the age of 82 and was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery in San Diego.

Honors

Her work in plant breeding and her numerous specialist articles on the subject made Kate Sessions internationally known. During the California Pacific International Exposition , she was honored on September 22, 1935 and named "Mother of Balboa Park". In 1939 she became the first woman to be awarded the prestigious Frank N. Meyer Medal of the American Genetic Association .

In San Diego, the Kate O. Sessions Memorial Park and school bear her name. In Balboa Park, a bronze statue on Sefton Plaza has been a reminder of her since 1998.

In 2006 she was inducted into the San Diego County's Hall of Fame by the Women's Museum of California for the Trailblazer category .

In 2013 the children's book The Tree Lady: The True Story of How One Tree-Loving Woman Changed a City Forever was published , which tells her life story and social work.

literature

  • San Diego Floral Association (Ed.): The complete writings of Kate Sessions in California garden, 1909-1939. San Diego, California 1998 (English).
  • H. Joseph Hopkins: The Tree Lady: The True Story of How One Tree-Loving Woman Changed a City Forever .
  • Florence Christman: The Romance of Balboa Park. Ed .: San Diego Historical Society. 4th edition. San Diego 1985, ISBN 0-918740-03-7 .
  • Richard F. Pourade: Gold in the Sun . Ed .: The Union Tribune Publishing Company. 1st edition. San Diego 1965, ISBN 0-913938-04-1 .
  • MacPhail, Elizabeth C .: Kate Sessions: pioneer horticulturist. Ed .: San Diego Historical Society. 1976.
  • Robert M. Showley: San Diego: Perfecting Paradise . Ed .: Heritage Media Corp. 2000, ISBN 1-886483-24-8 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Kate Sessions 2006 Trailblazer. In: San Diego County Women's Hall of Fame. Women's Museum of California, accessed July 22, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Kate Sessions 1857-1940. In: San Diego History Center | San Diego, CA | Our City, Our Story. Retrieved July 21, 2020 (American English).
  3. ^ About Mission Hills Nursery - Organic Gardens & Eco Friendly Landscapes. In: Mission Hills Nursery. Retrieved July 21, 2020 (American English).
  4. ^ A b Alonzo Horton, Ephraim Morse, George Marston: Kate Olivia Sessions. In: Hillquest, an Urban Guide to 92103. Hillquest Inc., accessed July 22, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Our History . In: San Diego Floral Association . Retrieved February 1, 2013.
  6. ↑ a b k-england: BOOK REVIEW: The Complete Writings of Kate Sessions in California Garden, 1909-1939 New Edition. April 1, 2020, accessed on July 16, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Nominations 2006. In: San Diego County Women's Hall of Fame. Women's Museum of California, accessed July 16, 2020 .
  8. ↑ The Tree Lady. Retrieved July 21, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Kate Sessions: Pioneer Horticulturist. In: San Diego History Center | San Diego, CA | Our City, Our Story. Retrieved July 21, 2020 (American English).

Web links

Commons : Kate Sessions  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Sessions, Kate
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sessions, Katherine Olivia (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American botanist, horticulturist, and landscape architect
DATE OF BIRTH November 8, 1857
DATE OF DEATH March 24, 1940