The book is now available to order online at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Indie Books, among other places. The release date is May 21, 2024-
https://www.koehlerbooks.com/book/the-man-who-loved-trees/
The Man Who Loved Trees
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The Buttonball Tree, Sunderland, MA
Frank A. Waugh Arboretum at the University of Massachusetts Amherst
The history of the Frank A. Waugh Arboretum-
” The Frank A. Waugh Arboretum at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst is built on the historic territory of the Nipmuc, Pocumtuc, and Nonotuck Nations. Following European colonization and the often violent destruction of Native American agroforestry stands, the land currently occupied by UMass was mostly cleared and then replanted. Over the course of more than a century, the landscape that is the Frank A. Waugh Arboretum would transform dramatically.
There are many individuals throughout post-colonial campus history who have contributed to the arboretum in various ways. One of the most notable of these individuals was William S. Clark. Clark, the third president of Massachusetts Agricultural College, established a relationship with Hokkaido, Japan that would have a centuries-long impact on our campus landscape. At the end of the 19th century, Clark and his student William Penn Brooks introduced a number of accessions from Japan and east Asia, several of which still remain on campus today. At the onset of the 20th century, our university landscape prospered from the efforts of Frank A. Waugh, who was department head of Landscape and Gardening from 1902-1939. In 1944, President Hugh Potter Baker officially designated the campus as the Frank A. Waugh Arboretum in tribute to the many contributions Waugh made to our campus arboretum.”
A map of the UMass campus which features the campus trees all part of the Arboretum is available at the link above.
Discover Marianne North and her botanic portrait paintings at Kew Gardens
A different kind of post this week invites you to learn something about the little known botanic artist Marianne North and her remarkable life painting portraits of trees and other plants. Frank Waugh traveled to London’s Kew Gardens a few times in his life after the Marianne North Gallery had opened. It is possible that he visited it, but there is no record of what his visits entailed. Learning about her life, travels, and paintings would have been of interest to Waugh and his family.
https://www.kew.org/read-and-watch/marianne-north-botanical-artist
https://www.kew.org/read-and-watch/marianne-north-borneo-coffee
Marianne North traveled the world over to paint botanic species in remote areas. One example, painting 624, preserved among her more than 800 in the Marianne North Gallery in Kew Gardens, is entitled Curious Plants from the Forest of Matang, Sarawak, Borneo. The first herbarium specimen of this plant was not collected until 1973, nearly 100 years later.The species is now named Chassalia northiana T.Y. Yu in Marianne’s honor, the fifth plant species to bear her name.
Pollard Oaks at Epping Forest
Frank A. Waugh visited London’s Epping Forest where he enjoyed photographing and sketching oaks, birches, and beeches in the summer of 1936, perhaps for his last time. He used his photographs and drawings sometimes to compose etchings he would create later in his home studio. His etching, Pollard Oaks, dates from September of 1936. With his work as a consultant to the U. S. Forest Service, Waugh would have been interested in Eppings’s rich forest management history and practices. There the techniques of lopping, cutting, pollarding and coppicing evolved from the 12th century. On the land Verderers or Commoners could graze their cattle and gather wood to use for fuel, emphasizing very practical uses of the forest.
In his portraits of trees Waugh wanted people to appreciate trees, especially for their beauty. But the roots of their practical values were never lost on him. For more background about forest management techniques at Epping Forest visit:
https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/green-spaces/epping-forest/how-we-manage-epping-forest
A Burnham beech:
I am finishing The Man Who Loved Trees, my book about Frank A. Waugh. Drawings and etchings never before shared with the public will be the focus. My post here features Waugh’s pen drawing of a Burnham beech. Burhnam Beeches is part of a National Nature Reserve and Site of Special Scientific Interest in London. It is one of the best examples of an ancient woodland in Great Britain. Pollarded trees date to over 400 years. This reserve drew Waugh when he was able to visit London. He created photographs, drawings and etchings of the beeches, oaks and birches from there. In addition to the pen drawing, two links about Burnham Beeches follow.
https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/green-spaces/burnham-beeches-and-stoke-common
May 10th
Frank worked further on a lecture he will deliver in Delaware later in June.
Today I met with a graduate student about her thesis project. Now that classes are over, I realize that this is the time for me to return to the book. Keeping the window for writing clear, I have decided upon a hiatus with this blog. It has helped keep me stay connected to Frank through a daily reading of his diaries from 1911 while I attended to the demands of my own teaching during the spring semester. Probably it has not accomplished much else than that! But now I will withdraw into my own world of writing to see what emerges on the other side: Hopefully the shape of a monograph about the etchings Waugh created between 1934 and 1943. They are a lens through which you can view his life and work during the interwar era which marked a printmaking renaissance in this country. With Frank’s unflappable “art for all” zeal, there is a story to tell! To that end if it seems interesting and helpful I may blog during the process of my efforts over the summer. Any readers out there, please wish me luck and success toward both a book and an exhibit.
May 9th
May 9, 1911
Frank is working on a lecture for June that will be in Delaware. Today was a busy day mostly advising in honors. Lots of details finishing up.
May 8th
May 8, 1911
Frank reports a pleasant day; Hemmenway came in to speak to his morning class. Today I will work on a proposal revision. I am struck that classes are now over, and for the first time in memory, I am not sick at the end of the semester. But also, for the first time I did not have to teach studios in Hills, which we now understand to be riddled with mold. When I think about all the months I lost due to illness, especially during those years I was assigned to teach double duty in the dungeon of the basement…..with all that mold….but I should stop this rant here. Save it instead for the cinderella chronicles, the fractured fairy tales.
May 7th
May 7, 1911
Frank returned home. In the afternoon he visited the waterfall at Pratt’s Corner and spied some mayflowers. I spent the better part of the day completing research training online so one of my students can complete mandated research training in order to conduct some informal interviews as part of her thesis. This is less likely to be needed for any other work I expect to do. The other part of the day was spent at the Renaissance Center with the garden conference there. I explained the mini cultural landscapes created in the edible art of the springerle, a recipe stemming from the 1600s.
Landscape imagery in cookies from a recipe from the 1600s