Burbank Lu other (1849- 1926 Quarterly J. of the Library of Congress 36,#4 (1979). 423 photographs, identified press clippings, and to the great revolution in American agriculture) subject files concerning his books and Hol- was still in the future. lywood activities, as well as a small group of the However, it was at Lunenburg that Burbank papers of the last Mrs. Cain, the singer Florence grasped the implications of a chance discovery Macbeth. and began his route to fame. His experiments to develop a large, fine-grained, white potato were Scientific History a failure until he discovered an extremely rare seed pod on one of his hybrid Early Rose plants. Luther Burbank Papers By applying the process of selection to the seedlings which he grew, he eventually devel- The most noteworthy 1978 acquisition in the oped the Burbank potato. This, the first of his history of science and allied fields was the pa- triumphs, led to descendants which account for pers of plant breeder and horticulturist Luther the majority of potatoes now grown in the Burbank (1849-1926), a gift of the estate of United States: among these is the Idaho Russet Mrs. Luther Burbank. or "Idaho." Known to several generations as "the plant In 1875 Burbank sold his assets and moved to wizard" and classed in the popular mind with California. In the town of Santa Rosa, he began such "heroes of progress" as Thomas Alva Edi- a career as nurseryman, and within seven or son and Alexander Graham Bell, Burbank was a eight years his profits had made him financially remarkable innovator whose true merit has comfortable. He was now able to do what he been greatly obscured by the excessive and often wished. Although selling for profit would still be immoderate praise accorded him in his lifetime. necessary, he could now devote most of his time Burbank was born on a farm in Lancaster, to the production of more and better kinds of Massachusetts, where he gained the basic skills cultivated plants. which would help him in his career. He at- Burbank imported plants and seeds from tended the excellent Lancaster Academy and foreign countries and botanized in the North- was a frequent reader in the town library. As a west to find material suitable for his experi- young man he obtained an edition (still pre- ments. The results of his development of mate- served among his books) of Charles Darwin's rial by selection, grafting, and other methods The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domesti- gained international publicity after the publica- cation (1868), which, as he later explained, tion of the first edition of his catalog, New Cre- marked a turning point in his intellectual devel- ations in Fruits and Flowers (1893). This an- opment. nounced a dazzling array of hybrid plums, In 1871 the twenty-one-year-old Burbank prunes, chestnuts, and almonds, as well as purchased his own land near Lunenburg and raspberries and other berries and a host of began truck gardening, supplying the nearby "new" flowers. town of Fitchburg with produce. There he Of course, Burbank was still working without began his experiments, by selecting individual benefit of the later science of genetics, and his plants with unusually great bearing capacity, success in obtaining remarkable cultivars was early ripening, faster growth, or other desirable empiricism at its best. In an early paper, his characteristics. These "superior" plants were contemporary Vernon L. Kellogg accurately used to further his stock. Burbank's efforts to summarized Burbank's methods and merits. He cross-pollinate white sweet corn with yellow field was importing foreign species which could be corn (then used for fodder) to obtain a yellow improved, if grown under different cir- table ear were unsuccessful. Had he read the cumstances or hybridized with American stock. unopened pages of the Harvard University copy He was producing extreme variations by adjust- of a recent paper by a Catholic priest, he would ing such circumstances of cultivation as space, have known exactly how to proceed. But the light, food supply, water, and temperature. Fur- work of Gregor Mendel had yet to be "dis- thermore, he was producing hybrids between covered," and the modern science of genetics (as "forms closely related, less closely related, and, well as the development of hybrid corn, central finally, as dissimilar as may be (not producing 424 ently enjoyed and did little to combat-his repu- tation began to suffer greatly among scientists and other intellectuals. After financial aid had been granted him by the Carnegie Institution, an investigation of his methodology revealed that his record-keeping was frequently not up to scientific standards. although the zoologist and educator David Starr Jordan argued that this was the result of the rigorous demands of his work as compared to available time, as well as the necessity to sell his new forms. 10 Undoubtedly Burbank was indeed limited as a scientist, although he was exceptionally gifted as an empiricist. In succeeding years he was alter- nately praised and attacked for his claims and opinions, while a core of sensible writers con- tinued to extol his actual contributions. Finan- cial manipulators took advantage of him, while his popular reputation soared to greater and greater heights. Yet he managed to continue his work to the end; just before his death he com- pleted work on a new strain of his famous Shasta daisy and various new gladioli. Burbank took some part in the complex con- flicts involving the ideas of Darwin, Mendel, the biometricians, and the mutationists which were to continue until well after his lifetime and which finally resulted in a reconciliation and a Luther Burbank and his bed of spineless Opuntia cactus at Santa basis for modern genetics. But his best work was Rosa. From the Luther Burbank Papers. done before the rediscovery of Mendel. The various aspects of Burbank's heritage are ably summarized by his latest biographer, Peter Dreyer, 11 and surely the most significant are the sterility), this hybridizing being often immensely numerous edible and floral plants now in culti- complicated by multiplying crosses" to gain de- vation which descend from stock developed by sired characteristics. Finally, Burbank had an the sage of Santa Rosa. uncanny ability to recognize desirable modifica- Burbank's papers (about ten thousand items) tions and perpetuate them.9 have remained in family hands since his death in The reports of "new creations" continued, 1926, although some investigators have been al- and Burbank's reputation proceeded to grow. lowed to consult portions of them. Of consider- In popular publications his more uncritical able interest is a series of various forms of proponents seized upon such productions as the notebooks dating from the 1880s to 1926. These "plumcot" (a hybrid of the plum and apricot) are of uneven value in documenting his work and his spineless cactus (developed for cattle and illustrate the problems which beset him, fodder). Burbank was promoted as a "wizard," such as the necessity to make hurried and some- despite the protests of such sensible friends as times insufficient notations about what he was the scientist Liberty Hyde Bailey that he had no actually doing when experimenting with large "magic" other than patient inquiry and acute judgment. Following immoderate and sometimes unwar- ranted praise by the press and popular An 1885 planting diagram from one of Luther Burbank's magazines-praise that Burbank himself appar- notebooks. From the Luther Burbank Papers. long Neb 107 Bulb. Beds Planted florifat (884 257 centre - W. very frim large Named (is) el As sweet Auf 10 builded Alla atora 9° intended 109 24 C 43 by small fruits have Frayed 9 sparaxis cling have golden party mender yellow flash the Stow Aleburgia Incarnota Centre Itadidus bhilli Alba # B= Pharmadrasta chloraced from # Pendula # Hydenths named D=Lachenalia Tricoler S. # Augainth noned ++: Tritonia Aurea sincerely Monthratia croco # tb Milla Bifire # 6 Dauble Ixias maraines Other narcisions X cling Kloom the grand Managere Narcisions 5 Srand Managine Narcissing the R Mixed Tulips good Parent 7. with Phinosi Rifers july Aug # myed Ew 426 quantities and varying kinds of material. the chosen spot of all the earth as far as nature is Moreover, Burbank was naturally inclined to concerned." The climate was "perfect." He had trust to memory and (as he never claimed to be taken a long walk "and found enough curious trying to add to scientific knowledge) he concen- plants in a wild spot of about an acre to set a trated on recording the finished product rather botanist wild," such as "the wild yam which I than the means of obtaining it-therefore, the hunted for so much in New England, also the notations which he left at times provide in- yerba buena, a vine which has a pleasant taste adequate data for those studying his work. like peppermint." Burbank meant "to get a The notebooks include nursery plan books; piece of land (hire or buy) and plant it, then I scattered records of yearly planting, modifica- can do other work just the same." The result was tion, and yield of various species and hybrids; his purchase of the first tract at Santa Rosa. records of the purchase of experimental mate- Several of Burbank's personal diaries are rial which illustrate Burbank's diligence in ob- present. One records a return journey to Mas- taining seeds and plants from various parts of sachusetts in 1888, and illustrates his rural Yan- the world for propagation and modification; kee frugality. Burbank spent $64.75 for tickets and general sales records which document the and subsisted on inexpensive meals supple- "business" aspect of Burbank's activities and in- mented by nuts and fruits, SO that his entire dicate the recipients of his material and the prof- expenditure for the eight-day journey to Wor- its he received. There is a considerable volume cester was only $78.75. (At this time Burbank's of typescript records of genera and species he profit from sales was over ten thousand dollars a kept in cultivation (again providing information year, a very substantial income for a nursery- about the extremely wide original geographical man in 1888, but a considerable amount of his distribution of his plants and the extensive income was used for perpetuating his farms and range of his species within the botanical king- purchasing new stock.) dom). These records include various ideas for There is an extensive general corre- further research on individual species and varia- spondence, and in many cases drafts or carbons tions. of Burbank's letters have been retained. There Several scrapbooks consist of small manu- are many exchanges with Burbank's sources of script and typed notes concerning seeds and material, as well as inquiries and orders in re- plants received and distributed. In some cases sponse to his seed catalogs. Although much of separate data were kept for the original farm the correspondence derived from public adula- (now in downtown Santa Rosa) and the tract at tion and some was simply "fan mail," Burbank Sebastopol, some miles away, which Burbank wrote to and received letters from a wide spec- later purchased because he needed more space trum of scientists, naturalists, horticulturists, au- for the vast numbers of plants he cultivated. thors, and public men from Henry Ford and There are many drawings of fruits and other Edwin Markham to Thomas A. Edison and products of his experiments, and sketches illus- David Starr Jordan. trating attempts at grafting and other tech- Some of the correspondence and other man- niques. Although these are of great interest, uscript materials are embellished by explanatory they also are of uneven value because many lack notes in the last Mrs. Burbank's hand. For sufficient data for proper evaluation. example, an exchange of letters between Bur- Personal materials include a variety of family bank and the famous naturalist and conser- records beginning with Burbank's childhood in vationist John Muir (who had also been a Lancaster and his attendance at the academy. pioneer California horticulturist) indicates that The family correspondence is valuable as there even in 1910 the two had not met personally; are many letters written and received by Bur- Muir wrote that it was "strange how people so bank, some as early as 1857. For example, dur- near are SO long kept apart. when I have ing and after the journey to California he kept thought of visiting I have always imagined you his family informed of his progress and impres- overwhelmed and inaccessible in a crowd." Mrs. sions; reaching his destination, he wrote: "I Burbank's attached note explains that some time firmly believe from what I have seen that this is later Muir and Burbank met by accident in San 427 Francisco. "They recognized each other and hoc group (October 977-April 1978), was to neither said a word but with their arms around mobilize public support for ratification of the each other's shoulders went on up Market treaties. Historians of foreign policy will be in- Street." terested in the composition of the committee, At an early period Burbank realized the value the scope of its activities, and its impact upon of photography in recording the course and re- one of the most heated Senate debates in Amer- sults of plant breeding. His papers include over ican diplomatic history. a thousand prints and another large quantity of Large and important additions also were glass plate negatives which document his work, made to several existing collections. Among although, as is true of other materials, relevant these were approximately 350,000 items of data are sometimes lacking. There are many WPA records. Included in this addition are family photographs and an interesting series of Federal Theater Project play production rec- prints depicting Burbank at work and receiving ords. The material consists of play readers' re- guests at Santa Rosa. Numerous prints record ports, drama and research files, production the appearance of Burbank's plots, buildings, notebooks, programs, playbills posters, play- greenhouses, and interiors at various periods. scripts, radioscripts, and scrapbooks. Some When the collection is organized for reader use, eighty-five thousand items of correspondence, these materials will be transferred to the Li- committee files, financial records, administrative brary's Prints and Photographs Division. files, and reports were added to the records of Among the papers is a series of scrapbooks of the American Psychological Association. A large carefully identified press notices concerning addition (close to thirty-nine thousand items) Burbank and his work. These begin with initial was also received from the Leadership Confer- accounts of the new potato before his departure ence on Civil Rights. The bulk of the material for California and gradually swell in number comprises correspondence, subject files, and and frequency. Burbank subscribed to an espe- task force reports. cially efficient clipping service, so that the vast material in the scrapbooks serves as a well- documented source of information about his Reproductions public image. There are also reprints of more scholarly assessments and a large quantity of Among the Library's manuscript collections ephemeral printed materials, including a sup- published in microfilm editions in 1978 were the posedly complete series of Burbank's catalogs papers of Carrie Chapman Catt, feminist and assembled by the estate. suffragette; Supreme Court Justice John Mar- A selection of Burbank's papers has been re- shall Harlan; Richard Olney, President Cleve- tained by the city of Santa Rosa, according to the land's attorney general and secretary of state; terms of gift, for display in the Burbank home, and Joseph Pulitzer II (1885-1955), editor and which is being converted into a museum. The publisher of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Portions Library has microfilmed the approximately one of collections filmed for reader use included the thousand items conveyed to the city SO that the diaries and notebooks (1900-19) of Wilbur and entire body of papers is represented in the Orville Wright; the letterbooks (1882-1909) of Manuscript Division. career diplomat Henry White; and the diaries (1865-98) of John Russell Young, journalist, diplomat, and Librarian of Congress. Archives and Records Microfilm publications of collections in other repositories accessioned by the Library included From the Committee of Americans for the the papers of Thomas Jefferson at the Univer- Canal Treaties, Inc. the division received a sity of Virginia, James A. Garfield at the Ohio one-volume brief history detailing its origins Historical Society, Henry L. Stimson at Yale and operations during the period of national University, George Washington Carver at Tus- debate over the ratification of the Panama Canal kegee Institute, J. Sterling Morton at the Ne- treaties. The purpose of the committee, an ad braska State Historical Society, David Starr