Arboriculture & Urban Forestry 48(6): November 2022 Arboriculture & Urban Forestry 2022. 48(6):333–346 https://doi.org/10.48044/jauf.2022.025 URBAN FORESTRY ARBORICULTURE Scientific Journal of the International Society of Arboriculture & Forgotten Contributions: The Overlooked Impact of Ellen Harrison and Early 20th Century Women in Urban Greening By Maggie L. McNulty and Lara A. Roman Abstract. Many women and women-run associations were involved in historical urban beautification in the United States, especially tree plant- ing, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. While men had formal roles as city foresters, arborists, horticulturalists, and landscape architects, women from elite families sometimes labored for free to organize and advocate for urban tree planting. Tightly knit social circles of high-society women in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, yielded much greater influence in nascent tree planting and park creation movements than has generally been recognized. They often contributed their time, finances, input, and skill to landscape planting projects; however, they were not considered equal to the men who were compensated employees. These women planted, plotted, studied, and persevered, overcoming preconceived notions of womanhood, although their meaningful efforts were often viewed as merely an offshoot of their feminine domestic role. For women, limited by opportunities in male-dominated arenas, shaping their cities was a socially accepted means for empowerment. Ellen Waln Harrison (1846 to 1922) was a key figure in civic beautification in her hometown of Philadelphia and beyond. Ellen Harrison was married to Charles Custis Harrison, Provost of the University of Pennsylvania, and she personally oversaw campus landscaping efforts, and was referred to as his “right hand.” Her story is emblematic of a larger trend regarding women in botany, horticulture, and urban forestry around the turn of the 20th century. Keywords. Campus Landscape; Gender; Urban Beautification; Urban Forest History; Urban Tree Planting. INTRODUCTION In his resignation speech in 1910, Charles Harrison, Provost of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadel- phia, USA, proclaimed that, “The visible signs of Mrs. Harrison’s work are many, but the invisible are greater, and what Mrs. Harrison has done for the University will never be known” (The University Archives and Records Center 1910). Ellen Waln Harrison (hereafter referred to as Harrison)(Figure 1) led the greening and beautification of the university’s campus during her husband’s tenure (1894 to 1910). Harrison was an important figure in Philadelphia’s high society, and her advocacy and fundraising for these causes were representative of similar developments throughout the United States. Yet while Harrison was sometimes recognized for her work during her husband’s provost- ship, she was—as predicted by her husband—quickly forgotten in the dominant historical narrative about urban greening on campus and in Philadelphia. Harrison initiated the first efforts to beautify the University of Pennsylvania campus (Thomas and Brownlee 2000). In 1921, however, an article was published in Garden Magazine by John Harshberger, botany professor at the university, about the green spaces on and near the campus. The article credited botany professor John Muirhead MacFarlane with creating Hamilton Walk and the Botanic Garden—2 spaces that formed the campus core in the late 19th century—completely omitting Harrison’s advocacy, fundraising, and labor (Roman et al. 2017). However, in a letter to Harrison’s granddaughter in 1977, a uni- versity archivist stated, “The entire campus was under [Harrison’s] direction. Every tree, shrub and blade of grass that grew on the campus she either had planted or supervised and she paid for the lot” (The Univer- sity Archives and Records Center 1977). As a profes- sor who was active on campus during Charles Harrison’s provostship, it is unlikely that Harshberger ©2022 International Society of Arboriculture 333
November 2022
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