The Morton Arboretum, in

Lisle, Illinois Lisle ( ) is a village in DuPage County, Illinois, United States. The population was 22,390 at the 2010 census, and in 2019 the population was recorded to be 23,270. It is part of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Illinois Technology and Resea ...

, United States, is a public garden, and outdoor museum with a library, herbarium, and program in tree research including the Center for Tree Science. Its grounds, covering 1,700

acre The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imp ...

s (6.9 square kilometres), include cataloged collections of trees and other living plants, gardens, and restored areas, among which is a restored tallgrass

prairie Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...

. The living collections include more than 4,100 different plant species. There are more than 200,000 cataloged plants. As a place of recreation, the Arboretum has hiking trails, roadways for driving and bicycling, a interactive children's garden and a maze. The Schulenberg Prairie at the Arboretum was one of the earliest prairie restoration projects in the Midwest, begun in 1962. It is one of the largest restored prairies in the Chicago suburban area. The Arboretum offers an extensive nature-centered education program for children, families, school groups, scouts, and adults, including tree and restoration professionals. The Woodland Stewardship Program offers classroom and online courses in ecological restoration techniques. The Arboretum also offers credit courses through the Associated Colleges of the Chicago Area, a regional consortium.

Mission

The stated mission of The Morton Arboretum is to collect and study trees, shrubs, and other plants from around the world, to display them across naturally beautiful landscapes for people to study and enjoy, and to learn how to grow them in ways that enhance the environment. Its stated goal is to encourage the planting and conservation of trees and other plants for a greener, healthier, and more beautiful world.

History

The arboretum was established on December 14, 1922, by

Joy Morton Joy Sterling Morton (September 27, 1855 – May 10, 1934) was an American businessman and entrepreneur best known for founding Morton Salt and establishing the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois. Biography He was born on September 27, 1855 in D ...

, founder of the

Morton Salt Morton Salt is an American food company producing salt for food, water conditioning, industrial, agricultural, and road/highway use. Based in Chicago, the business is North America's leading producer and marketer of salt. It is a subsidiary of h ...

Company. Morton's father,

Julius Sterling Morton Julius Sterling Morton (April 22, 1832 – April 27, 1902) was a Nebraska newspaper editor and politician who served as President Grover Cleveland's Secretary of Agriculture. He was a prominent Bourbon Democrat, taking a conservative position o ...

, had founded

Arbor Day Arbor Day (or Arbour in some countries) is a secular day of observance in which individuals and groups are encouraged to plant trees. Today, many countries observe such a holiday. Though usually observed in the spring, the date varies, dependi ...

. Morton's daughter, Jean Cudahy (Morton) took her father's seat on the board of trustees after he died in 1934. The arboretum's first superintendent was Clarence E. Godshalk, who had received a master's degree in landscape design from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

in 1921. Joy Morton's Thornhill Estate, established in 1910, formed the core of the Arboretum's original area. In 1940, Mrs. Cudahy hired

May Theilgaard Watts May Petrea Theilgaard Watts (1 May 1893 – 20 August 1975) was an American naturalist, writer, poet, illustrator, and educator. She was a naturalist at The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois, and author of ''Reading the Landscape of America''. ...

as a teacher in the new educational program. The Morton family requested an educational center be constructed on the site of their home. The estate was razed in the early 1940s following the death of Joy's wife Margaret. 1962 marked the beginning of the Schulenberg Prairie Restoration Project. Clarence Godshalk developed plans to create a buffer on the western border of the Arboretum. He called it "a native planting" and planned for it to be on farmland acquired by the Arboretum in the late 50s. He wanted to turn old farmland back into a prairie with seeds collected from prairies nearby. He asked Ray Schulenberg to take this on. Schulenberg developed restoration goals and began replicating composition, structure, and local gene pools of plants in local prairies. He studied all of this with

Floyd Swink Dr. Floyd Allen Swink (1921-2000) was an American botanist, teacher of natural history, and author of several flora (publication), floras of the Chicago region. Early life Floyd Swink was born in Villa Park, Illinois in 1921. While attending Y ...

, the Arboretum's taxonomist at the time, Robert Betz, a biologist, and David Kropp, a landscape architect.

Board of Trustees

The first chairman of the board of trustees for the Morton Arboretum was Joy Morton himself. Following his death in 1934, his daughter, Jean M. Cudahy (Morton), became chairman of the board. Jean died in 1953 and her brother, Sterling, became chairman of the board. When Sterling died in 1961, his daughter Suzette Morton Davidson took over his place as chairman of the board. in 1977, Suzette Morton retired and was replaced by the first person outside of the Morton family to be chairman of the board, Charles C. Hafner III. In 2000, W. Robert Reum took over as chairman of the board. As of 2014, Darrell B. Jackson has been chairman of the board of trustees.

Directors

In 1938, Clarence Godshalk was named director of the Morton Arboretum. He served for 28 years, before he retired in 1966. He was replaced by Dr. Marion Trufant Hall, who served as director until 1990, when Gerard T. Donnelly was named executive director and CEO.

Sterling Morton Library

Harry Weese Harry Mohr Weese (June 30, 1915 – October 29, 1998) was an American architect who had an important role in 20th century modernism and historic preservation. His brother, Ben Weese, is also a renowned architect. Early life and education Harry ...

, the Sterling Morton Library was constructed in 1963 and named after Sterling Morton, son of founder Joy Morton. It currently holds more than 30,000

book A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physical arr ...

s and

magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...

s, as well as tens of thousands of non-book items including

prints In molecular biology, the PRINTS database is a collection of so-called "fingerprints": it provides both a detailed annotation resource for protein families, and a diagnostic tool for newly determined sequences. A fingerprint is a group of conserve ...

, original art, letters, photographs,

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...

plans and drawings. The collections focus on plant sciences, especially on trees and shrubs; gardening and landscape design; ecology, with a special interest in Midwestern prairie,

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (see ...

, and

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...

s; natural history; and botanical art. Its catalog is online. The Library's Suzette Morton Davidson Special Collections includes books, artwork, historic nursery catalogs, landscape drawings, photographs, letters, maps and institutional documents. It also includes documents of

Jens Jensen Jens Jensen may refer to: * Jens Jensen (footballer) (1890–1957), Danish football (soccer) player who played one game for the Denmark national football team * Jens Jensen (landscape architect) (1860–1951), Danish-born landscape architect in Chi ...

, Marshall Johnson, O.C. Simonds and Donald Culross Peattie. The Sterling Morton Library is a member of the Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries.

Visitor Center

The Visitor Center was built in 2004 and designed by David Woodhouse Architects. The building includes wood representing the Arboretum's collections and incorporates sustainable features such as permeable pavers in the parking lots and local fieldstone salvaged from a predecessor building.

Illumination

An annual Illumination of tree lights is conducted at the Arboretum from the end of November until early January."Illumination: Tree Lights at The Morton Arboretum , The Morton Arboretum". ''www.mortonarb.org''. Retrieved 2020-04-23. Visitors are able to enjoy the light show, music, and beverages. The illumination section is along a mile-stretch of curved, paved pathway.IL 60532, 4100 Illinois Route 53 Lisle. "Illumination at the Morton Arboretum". ''Enjoy Illinois''. Retrieved 2020-04-26. The creation of the illumination occurred in 2013."About Illumination Designer John Featherstone , The Morton Arboretum". ''www.mortonarb.org''. Retrieved 2020-04-27. The creator is a lighting designer from the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

named

John Featherstone John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

. He started his career lighting many concerts and plays. Later he opened a museum, and then began his work at the Morton Arboretum.

References

External links

Morton Arboretum website

The Morton Arboretum at Google Cultural InstituteDavid Woodhouse Architects Images of Visitor CenterIllinois Great Places
{{Authority control Arboreta in Illinois Botanical gardens in Illinois Lisle, Illinois Protected areas of DuPage County, Illinois 1922 establishments in Illinois Nature centers in Illinois