Washington State University’s Arboretum Committee was first created in 1975 as a subcommittee to the WSU Land Use Committee. It migrated through a variety of names, including the Rural Life Center and Arboretum Committee, the Arboretum and Rural Life Center Committee, the Arboretum and Botanical Garden Committee, before settling on the Arboretum Committee.
The collection consists of minutes, correspondence, and documents relevant to the work of Washington State University’s Arboretum Committee. They primarily cover 1984-2006, though a small quantity of earlier documents are included. The major project focus is the creation and maintenance of a WSU Arboretum, primarily the Alumni Arboretum but including other spaces. That arboretum was dedicated on October 2, 1999. Other topics includes campus tree plantings, monitoring the campus tree replacement policy, tree protection, the protection of Roundtop during the golf course reworking, and consulting prior to new construction regarding the protection of the existing plant life. In many years, the committee conducted “campus walk-arounds,” walking tours of campus, usually in the summer or fall, noting potential plant-life issues.
The collection is arranged primarily chronologically. A few subject based folders are included at the end, and photographic materials often receive a folder after the papers from their year of creation.
This collection is open and available for research use.
Copyright restrictions may apply.
[Item Description]
Washington State University Arboretum Committee Records, 1974-2006
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.
Records of Washington State University’s Arboretum Committee were donated to the WSU Libraries’ Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections on Oct. 7, 2010 by Kappy Brun, grounds supervisor in WSU’s Facilities Operations department. They were retained as UA2010-12.
This collection was processed in June, 2019 by University Archivist Mark O’English. Large quantities of duplicate documents were discarded, as were publications from other institutions. A DVD of photographs and a VCR tape were digitized, and originals retained in the collection, during processing. These digital files are retained in the MASC’s archival storage.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.