Alumnus and Oregon State College faculty member, Arthur G.B. Bouquet was born in England in 1885. He came to Oregon Agricultural College (OAC) in 1902 to study horticulture and completed a BS degree in 1906. After graduation, he was appointed the Assistant in Floriculture. In 1908, he attended the Massachusetts Agricultural College (in Amherst) and returned to OAC in 1909 to become an instructor in the Horticulture Department. Bouquet specialized in the study and instruction of vegetable gardening. In 1929-30, Bouquet attended Cornell University and earned a master's degree. He was a founding member of the Triad Club and was active in the Oregon State Horticultural Society. Bouquet retired in 1950 and died in 1971.
In 1912, Bouquet married Mary Grace Wilson, the daughter of Lafayette Yantis Wilson and Inez Irene St. Clair and member of a pioneer Benton County family. Mary Grace Wilson Bouquet died in 1941. They had no children.
Bouquet's sister-in law, Bertha St. Clair Wilson married Joseph Ganong; she died in 1960. Her daughter, Bouquet's niece, Joanne St. Clair Ganong, married Charles E. Norton. Joanne Norton died in 1996.
The Bouquet Collection pertains to Horticulture Professor Arthur G. B. Bouquet and the family of his wife Mary Grace Wilson; it consists of biographical and genealogical materials and photographs. The collection appears to have been assembled by Bouquet's niece, Joanne Ganong Norton.
The biographical and genealogical materials include Bouquet's birth and U.S. naturalization certificates, correspondence, genealogical research materials, newspaper clippings, and related documents. The bulk of the genealogical materials document the Wilson and Ganong families.
The photographs consists of 18 photographic prints and 107 color slides. The prints (circa 1880 to 1940s) include images of Bouquet, Mary Grace Wilson and her family, unidentified family groups and children, Bouquet's home at 35th and Polk streets in Corvallis, and images of Bouquet with Oregon State College faculty groups. Of especial note are an 1890s photograph of the Wilson family at their home in Corvallis and an 1890 panoramic print of Corvallis taken from the water tower. The color slides were made in the early 1960s by Bouquet to document urban gardens and flora in Europe (Salzburg, Geneva, Denmark) and during trips to the Snake River and Wallowa Mountains in eastern Oregon.
Collection is open for research.
Arthur G.B. Bouquet Collection, Oregon State University Archives, Corvallis, Oregon.
The Archives' collections include the records of the