Pennsylvania Horticultural Society - PHS Archives Digital Image Collection

About This Collection

This collection documents activities and projects undertaken by or in partnership with the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society from its inception in 1827 to the 21st Century (apart from Philadelphia Flower Show documentation, which is in a separate collection). The bulk of the material is from originals dating from 1940 - 2010. Consisting of scanned documents and photographic images, born-digital images, and digitized video and audio clips, this collection documents Philadelphia-area horticultural activity including: WWII Victory Garden Harvest Shows; PHS’s work from 1970s forward on urban greening projects created in concert with community leaders and activists; major projects on public landscape revitalization; and vacant land stabilization. This collection traces the trajectory of PHS’s urban greening initiatives starting in the 1970s as its Philadelphia Green program, which, over time, helped Philadelphians create hundreds of community gardens, plant thousands of trees to beautify and cool the city’s streets, to revitalize Philadelphia’s neighborhood parks and to bring new life to iconic public landscapes. Additionally, the collection includes digital images of Meadowbrook Farm a 25-acre property in Abington, Pennsylvania, bequeathed to PHS in 2003 and material related to PHS’s first Pop Up Garden in 2011. The collection is supported in part through a 2020 NEH Cares Grant, National Endowment for the Humanities.

Planting the first tree in the “10,000 Trees” project. Left to right: Paul Rosenbaum, PHS; Mayor Frank Rizzo; Ernesta Ballard, PHS; and Teddy Welgoss, PHS. The “10,000 Trees” campaign was a Bicentennial project spearheaded by PHS to plant trees in Philadelphia city parks. The Shingle Oak, Quercus imbricaria, was one of the 10 planted in Penn Treaty Park on December 10, 1973.

In this 1973 photograph, Mayor Frank Rizzo helps school children plant first tree in Penn Treaty Park as part of “10,000 Trees” campaign, a Bicentennial project spearheaded by PHS to plant trees in Philadelphia city parks. The Shingle Oak, Quercus imbricaria, was one of the 10 planted in Penn Treaty Park on December 10, 1973.

One of the five major Bicentennial projects launched by PHS was “10,000 Trees,” a tree-planting initiative to plant 10,000 trees in Philadelphia owned and maintained parks. The project goal was two-fold: to increase our urban tree canopy and to revitalize and bring attention to Philadelphia parks. 4L is Philadelphia Mayor Frank Rizzo; PHS leader Ernesta D. Ballard is in the center. Varient photo in 1977 yearbook page 25. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/212301#page/31/mode/1up

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