Object number2005.36.11

Common Sassafras (Sassafras albidum, looking over Fonteyn Kill toward Skinner Hall)

Date2004

Artist Lois Conner (American, born 1951)

CultureAmerican

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsSheet: 17 x 7 in. (43.18 x 17.78 cm)

Credit LineGfit of Mark Schwartz in honor of Frances Daly Fergusson

Period20th c

Classification(s)

Photograph

Signedverso: signed in pencil (top right)

Inscribedverso: Trees overlooking Shakespere Garden (pencil; bottom)

Vassar Exhibitions

The Botanist at Vassar

Label TextOne of the most cherished aspects of Vassar’s campus is its status as an arboretum, which serves as an invaluable tool for teaching, learning, and research. The Arboretum has changed in various ways throughout the College’s history, expanding each year on Arbor Day with the ceremonial planting of a Class Tree, and contracting as new construction changes the topography of the land. More than twenty years ago, photographer Lois Conner photographed trees on the Vassar campus, making black and white photographs in an unusual vertical format to emphasize their shape and scale. This photograph, along with the others in the series, features species planted by Edith Roberts and her students in the 1920s and 1930s—including basswood, red oak, and white oak, noted by hand in her field guide from 1908—as well as views of the campus area once occupied by the Ecological Lab, which she founded.

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email loebcollections@vassar.edu