Teahouse and pool in Merion, 1934–35. Photograph by Frank A. Schrepfer. Photograph Collection, Barnes Foundation Archives
About the Exhibition
In 1922, Dr. Albert C. Barnes purchased property in Merion, Pennsylvania, to build a home for his recently chartered educational institution, the Barnes Foundation. The land, owned by Civil War veteran and railroad executive Captain Joseph Lapsley Wilson, was originally a private arboretum. As part of the sale, Dr. Barnes agreed to “conserve, increase, and improve the arboretum already established upon the said tract of ground.” Wilson continued to work with the arboretum, serving as its first director. Mrs. Barnes and other professionals collected and gathered plants of local, national, and international origins, adding to Wilson’s original collection of more than 200 specimen trees. Over the years, new design elements were added by notable landscape architects including Frank Schrepfer, David Melrose, and John Kistler.