Thomas H. Everett papers

T. H. Everett (1903-1986), a staff member of the NYBG for 55 years, was one of the world's leading horticultural authorities and educators. Mr.Everett had an international reputation as a horticulturist, author, lecturer, educator and consultant. His influence in the field of horticulture was magnified through those who learned from him as a teacher, those who worked with him as a gardener and those who relied on his publications for horticultural information. At various times in his career at the Garden, he headed the education, horticulture and maintenance divisions.

Born in Woolton, England in 1903, he gained horticultural training early on by working on several estate gardens. He enrolled in a three year horticultural course at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in 1925. Arriving in American in 1927, his first position was gardener on the estate of Samuel Untermeyer in Yonkers, New York. The following year he moved to a position as head of greenhouses and estate gardens for H. E. Manville in Pleasantville, New York where he worked with the renowned landscape architect Beatrix Farrand. In 1930 he returned to England to take his final examination for the coveted National Diploma of Horticulture, awarded jointly by the British government and the Royal Horticultural Society.

In 1932 he was offered a position as Horticulturist and Head Gardener at the New York Botanical Garden. He was successively promoted to Horticulturist and Head of Education in 1934, Assistant Director of Horticulture and Senior Curator of Education in 1959, Director of Horticulture and Senior Curator of Education in 1967 and Senior Horticulture Specialist in 1968 at which time he set aside most of his duties to concentrate on the compilation of his Encyclopedia. He designed and supervised the construction of the renowned rock garden, which was eventually named in his honor. He was a founding member of the American Rock Garden Society. He also designed, developed and installed the famous NYBG rose garden and numerous lavish conservatory displays.

He traveled widely throughout the world in his work and was a tour leader for many horticultural trips offered by Linblad Travel. The recipient of almost every medal and citation the horticultural world has to offer, he was also a participant on numerous television and radio programs. Over a twenty year period he answered gardening questions for the Herald Tribune and several gardening magazines. He authored the sections on Trees and Houseplants in the Encyclopedia Britannica. He served as landscape consultant for both the Port Authority of New York and the Staten Island Botanical Garden. Called the patron saint of Wave Hill, a 28 acre former estate in the Bronx with gardens, greenhouses and striking views of the Hudson River, Everett made an appeal to New York City Parks Commissioner Thomas Hoving to preserve this garden for the public. In 1982 an alpine greenhouse there was dedicated and named in his honor.

Founder of the acclaimed New York Botanical Garden School of Horticulture, Everett was deeply concerned throughout his career with effective public and professional gardening and horticultural education. Appointed Curator of Education in 1954 and Senior Curator of Education in 1959, he initiated a program of instruction for professional gardeners in 1932 which continued until 1942. This program produced a group of outstanding American horticulturists who later occupied important positions in the U.S. and abroad. As Senior Curator of Education, he organized three major certificate programs in botany, gardening and landscape gardening. In 1957 he instituted the Children's Gardencraft Program in which over 200 children a year cultivate their own garden plots. In 1963, he organized the highly successful Municipal Cooperative Trainee Gardener Program for New York City high school students.

Perhaps his greatest accomplishment is authoring the ten volume New York Botanical Garden Illustrated Encyclopedia of Horticulture upon which he labored 14 years to produce. He took most of the 11,500 photographs himself. The first of its kind to be published since that of L. H. Bailey in 1914, it is considered one of the most complete horticultural reference works and a benchmark in the field. Much of his success he attributed to his secretary Lillian Weber who had been with him for over fifty years and to his longtime friend Miss Elizabeth Hall, Chief Librarian of the New York Botanical Garden. Both of these women assisted Everett in the compilation of his monumental Encyclopedia. Both he and Miss Hall were recipients of the New York Botanical Garden Distinguished Service Award in 1969. All three of these friends founded and operated the Garden's Plant Information Office from 1981 through 1986.