Kate Sessions did not leave a collected archive of her business records, letters and personal papers, although a few scattered documents, scrapbooks, diaries and correspondence have been collected by San Diego institutions. Sessions was known to maintain an active correspondence, with connections across California, the United States and as far away as South Africa. Her letters are held in the archives of some of these correspondents. Currently, the David Fairchild archive holds the largest known collection of Sessions’ letters and the Elizabeth MacPhail papers at the San Diego History Center offer the widest variety of materials documenting Sessions’ life. Additional letters written by Sessions may become available in the future as archival collections are processed and holdings are posted on the internet.
Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley
Francesco Franceschi Papers, 1904-1918
Collection number: BANC MSS 70/11 c
Incoming Letters [Boxes 5-19]: 71 letters and postcards from Kate O. Sessions
Franceschi established a nursery in Santa Barbara in 1893 and became known for the number of exotic plants he imported and acclimatized. Sessions was a family friend as well as a professional colleague. Much of this correspondence regards sales of plants between their two businesses, with shipping on the coastal steamer.
Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley
William E. Ritter Papers, 1879-1944
Collection number: BANC MSS 71/3 c
Incoming Letters: 1 letter from Kate O. Sessions
William Emerson Ritter (1856-1944) was a zoologist and marine biologist instrumental in establishing what is today known as the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego.
California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco. Special Collections
Alice Eastwood Papers
Collection number: MSS.14
Series 3: Correspondence: 35 cards and letters from Kate O. Sessions, 1913-1938
Sessions’ earliest correspondence with her close friend, Alice Eastwood, is assumed to have been lost in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. In this combination of professional exchanges and personal communications, Sessions discloses financial and health problems as well as a spirited sense of fun and friendship. Sessions confesses to missing the more enlivened intellectual stimulation of the Bay Area compared to her professional life in San Diego.
Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden, Coral Gables, Florida
Special Collections of the Montgomery Library
David G. Fairchild Papers
Correspondence: 72 letters from Kate O. Sessions
In a correspondence spanning 20 years, Sessions exchanges plant information and horticultural developments with a top official of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Sessions and Fairchild met in 1919 when he made an official USDA visit to California. Fairchild nominated Sessions for the Meyer Medal awarded to her in 1939.
Indiana University, Bloomington
Rosa Smith Eigenmann Papers, 1880-1927
Collection number: C59
Correspondence: three letters from Kate O. Sessions, 1881
Digitally reproduced at: https://digital-collections.apps.iu.edu/concern/archival_materials/qz20sw295?locale=en&query=sessions
In long letters to her close friend, pioneering ichthyologist Rosa Smith, Sessions describes festivities surrounding her college graduation and various domestic activities as she continued to reside with her parents. Lamenting a lack of direction, she speaks of mutual friends, an interest in minerals, a desire to travel in Europe, family camping plans and a botany class she is taking through the Ebell Society with Oakland botanist Sarah Plummer Lemmon. As the year ends, Sessions reports applying for a teaching position in Oakland.
National Agricultural Library, Beltsville, Maryland
K.O. Sessions Nursery: Lists of Chrysanthemums and Roses, 4 pps. No date.
San Diego City Clerk’s Archive
Kate Sessions, 1891-1940
Digitally reproduced at: https://www.sandiego.gov/digitalarchives/collections/kate-sessions
A digitized collection of documents tracing Sessions’ official interactions and business dealings with the City of San Diego. Sessions’ 1891 petition requesting a lease of City Park land and the ordinance granting the lease are present, as is a record of trees she planted over one year in City Park (later Balboa Park).
San Diego History Center Document Collection
Elizabeth MacPhail Papers
Box 1: Research materials and early drafts of a book about Sessions.
MacPhail published the definitive Sessions biography, Kate Sessions: Pioneer Horticulturist, in 1976. The scope and thoroughness of her pre-internet research for this book is demonstrated in this collection. Typescripts of the personal interviews MacPhail conducted are unique resources in the documentation of Sessions’ life.
Box 1, File 1: Misc. Notes MacPhail: Sessions: Pioneer Horticulturalist
Newspaper clippings and typed and handwritten notes on newspaper articles.
Kate’s Canyon Tumbleweed Trail: A Guide to the Natural Growth Area at Kate Sessions Elementary School. Booklet from a school natural history project.
Handwritten and typed research notes for Sessions biography.
Typed transcription of the will of Kate O. Sessions, Jan. 13, 1940; and subsequent probate proceedings.
Typescript “Who Was Kate Sessions” by Mrs. Raymond Smith, founder of the City Beautiful Club.
Copies of letters seeking information on Sessions; including to UC Berkeley, Hawaii steamship company, Huntington Botanical Library.
Copies of articles on the Meyer Medal
Handwritten notes from Alice Rainford with many personal recollections of Kate Sessions (“KOS”).
Sessions family tree.
Copies of pages in the Oakland and San Francisco city directories.
Information on Sessions’ employment as a teacher from the Records of the Board of Trustees, San Diego School District.
Copies of letters from Mary P. (Mrs. O.W.) Gates, China missionary cousin of Sessions (Mar. 18, 1892, and May 14, 1892).
Copy of Bill of Sale dated Sept. 4, 1909, for transaction in which Sessions sold her florist business to Alice Rainford.
Information on Townshend Stith Brandegee, engineer and botanist who led Baja expedition in 1902 that Sessions joined.
Copy of article on Mary B. Coulston, secretary to the Park Committee and friend of Sessions (obituary July 18, 1904).
Copy of contract for placing cacti in garden at Hotel del Coronado, Oct. 7, 1904.
Box 1, File 2: Interviews for MacPhail’s biography of Kate Sessions
Several typed interviews with people who knew Sessions.
Handwritten notes on plants Sessions introduced and promoted and people she knew.
Copy of letter from Mrs. Raymond I. (Alice) Carroll describing Sessions on morning after receiving Meyer Medal and deciphering meaning of the medal’s symbols.
Letter from Dr. J. T. Lipe describing Sessions’ last illness.
Will of Ellen Sessions (aunt) and information on Kate Sessions’ guardianship.
Transcriptions of newspaper articles on Sessions court appearance.
Notes on Museum of Natural History Scrapbook.
Photocopy of Milton Sessions letter in Southern California Rancher on early poinsettia growing in San Diego.
Detailed information on lots owned by Kate and Frank Sessions in Lemon Grove.
Photocopies of San Diego Union articles on Sessions’ visit to Hawaii in 1925-26.
Box 1, File 3: Sessions Real Property Notes for MacPhail’s Biography of Sessions
Steno book with notes on property purchases from County grantee records.
Typed information on properties owned by Mrs. Ellen Sessions; hand-drawn maps.
Several hand-drawn maps of Sessions’ property locations.
Typed list of properties acquired by Kate O. Sessions.
Typed notes from San Diego directories on the Blaisdells.
Mission Hills map drawn by Milton Sessions showing poinsettia fields and locations of nursery and Sessions’ residences.
Other hand-drawn maps of Mission Hills nursery site.
Typed list of Sessions’ residences; notes on directory listings.
Box 1, File 4: (unmarked)
Various issues of California Garden with articles about Sessions.
Box 1 (item not in folder)
Issue of Historic Preservation, Oct.-Dec. 1972.
Box 1, File 5: Typescript: “Kate Sessions: Pioneer Horticulturist”
Typed draft of MacPhail’s biography of Sessions, arranged by chapter and bearing editorial marks and corrections.
Mission Beach Women’s Club. Records, papers, 1928. [Papers include a note by Kate Sessions discussing plants.]
Oakland High School. [Diploma: Kate Sessions . . . May 28, 1875.]
Sessions, Kate O. Nurseries: Papers
Includes three pages of hand drawn diagrams by Elizabeth MacPhail showing Sessions’ nursery locations (streets and lots) in Coronado, downtown San Diego, and at Balboa Park.
San Diego History Center Document Collection
Kate Olivia Sessions Papers: 1876-1940
Collection number: MS 38
Diaries kept by Sessions during her high school years recording family news, social activities, books she was reading and the names of various friends. From her 1925 trip to Europe there are numerous notebooks with her quick travel notes and sketches, plants on view and people met. Correspondence, scrapbooks and published articles are included in this collection.
San Diego History Center Document Collection
Residence for Mr. A. H. Sweet. Drawing. Architecture
AD 1077-001 F1-D3 Box 1, File 4
Plan of Outside East Garden by Kate Sessions.
This is a rare garden plan drawn on paper by Sessions.
San Diego Museum of Natural History Research Library
Sessions (Kate) Papers, 1879-1940
One box of manuscript notes, drafts and typescripts relating to landscaping and horticulture. A scrapbook, notebooks, drawings, speech notes, college class notes, clippings and some correspondence, notably with Alice Eastwood.
San Diego Central Public Library, Special Collections
Kate Sessions Cabinet, 1840-1987
Reputedly once owned by Sessions, this wooden desktop piece of furniture was donated to the library by Mrs. Donal Hord. It is filled with miscellaneous items, unrelated to Sessions, but collected by the library staff, including calendars, almanacs, advertising cards, greeting cards, bookmarks, clippings and coins.
Kate O. Sessions Collection
Two books owned by Sessions, notebooks compiled by Sessions (possibly the planning for her Los Altos Road home garden), and two collections of clippings. These scrapbooks, compiled by the public library staff over a span of years are goldmines of miscellaneous newspaper stories, letters (written to and from Sessions), receipts, plant lists, and some of the last letters Sessions wrote before her death on March 24, 1940.
San Francisco Public Library, San Francisco History Center
John McLaren Collection
Collection number: SDH 22
Received correspondence, Series 1 Box 2, one telegram and one letter
Sessions had a long and cordial relationship with McLaren, the superintendent of San Francisco public parks who oversaw Golden Gate Park. Sessions visited McLaren and his family when in San Francisco and the two horticulturists traded plants and advice over many years. Her letter is very frank about the struggle to maintain her business.
Western Union Telegram from Miss K. O. Sessions. April 11, 1918
John McLaren. Supt. Golden Gate Park San Francisco
Could you send our Floral society a list of some of the most beneficial donations to Golden Gate Park and a few comments by yourself if you have the leisure. We will use it Tuesday Evening April sixteenth the subject is parks and donations send it to me by special delivery some marked articles in your annual report will probably suffice.
Miss K O Sessions.
Letter from Sessions, October 20, 1918 [original style and punctuation]
Miss K. O. Sessions
San Diego Nursery Gardens
1628 West Lewis St.
Oct 20, 1918
My dear Mr. McLaren,
The fine tree fern arrived promptly and I have it planted in a big ½ barrel & set in the glass house for this winter. I thank you for this treasure and hope I can grow it successfully. It will be admired and serve as an incentive for more beautiful planting of ferns by the Floral Association in particular–as well as many other plant lovers.
The two at the Huntington place are looking well & as our climate is just as good if not a little better than San Gabriel. I hope to see it growing very well.
As soon as this war is over & I can sell my land I want to build a home for myself & one of its features is to be a good sized lath house to serve as an outside sitting room. Then my big tree fern will be in the right place. The war news is so good these late days that we can begin to feel that the end will come. San Diego City & Country raised an extra million in her bond sales–but the leaders worked very hard indeed.
I have one & possibly two new begonias–sent from Guayaquil, Ecuador. The large one is quite striking and individual in its foliage. We have not seen anything like it–but it is not old enough to bloom. The other seedling is too small yet to show its individuality. I shall be very glad to send some to the Park as soon as they show what they will be. Garden making is at a very low ebb & I am having a hard struggle to keep on going, but I keep hoping that there will soon be a change for the better. The lath house fever with the fine begonias & ferns that flourish there is increasing. Each year sees a few more established.
I hope that Mrs. McLaren & yourself are very well. Please give Mrs. McLaren my kindest regards & the next time I am in S.F. I shall hope to see you both.
Again I wish to thank you for the fine big Cyathea mederlaris.
Very Cordially yours, Kate O. Sessions
The letter you sent to the Floral Association on “Gifts to Parks” was appreciated & helpful to our cause–Keeping up the interest in such deeds.
University of California, Los Angeles, Library, Department of Special Collections
Collection of Nursery Catalogs, ca. 1900-1988
Collection number: 1207
Undated Kate O. Sessions Nursery Catalog
University of California, San Diego, Mandeville Special Collections Library
Ed Fletcher Papers, 1870-1955
MSS 81, Box 24, Folder 35,
Correspondence with Kate O. Sessions regarding landscaping. Ed Fletcher was a Sessions contemporary who was a civic leader, land developer and member of the California State Senate. He gave Sessions land in Grossmont where she built a cabin.