Arboretum of the Barnes Foundation

Captain Joseph Lapsley Wilson once owned the land on which the Gallery and the Arboretum of the Barnes Foundation are situated. He began planting a number of trees as early as the 1880s. When Dr. and Laura Barnes purchased the property in 1922, they agreed to preserve Wilson's plantings, which became the nucleus of the Arboretum. Laura Barnes, with the support of Dr. Barnes and Dr. John Fogg, carefully enhanced the living collections to over 3,000 species/varieties of woody plants gathered from different sources around the world. The diversity of species and varieties growing in such a modest area is one of the most noteworthy features of the Arboretum.