Smithsonian Institution Archives

Finding Aids to Personal Papers and
Special Collections in the Smithsonian Institution Archives

Record Unit 7335
S. Stillman Berry Papers,
1880-1984

Introduction

Historical Note

Descriptive Entry

Series Descriptions

  Series 1. SCIENTIFIC CORRESPONDENCE AND RELATED MATERIAL, 1903-1984, AND UNDATED.

  Series 2. SCRIPPS INSTITUTION FOR BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH CORRESPONDENCE AND RELATED MATERIALS, 1913-1919, AND UNDATED.

  Series 3. HORTICULTURAL CORRESPONDENCE AND RELATED MATERIALS, 1914-1956, AND UNDATED.

  Series 4. PERSONAL CORRESPONDENCE, 1896-1984. ARRANGED ALPHABETICALLY.

  Series 5. FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE, 1880-1939, AND UNDATED.

  Series 6. UNIVERSITY AND ORGANIZATIONAL RECORDS, MEMORABILIA, AND RELATED MATERIALS, 1906-1920, 1922, 1927, 1956, AND UNDATED.

  Series 7. DIARIES AND RELATED MATERIALS, 1904-1905, 1911-1925, 1931-1940.

  Series 8. PHOTOGRAPHS.

  Series 9. BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS.


INTRODUCTION

This finding aid was digitized with funds generously provided by the Smithsonian Institution Women's Committee.

The Archives would like to thank Paul F. Allen, the executor of the Berry Estate for selecting the Smithsonian Institution Archives as home for the Berry papers; Phillip J. Livoni, a close associate of Drs. Allen and Berry, for his help in transferring the papers to the Archives; and, last but not least, Clyde F. L. Roper, National Museum of Natural History, for bringing us together with Dr. Allen.


HISTORICAL NOTE

S. Stillman Berry was the son of Ralph and Evelyn Crie Berry, settlers from Unity, Maine, who founded the Winnecook Ranch, Montana, in 1880. Berry was born in Unity on 16 March 1887 during one of his mother's trips back to Maine. Much of Berry's adolescence was spent moving across the United States, from Minneapolis, Phoenix, Pasadena, Oakland, to San Francisco, with occasional stops at Winnecook and Unity, as a result of his mother's efforts to find the most hospitable environment for his fragile health. In 1897 he moved with Evelyn Crie Berry and two cousins, Charlotte and Evelyn Kelley, to Redlands, California. Although Berry became a permanent resident of Redlands, he also maintained his close ties with relatives in Maine and the ranch in Montana for the remainder of his life.

Another of Berry's lifelong concerns was his work in malacology. His scientific pursuits apparently began at an early age, as illustrated by letters from Berry dating from 1903 onward in the records of the Division of Mollusks in the Smithsonian Archives. Addressed to William Dall, then Honorary Curator of the Division, the earliest letters reveal a ready familiarity with Latin species names and a marked attention to accuracy in the identification of specimens. His repeated requests for the National Museum's publications indicate that he was already busily accumulating books and reprints for what was to become a substantial private research collection consisting of over forty thousand titles. Berry's first article, "Note on a New Variety of Cerithidea sacrata Gld., from San Diego, Cal.," was published in Nautilus in 1906. In that same year he entered Stanford University as an undergraduate majoring in zoology; he received his Bachelor's in 1909, his Master's from Harvard in 1910, and his Doctorate, again from Stanford, in 1913. The published version of his doctoral dissertation, Cephalopoda, is still considered the definitive study of Pacific cephalopods.

In January 1913 Berry began working at the Scripps Institution for Biological Research in La Jolla, California, having been recommended for employment to the Director of the Institution, William Emerson Ritter, by his advisor at Stanford, Charles Henry Gilbert. As Librarian and Research Assistant, Berry supervised and delegated work in the library and arranged for the acquisition of scientific papers and monographs to transform the collection into a significant research resource. Anxious to return to his scientific work and to spend more time in Redlands, he relinquished his library responsibilities in 1916 and instead worked for the Institution as a Non-Resident Research Zoologist. For the next two years Berry studied the Institution's cephalopod specimens and produced a series of reports partially funded by the Institution on the chitons of North America. Berry's position at the Scripps Institution, which came to an end in 1918, was the last professional post he held in an academic or research institution.

Picture of S. Stillman Berry with Giant Squid.
S. Stillman Berry with giant squid.

In spite of his independent status, Berry's scientific output over the next three-quarters of a century was impressive by any standard. In all, he established 401 names for mollusk taxa and published 209 articles, most of which were on chitons, cephalopods, and land snails. Many of Berry's articles first appeared in his own scientific journal, Leaflets in Malacology, which he began producing in 1946 to ensure the speedy publication of his scientific findings. He eventually issued 26 editions of Leaflets, the last appearing in 1969. A large number of his papers were also delivered at meetings of the numerous scientific organizations to which he belonged. In recognition of his considerable contributions to the field, Berry was elected the only Honorary Life President of the American Malacological Union, the only lifetime President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the only Honorary Member of the Cephalopod International Advisory Council. He additionally served as Research Associate of the Smithsonian Institution and as Life Fellow of the San Diego Society of Natural History.

Soon after completing college Berry also became involved in horticulture, apparently under the encouragement of Dr. Walter Kenrick Fisher, one of his former zoology professors at Stanford. Berry's horticultural work was an extension of his general interest in genetics and evolution. Although he chose to concentrate primarily on the hybridization of irises and daffodils, Berry also cultivated peonies, pansies, gladioli, and various fruit-bearing trees and plants. In an effort to develop or adapt varieties of flowers, plants, and trees compatible with the climate and conditions of California, he procured bulbs and plants from horticulturists throughout the United States as well as in New Zealand, Australia, the Middle East, China, India, and South Africa. He also supplied new and rare varieties to prominent horticulturists of his time, including William Mohr, Grace Sturtevant, the Sass Brothers, Jeannette Dean, and F. X. Schreiner, and published an unknown number of articles and reviews of gardening books. While Berry's horticultural business, established in the mid-1920s, was initially intended to support further efforts in hybridization, it eventually became a welcome source of income during the Depression. The abrupt cessation of his business correspondence in the late 1940s suggests that horticulture ceased to be a business at that time and once again became a hobby.

Although Berry had intermittently lived at the Winnecook Ranch for most of his early life, his business association with the Winnecook Ranch Company began in earnest in 1911, with the death of his father. In that year he was voted to the Board of Directors, and in 1917 he was elected President of the Company, an office he filled until his death in 1984. For most of his life he spent the summer of every year in Montana overseeing affairs at the ranch.

For more data about S. Stillman Berry's life, see Series 9, which consists of biographical articles, most of which were published shortly after his death, a bibliography of his works, a list of his zoological taxa, and some information regarding the founding and early history of Winnecook Ranch. As part of its Oral History Project, the Smithsonian Institution Archives also has transcripts and tapes from a series of interviews conducted with Berry in 1980 about his scientific work and colleagues.


DESCRIPTIVE ENTRY

This collection documents the different aspects of S. Stillman Berry's long, varied life, illustrating his experiences and work as a student at Harvard and Stanford Universities, as a malacologist, as an avocational and commercial horticulturist, and as an employee of the Scripps Institution for Biological Research. Berry's papers are also a primary source of information about his family life and many friendships. The collection is somewhat weak, however, in its coverage of Berry's involvement in the administration of the Winnecook Ranch.

The papers of S. Stillman Berry primarily consist of correspondence. Although the letters as a whole date from the 1880s to Berry's death in 1984, most of his family correspondence, which is comprised of letters written by Berry and his parents, is concentrated between 1900 and 1916, while the bulk of his scientific, horticultural, and personal correspondence is from 1920 to 1965. Also spread throughout the collection are financial records such as bills, receipts, and check stubs, certificates verifying the donation of specimens, import permits, manuscripts of articles and book reviews, and a small number of photographs. Of particular interest are series consisting of Berry's college and organizational records and memorabilia and of his diaries, which describe in minute detail his daily activities from 1911-1925 and 1931-1940.

Berry's family correspondence, personal correspondence, college and organizational records and memorabilia, and diaries are the main sources of information about his private life. Together they document Berry's childhood and adolescence; family relationships, particularly with his parents, other relatives in Unity, Maine, and cousins who lived in the Berry household in Redlands; friendships with classmates and professors at Stanford and Harvard Universities and with college students and acquaintances who visited him in Redlands or helped care for his house and garden; social activities; and political views. Two particularly well-documented events in Berry's life are his 1904-1905 excursion to Europe with his mother, which is described in Evelyn Crie Berry's almost daily letters to her husband and in Berry's diary of the trip, and the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, the subject of photographs, newspaper clippings, and family and personal correspondence. The most continuous records of Berry's domestic and social ties are his correspondence with Evelyn Crie Berry, which is especially voluminous during the years Berry attended college, and his five-year diaries. Unfortunately, both Berry's family correspondence and the diary entries cease in 1940, the year of Evelyn Crie Berry's death. Conversely, although Berry's personal correspondence extends from 1896 to 1984, copies of most outgoing and many incoming letters are not included in this collection.

Scientific correspondence and related materials constitute the primary record of Berry's activities as a malacologist, including the manner in which he acquired the materials for his research projects; his participation in scientific organizations; his interest in taxonomy and nomenclature; and his production and distribution of Leaflets in Malacology. His work for the Scripps Institution for Biological Research, as a Librarian and Research Assistant and as a Research Zoologist, is fully documented in a small, comprehensive series consisting primarily of correspondence, a large portion of which is with his supervisors, assistants, and other associates at the Institution. Berry's letters to his mother after 1909, the year he entered the Master's program in Zoology at Harvard, as well as his diary entries also occasionally refer to his scientific interests, work, and acquaintances.

Berry's scientific interest in hybridization and the origins and operation of his commercial nursery are documented by his horticultural correspondence and related materials. The diaries also indicate the bulbs and plants which he shipped and received, the customers who visited his garden, and his daily gardening chores. It should be noted, however, that there are no records in the collection explicitly relating to Berry's horticultural activities beyond the early 1950s.

As previously indicated, information regarding the Winnecook Ranch Company is generally fragmentary and scattered throughout the collection. The earliest years of the Ranch are described in Ralph Berry's correspondence, which frequently concerns the purchase of livestock, wool sales, ranch finances, and his business associates and employees at Winnecook. Stillman Berry's correspondence with Evelyn Crie Berry as well as his diary entries after his father's death in 1911 illustrate the beginning of his own involvement in the Ranch, including the steps which he and his mother took to gain a controlling interest in the Company. The only relatively cohesive group of documents about the Ranch from the 1940s to the 1970s are Berry's letters with officers of the Winnecook Ranch Company, particularly with Elwyn Dole and Thayer Stevens. Infrequent references are also made in the collection to the other business ventures of the Berry family, including Ralph Berry's investment in the Cuban-American Land Company, Evelyn Crie Berry's ownership of property in California, and Stillman Berry's leasing of Winnecook land to oil speculators.

The papers of S. Stillman Berry in the Smithsonian Institution Archives can be supplemented by records, specimens, monographs, reprints, and notes in other repositories and research institutions. All of Berry's malacological collections except for the cephalopod mollusks, including specimens, published manuscripts, photographs, and original drawings, were donated to the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, as were about 40,000 reprints on shelled mollusks from Berry's private library; his collection of cephalopod specimens were given to the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution. Berry's collection of horticultural books and reprints and the notes from his own hybridization experiments are now in the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo; prepared specimens of California plants were presented to the herbarium at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden. The correspondence of Berry's relatives in Unity, Maine, and documentation about the history and families of the town in general are housed with the Unity Historical Society, while Berry's genealogical library is with the University of Redlands. Finally, at some future date the Montana Historical Society in Helena, Montana, will receive custody of all records generated by the Winnecook Ranch Company since its incorporation in 1906, including minutes of board meetings, correspondence files, financial records, and maps.


SERIES DESCRIPTIONS

SERIES 1.
SCIENTIFIC CORRESPONDENCE AND RELATED MATERIAL, 1903-1984, AND UNDATED.

This series consists of correspondence and related materials documenting S. Stillman Berry's work as a malacologist. It is primarily concerned with Berry's efforts to acquire the malacological specimens and the scientific monographs, papers, and periodicals which he needed for his various research projects.

Other subjects that are highlighted in this series are Berry's interest in nomenclature and taxonomy; his publication of Leaflets in Malacology; his enduring friendships with other malacologists and scientists; his participation in scientific organizations and clubs; his donation of specimens and scientific literature to museums and other research institutions; and his inquiries into fields not exclusively related to malacology, including organic luminosity, octopus venum, beaver canals, archaeology, and environmental issues. Many of the incoming letters are also requests for the identification of individual specimens.

Berry's scientific correspondents included foreign and domestic malacologists; shell collectors and conchologists; staff and officials of museums, academic institutions, and research foundations; officers and members of professional organizations; editors of scientific journals; professional illustrators and photographers; book dealers and librarians; scientific and stationery supplies companies.

Photographs and manuscripts included in the correspondence and related materials have been indicated in the folder list.

Box 1 of 15

Box 2 of 15

Box 3 of 15

Box 4 of 15

Box 5 of 15

SERIES 2.
SCRIPPS INSTITUTION FOR BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH CORRESPONDENCE AND RELATED MATERIALS, 1913-1919, AND UNDATED.

This series documents Berry's employment as Librarian and Research Assistant from 1913-1916 and as Research Zoologist from 1916-1918 at the Scripps Institution for Biological Research.

Much of the correspondence consists of outgoing letters to scientific organizations, libraries, universities, research institutions, and individual scientists requesting donations of their publications for the Institution's library. The remaining correspondence is with Berry's associates at the Institution. This portion of the letters concerns progress made in the library during Berry's absence; the terms of Berry's employment, particularly changes in his job title and salary; his own research projects utilizing malacological specimens from the Institution; and equipment purchased by the Institution to aid Berry's scientific research.

Box 5 of 15

SERIES 3.
HORTICULTURAL CORRESPONDENCE AND RELATED MATERIALS, 1914-1956, AND UNDATED.

This series consists of incoming and outgoing correspondence and related materials concerning Berry's work as a horticulturist. In particular, it documents the development of Berry's horticultural interests from a purely scientific pursuit to a business concern.

Berry's earliest letters, from approximately 1914 to the early 1920s, tend to concentrate on his experiments in hybridization as well as his efforts to adapt foreign, rare, and new varieties to the climate and conditions of Southern California. Correspondence from the mid-1920s onward increasingly includes incoming orders for plants, seeds, and bulbs, requests from customers for catalogues, which Berry began publishing in 1946, and outgoing financial statements. Berry also frequently wrote to his customers about the care of specific varieties and the control of pests and diseases. Although his correspondence is generally concerned with the cultivation of irises and daffodils, it also reflects Berry's interest in gladioli, rock and mountain plants, peonies, assorted herbs, pansies, and fruit-bearing trees and plants, including avocados, oranges, dates, macadamians and pecans, and Chinese jujubes.

Berry's horticultural correspondents included domestic and foreign horticulturists and botanists; nurseries and landscape architects; amateur gardeners, many of whom were his friends and neighbors; government regulatory agencies, particularly those concerned with the importation and quarantine of plants and bulbs; horticultural organizations and publications; and stationery and nursery supplies companies.

If a correspondent was associated with a commercial nursery, the name of the nursery has been noted in the folder list after the name of the correspondent. The small number of photographs and manuscripts included in this series are also noted.

Box 5 of 15

Box 6 of 15

Box 7 of 15

Box 8 of 15

Box 9 of 15

SERIES 4.
PERSONAL CORRESPONDENCE, 1896-1984. ARRANGED ALPHABETICALLY.

This series consists mostly of incoming correspondence from S. Stillman Berry's friends and relatives as well as from his associates at Winnecook Ranch. Other correspondents include non-scientific organizations and businesses; historical societies and museums; lawyers and Winnecook stockholders; and officials of academic institutions.

Berry's personal correspondence is primarily concerned with the genealogy of the Berry and Kelley families; activities in Redlands and Winnecook during his absence; the compilation of Winnecook's income tax returns; the upkeep of Berry's house in Unity, which he inherited from his aunt, Ruth Berry; and the financial support of sick or aging relatives. Much of the letters also express Christmas or birthday greetings. Of particular interest is correspondence regarding trust funds which Berry established at Colby College and Stanford University.

Photographs and correspondence with Evelyn Crie Berry and other family members included in this series have been indicated in the folder listing.

Box 9 of 15

Box 10 of 15

SERIES 5.
FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE, 1880-1939, AND UNDATED.

This series consists of correspondence between S. Stillman Berry, his father, Ralph Berry, and his mother, Evelyn Crie Berry. The letters are arranged chronologically under the names of their respective authors.

Ralph Berry's letters are primarily concerned with the administration of Winnecook Ranch and other business ventures. The major portion of his correspondence was written before 1906, the year of Winnecook's incorporation, after which he was able to spend more time with his family in California. Many of his letters, particularly those to S. Stillman Berry, also document his avid interest in politics and sports.

The letters of Evelyn Crie Berry are devoted almost entirely to daily domestic concerns. Her correspondence therefore constitutes a primary source of information about S. Stillman Berry's family life and is the only source for his childhood and adolescence. In her letters Evelyn Crie Berry often wrote about the numerous friends and family members who visited the Berry household in Redlands, most frequently referring to Evelyn Kelley (Webster), Charlotte Kelly (Dole), and Benjamin Berry, relatives from Unity, Maine, whom she agreed to raise in California. Her correspondence is also concerned with family matters in Unity as well as social and civic events in Redlands.

Most of the correspondence in this Division was written by S. Stillman Berry to Evelyn Crie Berry, primarily during the years he spent as an undergraduate and doctoral student at Stanford (1905-1909, 1910-1913) and as a Master's candidate at Harvard University (1909-1910). Berry seems to have deliberately avoided discussing his scientific work in letters to his mother, instead focusing upon various aspects of his social life. His correspondence therefore describes the sporting events, club meetings and colloquiums, operas, religious services, and plays which he attended and the dinners, dances, and camping trips in which he participated. He also wrote in great detail about his relatives, acquaintances, and friends, most frequently referring to members of the Dole family, particularly Sanford, Elwyn, Aethelbert, and Kenneth Dole, with whom he maintained close, lifelong friendships. Correspondence subsequent to the death of his father in June 1911 reflects Berry's expanding role in the running of Winnecook Ranch. Letters after 1914 document the development of his interest in horticulture.

Photographs and letters from other family members and friends included in this series have been noted in the folder list. Ephemera such as newspaper clippings, cloth samples, pressed flowers, ticket stubs, and programs of musical and sports events have not been indicated.

Box 10 of 15

Correspondence from Ralph Berry to Evelyn Crie Berry, 1880, 1887, 1896-1900, 1902, 1904-1909

Correspondence from Ralph Berry to Stillman Berry, 1895, 1904, 1906, 1908, 1910

Correspondence from Evelyn Crie Berry to Ralph Berry, 1898-1901, 1903, 1905-1909

Box 11 of 15

Correspondence from Evelyn Crie Berry to Stillman Berry, 1905-1913, 1916, 1935, 1937

Correspondence from Stillman Berry to Ralph Berry

Correspondence from Stillman Berry to Evelyn Crie Berry, 1905-1939

Box 12 of 15

SERIES 6.
UNIVERSITY AND ORGANIZATIONAL RECORDS, MEMORABILIA, AND RELATED MATERIALS, 1906-1920, 1922, 1927, 1956, AND UNDATED.

This series consists of correspondence, photographs, newspaper clippings, financial and school records, and personal memorabilia, mostly concerning various aspects of S. Stillman Berry's life at Stanford and Harvard Universities. A major portion of the records and memorabilia document Berry's participation in collegiate social events, including dances, dinners, and rallies, and in scientific and scholastic organizations. Of particular interest are photographs and newspaper clippings regarding the effect of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake upon the campus of Stanford University (Boxes 13 and 15) and Berry's drawings of plant and animal anatomy included in his class notebooks (Boxes 13-14).

Box 12 of 15

Box 13 of 15

Box 14 of 15

SERIES 7.
DIARIES AND RELATED MATERIALS, 1904-1905, 1911-1925, 1931-1940.

This series consists primarily of six diaries documenting approximately twenty years of S. Stillman Berry's daily life. All but the diary from 1904-1905 are five-year diaries.

Berry tended to write straightforward rather than introspective descriptions of his activities. Diary entries typically record the number of letters he wrote; the state of his and his mother's health; daily weather conditions; the plants and bulbs he shipped and received; the visitors to his home in Redlands and to the ranch house in Montana; work undertaken on scientific projects; the number of specimens he found when on collecting expeditions; and the names of the books he read. Lists of Christmas presents and cards Berry and his mother received and sent are also included at the backs of each of the five-year diaries.

It must be added that the diaries constitute the collection's only continuous source of information about Berry's summers at Winnecook. Of particular interest are entries documenting the steps he took to secure control of the Winnecook Ranch Company following Ralph Berry's death in 1911 as well his efforts to sustain the Company during the Depression.

Box 14 of 15

SERIES 8.
PHOTOGRAPHS.

This series consists of photographs of S. Stillman Berry and his house in Redlands. While most of the photographs are from the 1950s onward, there is a small group of pictures of Winnecook Ranch in the early twentieth century. Other photographs of Berry, his parents, relatives, and friends are included in almost every series, as indicated in the descriptive entries and folder lists.

Box 14 of 15

SERIES 9.
BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS.

This series consists of articles about the life and work of S. Stillman Berry. Most are tributes written shortly after Berry's death in 1984. Also included are a bibliography of Berry's work and a list of the zoological taxa he established, compiled by Clyde F. Roper and Michael J. Sweeney of the Department of Invertebrate Zoology, National Museum of Natural History; and a short history of the Winnecook Ranch, part of which is based upon Berry's own recollections of his family's settlement of the Ranch.

Box 14 of 15

Box 15 of 15


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