ELLWOOD J. CARR Botanical Collection Guide

Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 22: Environmental Education
Series 23: Ellwood J. Carr Botanical Collection
Series 09: Biography A-Z – Consultants, Friends,
Community, Guests and Related Visitors to PMSS

ELLWOOD J. CARR BOTANICAL COLLECTION Guide

Plant Center (Girl’s Industrial Building)

TAGS: Ellwood J. Carr Botanical Collection Guide ; Ellwood Jerome Carr ; “Bud” Carr ; donations ; instructional materials ; Environmental Education Program ; Girls Industrial Building ; Plant Center ; naturalists ; botany

ELLWOOD J. CARR PLANT CENTER at PMSS

The Ellwood J. Carr Botanical Collections came to Pine Mountain in 1984. Carr, an amateur botanist and naturalist, was familiar with the Environmental Education program at Pine Mountain Settlement School and nearing retirement from a lifetime of commitment to all things botanical, he wished to support the growing programming at Pine Mountain Settlement. His very large collection comprised of specimens, inventories, historical materials, slides and photographs, and an extensive book collection, was housed with other instructional materials for the Environmental Education Program in the former Girls Industrial Building, now commonly called the “Plant Center.” The Collection forms the backbone of all botanical instruction in the EE program. It represents the most extensive botanical collection gathered for instruction, in Eastern Kentucky.

ELLWOOD J. CARR, Naturalist 1910-2005

Ellwood Jerome Carr (biography), who preferred to be called “Bud” throughout his life, was 95 years old when he died on March 26, 2005, in Brodhead, Kentucky. His long life as a self-taught naturalist was regularly punctuated with accomplishment and his contributions to southeastern Kentucky are well-known to those interested in the flora and fauna of this region.

Carr began his collection of specimens sometime after his 50th birthday and quickly became conversant with the language of Botany and an avid enthusiast of all things botanical, particularly edible and medicinal botanicals. Sometimes idiosyncratic and redundant, his collection provides an excellent hands-on experience for the many school groups that have passed through the environmental education program at PMSS.

While many other botanical instructional centers exist within the state of Kentucky, the Pine Mountain Carr Collection is the only one that represents the focus of one single individual — Ellwood J. Carr. Other representative centers within the state are listed below.

BOTANICAL INSTRUCTIONAL CENTERS in Kentucky

Botanical gardens used as instructional centers in the State may be found at the following locations:

#	Institution Name	City	State
1	Western Kentucky Botanical Garden	Owensboro	Kentucky
2	Gainesway Farm	Lexington	Kentucky
3	State Botanical Garden of Kentucky	Lexington	Kentucky
4	Baker Arboretum	Bowling Green	Kentucky
5	Cave Hill Cemetery	Louisville	Kentucky
6	Lakeside Commons Educational Gardens	Newport	Kentucky
7	Yew Dell Botanical Gardens	Crestwood	Kentucky
8	Historic Linden Grove Cemetery & Arboretum	Covington	Kentucky
9	Botanica – Louisville’s Waterfront Botanical Gardens	Louisville	Kentucky
10	Boone County Arboretum	Union	Kentucky
11	Louisville Zoological Garden	Louisville	Kentucky
12	Newport Aquarium	Newport	Kentucky
13	Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest	Clermont	Kentucky

This distribution of botanical gardens is all the more remarkable when the extraordinarily rich botanical environment of Eastern Kentucky is seen to be underrepresented. Why is there a gap in the eastern counties of the state? As the Elwood J. Carr Collection makes evident, the eastern part of the state is home to some of the rarest and most diverse flora in the Eastern United States, but the service area is less dense than that of the urban centers. What these urban botanical gardens miss is the pristine and natural setting for some of the regions most unique flora AND fauna.

Today, the collection space has given way to an Industrial Kitchen that still makes use of Carr’s generous donations that are housed in rooms nearby. Carr’s emphasis on edibles and medicinals have been integrated into some of the workshops offered by the new Industrial Kitchen and more are planned for the future.

Ellwood J. Carr Botanical Collection, PMSS Plant Center. [P1130976.jpg]

ELLWOOD J. CARR BOTANICAL COLLECTION: Instructional Materials

The following list of materials is not complete. More lists will be added as the collection is itemized and also integrated into School programming. Generally, the botanical collection is comprised of various discrete aggregations of instructional materials including the following:

CASTANEA Journal Southern Appalachian Botanical Club

ELLWOOD J. CARR Biography

ELLWOOD J. CARR BOTANICAL COLLECTION Correspondence

ELLWOOD J. CARR BOTANICAL COLLECTION Talks and Lectures

ELLWOOD J. CARR BOTANICAL COLLECTION Inventory and Indexing Project (EKU)

ELLWOOD J. CARR BOTANICAL COLLECTION at PMSS

ELLWOOD J. CARR BOTANICAL COLLECTION Biography Slides

ELLWOOD J. CARR BOTANICAL Book Collection

ELLWOOD J. CARR BOTANICAL COLLECTION Flora Checklist

ELLWOOD J. CARR BOTANICAL COLLECTION Edible Plants Guide

ELLWOOD J. CARR BOTANICAL COLLECTION Edible Wild Foods

ELLWOOD J. CARR BOTANICAL COLLECTION Edible Wild Foods Slides