How “Cornell Plantations”
became the “Cornell Botanic Gardens”
In 2015, Black Students United organized protests and put together a list of demands to present to the Cornell administration. Among the more than a dozen demands was a simple sentence: “We want the administration to change the name of the Plantations as soon as possible.”
Credit: Black Students United at Cornell University
Citation: Black Students United at Cornell University. 2015. “Trillium Takeover and Planning Meetings.” Facebook, November 23, 2015.
What’s in a name?
The gardens and lands surrounding Cornell were known as the Cornell Plantations for more than 70 years. Then, after a few tumultuous months in 2015 and 2016, the name changed to the Cornell Botanic Gardens. How did the change occur? And why does it matter?
Whether called the Arboretum, the Plantations, or the Botanic Gardens, the physical lands are located on the traditional homelands of the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ’ (the Cayuga Nation). In a story investigating how names matter, it is important to start with an acknowledgement of this fact and to situate this story within the framework of a longer history, where naming and contested names can tell us about power, definitions of ownership, who is invited to belong–and who isn’t.
“Cornell University is located on the traditional homelands of the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ’ (the Cayuga Nation). The Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ’ are members of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, an alliance of six sovereign Nations with a historic and contemporary presence on this land. The Confederacy precedes the establishment of Cornell University, New York state, and the United States of America. We acknowledge the painful history of Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ’ dispossession, and honor the ongoing connection of Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ’ people, past and present, to these lands and waters. This land acknowledgment has been reviewed and approved by the traditional Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ’ leadership.”
Dubbed the Arboretum since 1928, Cornell’s collection of gardens was renamed the Cornell Plantations in 1944[1], part of a grand plan to unite the Arboretum holdings under a vision for a teaching “laboratory” that would include plants, sheep, and more. Conceived by Liberty Hyde Bailey, and advocated by the Arboretum Policy Committee, the proposal was brought to the Board of Trustees in 1944[2].
Liberty Hyde Bailey (1858-1954) was a nationally known horticulturist and botanist, who was instrumental in Cornell’s development (Bailey Hall is named in his honor). He arrived at Cornell in 1888, and took this self-portrait in 1898. He helped found and became the first Dean of what is now the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and continued to play an influential role at Cornell through the 1940s, when his ideas proved pivotal in re-imagining – and re-naming – the Plantations.
Citation: Liberty Hyde Bailey Papers, #21-2-3342. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library. Retrieved from https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalog/ss:545624
Liberty Hyde Bailey Papers, #21-2-3342. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.
The Board of Trustees accepted Bailey’s vision, and his recommendation that the name Cornell Plantations be adopted, though there is no record of discussion shedding light on why Bailey advocated for Plantations as the appropriate name. On March 6, 1944, the Trustees approved President Day’s recommendations that the name be changed to Cornell Plantations, and that Dr. Bailey be named Chairman of the Policy Committee.[3]
The Arboretum Policy Committee helped chart a new course for the gardens. The committee’s files show that, while Bailey was not a member of the committee, he played a formative role in the decision to expand the mission of the gardens and to select the name Plantations. In this document, Trustee Rockwell presents his interview with Bailey, where the dean emeritus lays out his vision. Bailey calls it the “culmination of a plan in the making for over fifty years,” and concludes “My life has been spent at Cornell. Cornell is my life. This enterprise is typical of Cornell. It is fundamentally important.”
Citation: Arboretum Policy Committee files. March 16, 1944. Solomon Cady Hollister papers. Cornell University, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections. Box 14, Folder 14.
The recommendation of the Arboretum Policy Committee that the “name ‘Cornell Arboretum’ be changed to ‘Cornell Plantations’” went before the Board of Trustees and was approved at the March 6, 1044 meeting. It was approved, and President Day wrote in his approval on this copy of the Board Conspectus. Bailey was also named the designated chairman of the Policy Committee. Note that the 1944-1945 budget request for the newly renamed Plantations was a mere $2000.
Citation: Cornell University Board of Trustees records. Box 13, Folder 14. Item for Board Conspectus.
The Cornell Plantations grew in size, scope, and budget in the intervening decades. Over time, however, the name seemed less appropriate. For many Cornellians, the name “Plantations” conjured images of the United States’ slave era: grand Southern houses surrounded by slave quarters, back-breaking labor in cotton fields under brutal conditions of control. Others, steeped in the language of agricultural science and land management, including those working in the Gardens, complained of the inappropriateness of applying a word signifying single-crop agriculture to the richness and diversity of the Gardens.[4][5][6]
In the May 12th 1944 edition of the Cornell Bulletin (the “wartime successor to the Cornell Daily Sun,” the masthead announced), this article appeared on page 2, describing the adoption of the new name by the Board of Trustees. It credited Dr. L.H. Bailey, “dean emeritus of agriculture,” for inspiring the change. The article quoted Bailey’s vision for the Plantations, uniting “the systematic observation and study at Cornell of wild, of economic and of ornamental plants, of trees, of wildlife, and of other forms of nature. And, with such study as a basis, research in the development of better forms of plants and of animals, and in the devising of ways of handling all of them for the wider service of man.”
Citation: The Cornell Daily Sun, Volume 1, Number 26, 12 May 1944
Though there were occasional calls for change, the name Plantations remained for more than 70 years. Then, desire for change coalesced from multiple directions during a two-year period, 2015-2016. Inside the Gardens, new Director Christopher Dunn had orchestrated a review and reconsideration upon his arrival in 2014[1]. Outside the Gardens, activist students, organized as Cornell Black Students United, demanded the name be changed as part of an ambitious set of demands designed to make Cornell deliver on its promises of inclusion[7]. This story of change is the coming together of the internal and external demands for change, the intersection of past and present Cornellians in support and opposition, and an investigation into the “tipping point” of 2015-2016 and the energy it took to change the name.
Director of the Cornell Botanic Gardens since 2014.
Christopher Dunn became the Elizabeth Newman Wilds Executive Director in 2014, after serving as director of the Lynn Arboretum at the University of Hawai’i. His work in Hawai’i helped deepen his appreciation of the intersections of biological and human cultural diversity. Dunn concluded early in his tenure at Cornell that if the name of the Cornell Plantations didn’t change, it would constrain the Garden’s ability to tell stories which welcomed everyone by highlighting the complex and creative linkages between biology and human culture. His work helped provide leadership to the many members of the Cornell community advocating for the change in name.
Citation: photo provided by Christopher Dunn
In this Cornell Daily Sun column, Dunn made the case for considering the name, and rebranding the gardens to better celebrate natural diversity while embracing human diversity. Dunn wrote, “[T]here is one key element that all botanic gardens have in common: celebrating, displaying and studying the rich diversity of the world’s plants. Yet to be truly effective, this celebration of natural diversity must also embrace human diversity. During the last year, our staff and Advisory Council have been considering all aspects of our identity, our name, our mission and how our identity can best reflect what Cornell Plantations is — and does. We are dedicated to engaging as many people as possible in a greater appreciation of the beauty and necessity of healthy natural systems and our role in that context…Our goal at Cornell Plantations is to engage faculty, students, the community and visitors so that we can all better appreciate the intimate link between natural diversity and human diversity.” ”
Citation: Cornell Daily Sun, 15 October 2015. https://cornellsun.com/2015/10/08/guest-room-whats-new-at-the-cornel
While’s Dunn’s methodical name change process proceeded, student activists focused attention directly on the name’s resonance with the history of slavery.
As the Black Lives Matter movement gained energy and urgency in the wake of the killings of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in August 2014 and Eric Garner in New York City in July 2014, Black students revitalized Cornell Black Students United. In November 2015 they presented Cornell President Elizabeth Garrett and Vice President Ryan Lombardi with a series of anti-racist steps they demanded the University take for the University’s “any student, any study” aspirations to be more than an “empty quip.”[7] Their demands ranged across curriculum, compositional diversity, wellness, governance, and support services. They also made demands for symbolic changes, those that signal a commitment to inclusion, including, “We want the administration to change the name of the Plantations as soon as possible.”[6]
Black Students United at Cornell organized an action in the fall of 2015, as the Black Lives Matter campaigns gained momentum nationwide. On November 17th, they presented to President Elizabeth Garrett and Vice President Ryan Lombardi, a list of demands. Some of those demands called for symbolic changes, including calling on the administration to “change the name of the Plantations as soon as possible.” On November 19th, they gathered in Trillium, the on-campus dining hall, to organize and build support for their actions. Dozens of students marched to Day Hall, where the President’s office is located, participating in an action to signal the importance of their demands for change.
Credit: Black Students United at Cornell University
Citation: Black Students United at Cornell University. 2015. “Trillium Takeover and Planning Meetings.” Facebook, November 23, 2015. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=BSUCornell&set=a.987163831344980
Black Students United at Cornell organized an action in the fall of 2015, as the Black Lives Matter campaigns gained momentum nationwide. On November 17th, they presented to President Elizabeth Garrett and Vice President Ryan Lombardi, a list of demands. Some of those demands called for symbolic changes, including calling on the administration to “change the name of the Plantations as soon as possible.” On November 19th, they gathered in Trillium, the on-campus dining hall, to organize and build support for their actions. Dozens of students marched to Day Hall, where the President’s office is located, participating in an action to signal the importance of their demands for change.
Credit: Black Students United at Cornell University
Citation: Black Students United at Cornell University. 2015. “Trillium Takeover and Planning Meetings.” Facebook, November 23, 2015. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=BSUCornell&set=a.987163831344980
Black Students United at Cornell organized an action in the fall of 2015, as the Black Lives Matter campaigns gained momentum nationwide. On November 17th, they presented to President Elizabeth Garrett and Vice President Ryan Lombardi, a list of demands. Some of those demands called for symbolic changes, including calling on the administration to “change the name of the Plantations as soon as possible.” On November 19th, they gathered in Trillium, the on-campus dining hall, to organize and build support for their actions. Dozens of students marched to Day Hall, where the President’s office is located, participating in an action to signal the importance of their demands for change.
Credit: Black Students United at Cornell University
Citation: Black Students United at Cornell University. 2015. “Trillium Takeover and Planning Meetings.” Facebook, November 23, 2015. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=BSUCornell&set=a.987163831344980
Opposition also emerged. In the comments section of the Cornell Daily Sun or the conservative Cornell Review, and in an anonymous Facebook group, critics saw the potential change as catering to unreasonable demands for political correctness. Deaf to the diverse meanings of plantations, they focused on the narrowest meaning to express their opposition. “You mean it’s NOT a slaveholding operation? I had no idea,” wrote one. Such sarcasm gave way to hyperbole in others, who called the change a “monstrous betrayal.”[3]
On November 17, 2015, Black Students United presented Cornell leadership with a letter including a list of demands. The article claimed that “the campus environment is not conducive to the overall success of students of color” and called on Cornell to “act with all deliberate and appropriate speed to grant the demands of its students.” It argued that if Cornell was to make good on its “any person, any study” ethos it needed to provide the “resources, love, and support to survive and thrive.” The letter then outlined specific demands for changes to the curriculum, the compositional diversity of the university, mental and physical health and wellness, governance, support services, and symbols. The call to change the name of the Plantations was one of the listed symbolic changes, asking for less substantive change that some of the other demands, but easier, perhaps, to realize.
Nevertheless, with the combined energy of internal review within the Plantations and external pressure from students and employees, the Board of Trustees officially changed the name on Friday, October 28, 2016. The Cornell Botanic Gardens was now the official name[8]. The struggle had ended, driven by passion and hard work both behind the scenes and in the public eye. A change that some Cornellians lamented, other applauded, and still others saw as too late in coming, had arrived. It seems inevitable now, but seemed highly unlikely in 2014.
An end. But also a beginning. With continued discussion of the name resolved, efforts to make the Botanic Garden a place where all Cornellians felt they belonged, a place where everyone can reflect on the links between human diversity and natural diversity, continues.
Citation: “A Dança Da Natureza” (The Dance of Nature)
Artist: Eder Muniz
Location: Cornell Botanic Gardens (If used on social media please use @cornellbotanicgardens)
Photo: Jay Potter
Notes
[1]Almendarez , J. (2016, October 31). Cornell plantations no more! University renames site “Cornell Botanic Gardens.” The Ithaca Voice. https://ithacavoice.com/2016/10/cornell-plantations-no-university-renames-site-cornell-botanic-gardens/
[2]Cornell Botanic Garden. (n.d.). About the gardens – Cornell Botanic Gardens. Cornell University. Retrieved March 22, 2021, from https://cornellbotanicgardens.org/about/about-the-gardens/
[3]McConnell-Ginet, S. (2020). Words matter: Meaning and power. Cambridge University Press. https://newcatalog.library.cornell.edu/catalog/13231141
[4]The grammarphobia blog: Plantation mentality. (2015, November 13). https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2015/11/plantation.html
[5]Jaschik, S. (2016, August 29). Cornell plans to drop “Plantations” from name of its gardens. Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/08/29/cornell-plans-drop-plantations-name-its-gardens
[6]Hayes, M. (2016a, August 25). Rebranding of Cornell Plantations to better reflect mission, vision. Cornell Chronicle; Cornell University. https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2016/08/rebranding-cornell-plantations-better-reflect-mission-vision
[7]EIC. (2015, November 21). Black students united deliver list of demands to president garrett. The Cornell Review. https://www.thecornellreview.org/cornell-black-students-united-deliver-list-of-demands-to-president-garrett/
[8]Hayes, M. (2016b, October 28). Board approves Cornell Botanic Gardens naming. Cornell Chronicle; Cornell University. https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2016/10/board-approves-cornell-botanic-gardens-naming
