Series I. General Administration Files, 1900-2007

Subseries I.A encompasses minutes of the HSNY's Board of Directors (1915-1926; 1932-1939; 1952-2007), preceded by the Council's minutes (1900-1915, with gaps). Also included are working files for various board committees and initiatives (1900s-early 2000s; scattered).

Subseries I.B contains the HSNY's financial reports for 1959-1974, as well as fundraising benefit material for 1993-1994. It also includes financial reports for the International Flower Show, 1930-1942, and the Garden Index Company, 1933-1934.

Subseries I.C includes the working files of multiple HSNY Executive Directors, among them Alexander Allport, Larry Pardue, David Harrington, Barbara Earnest, and Charles D. Webster, for the 1960s through the 1990s. Because successive administrators absorbed their predecessors' files, it is difficult to attribute documents to a specific creator, so the material is grouped instead by topic (e.g., "Exhibitors," "Special Events," "Trips & Tours," etc.).

Subseries I.D encompasses the administrative files of the HSNY President's office. They are chiefly Millicent Johnson's, who held the title in the 1990s, but possibly include material from others. Like Subseries I.E, these administrative documents are grouped by topic, rather than creator.

The bulk of Subseries I.E regards the 6,000-volume library of botanical books and illustrations bequeathed to the HSNY by lawyer and collector Kenneth K. Mackenzie in 1934. Mackenzie's gift was particularly strong in the works of Swedish botanist and "father of modern taxonomy" Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778). That portion of the collection--known as the MacKenzie Linnaeana--was acquired by Kansas State University in 1966. The rest of the collection was sold in 1980.

Subseries I.E also includes HSNY guestbooks and visitor logs for exhibits and the library (1933-2010, with large gaps), and material relating to the proposed Lillian Gish Garden in Manhattan. The latter was the brainchild of landscape designer Luther Greene (1910-1987), who in 1980 received approval from Community Board 6 and the Art Commission of the City of New York to plant a garden--with Horticultural Society of New York assistance--honoring actress and longtime Sutton Place resident Lillian Gish (1893-1993) at the foot of East 56th Street. The site, on a platform over the FDR Drive, remained barren since its creation around 1943. Today it has been absorbed by Sutton Place Park.