Lisa Pearson, Head of the Library and Archives
Contact
- Address:
- 125 Arborway
Boston, MA 02130 - Phone:
- 617.384.5330
- Fax:
- 617.524.1418
- Email:
- lpearson@oeb.harvard.edu
Biography
I am the head of the Arnold Arboretum Horticultural Library and Archives and oversee all of its operations. I wear many hats in the library. I perform research and reference using our collections for our staff and outside researchers and create exhibitions of archival materials for the library and the Arboretum website. I also manage new book and archival acquisitions. Earlier in my time here, I was the project cataloger for the digitization of several of our historical photograph collections. This has given me an in-depth knowledge of our holdings, and helps me fulfill requests for the use of our historical images.
Prior to coming to the Arnold Arboretum, I was employed for many years as a librarian in the insurance industry, first on the property/casualty side and later in the life/health and financial services realm. Outside of work, I am an artist working in metal, wood, leather, and textiles. In addition to my artistic pursuits, I am involved with living history interpretation of the period 1580-1650. As an adjunct to that, I am a student of costume construction techniques of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Education
Recent Publications
Pearson, L.E., Arnold Arboretum. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing, 2016.
Pearson, L.E. “Mapping an “Indeterminable Quantity.” Silva, April 28, 2023.
Pearson, L.E. “Welcoming the Public: The Arboretum’s Entrances.” Silva, September 20, 2022.
Pearson, L.E. “For the Establishment of an Arboretum.” Silva, April 21, 2022.
Pearson, L.E. “Marian Roby Case: Cultivating Boys into Men.” Arnoldia, 77:2, pp. 2-9, 2019.
Dosmann, M.S., and L.E. Pearson, “Charles Faxon: Botanical draftsman,” Arnoldia, 73:1, pp. 2-10, 2015.
Pearson, L.E., “Picturing China: The Expeditions and Photographs of William Purdom,” Silva, Fall/Winter 2015, pp. 8-9.
Dosmann, M.S., and L.E. Pearson, “Charles Faxon: Botanical draftsman and interpreter of trees.” The Botanical Artist, 20:3, pp. 32-33, 2014.
Pearson, L.E., “John George Jack: Dendrologist, Educator, Plant Explorer,” Arnoldia, 71:4, pp. 2-11, 2014.
Pearson, L.E. “A Life Remembered in Plants : Sesquicentennial of Alfred Rehder, Arboretum Taxonomist,” Silva, Fall/Winter 2013-2014, p. 9.
Pearson, L.E., “Remembering Alfred Rehder,” Arnoldia, 71:2, pp. 18-24, 2013.
Pearson, L.E. “Resting Beneath the Tulip Trees : Walter Street Burying Ground Offers a Glimpse of the Past,” Silva, Fall/Winter 2012-2013, p.8.
“Intersections: Pairings of Botanical Art and Herbarium Vouchers from the Collections of the Arnold Arboretum.” Arnold Arboretum Visitor Center, March 10 – September 10, 2023.
Pearson, L.E. “Plant Exploration Then.” Panel discussion with Arboretum Keeper of the Living Collections Dr. Michael Dosmann, March 23, 2023.
Pearson, L.E. “Birth: The Early History and Meaning of the Arnold Arboretum.” Arnold Arboretum Director’s Lecture Series panel discussion with Rosetta Elkin and Ethan Carr, April 11, 2022.
Pearson, L.E. “Birth: The Early History and Meaning of the Arnold Arboretum.” Arnold Arboretum Director’s Lecture Series panel discussion with Rosetta Elkin and Ethan Carr, April 11, 2022.
Pearson, L.E. “Arnold Arboretum : Founding of a Museum of Trees.” Sesquicentennial keynote lecture for the Arnold Arboretum’s 150th birthday, March 29, 2022.
Pearson, L.E. “Welcoming the Public : The Arboretum’s Gates.” Arnold Arboretum Host Committee meeting, February 2, 2022.
Pearson, L.E. “The Jewel in the Emerald Necklace.” Twilight Talks, Historic New England, October 28, 2020.
Pearson, L.E. “Cultivating Boys into Men: Marian Case of Hillcrest Gardens.” Cultivating Legacies Symposium, Arnold Arboretum, March 9, 2019.
Pearson, L.E. “The Arnold Arboretum and China.” International Ecological Forum on “A Century of Wilson’s Road,” June 9, 2017. Songpan, Sichuan, China.
Pearson, L.E., “Tracking Change: Environmental Change Seen Through Records at the Arnold Arboretum,” SCoSAA and ProjectARCC Joint Symposium, “On the Brink: Archives, Climate Change, and the Future,” Boston, MA, November 11, 2015.
Pearson, L.E., “Picturing China: Treasures of the Arnold Arboretum Library and Archives,” Plant Collecting Symposium, Shanghai, China, March 27, 2015.
Pearson, L.E. “Trapped in a Filing Cabinet: Or, How We Liberated Our Historical Photos (and Some Manuscripts Too!) from Their Prisons…,” 44th Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries Annual Conference, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, June 28, 2012.
Pearson, L.E. and C. T. Iannuzzo. “Re-Constructing Men’s Clothing: 1550-1650,” in Old Clothes, New Tools II: Emerging Methodologies for the Study of Dress and Clothing Culture, 41st International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 4-7, 2006.
