Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Notebooks and Papers of Robert Gartrell, American Rhododendron Society, Accession #10553-aw, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

This collection was a gift from Donald H. Voss, 2003 January 9.

Biographical/Historical Information

Robert Derby Gartrell was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1895 and trained as a chemist at Georgia Tech University. He married Nancy Reynolds, also of Georgia, and they had two daughters Jeanne Gartrell and Elizabeth Anne Gartrell, who married Donald H. Voss in 1952. He began his career with a Montreal testing laboratory during World War I, but in the 1920's he worked in Canada as a chemist for the Dominion Rubber Company eventually becoming director of development. Gartrell transferred to the Mechanical Goods Division of the U.S. Rubber Company in Passaic, New Jersey in 1931, becoming the entire division's manager of development, 1949-1958.

Beginning in the thirties, Gartrell decided to try to breed evergreen azaleas that would be hardy enough to thrive in northern New Jersey and have flowers similar to the hybrids from southern India. In 1937, the Gartrells moved to a large house on property they called "Robin Hill" where he began his breeding program with a large number of evergreen azaleas from the Tingle Nursery Company, Pittsville, Maryland.

According to Donald Voss, "By 1958 he had selected for further trial about 1,800 plants." This large number of plants presented a problem when he moved to a smaller place at Birchwood Drive, Wyckoff, New Jersey, in preparation for his retirement, and Lehman Tingle offered a field at his nursery for some of the plants (3 notebooks record these observations). By 1959, Gartrell was planting beds at Wyckoff and built a greenhouse there in 1960. There are notebooks recording his observations for all of these. In 1981, the Gartrells moved from Wyckoff, New Jersey, to a retirement home in Black Mountain, North Carolina.

Scope and Content

This collection consists of the horticultural notes, observations, correspondence, and research materials, ca. 1950-2004, ca. 1,000 items (8 Hollinger boxes, ca. 3.5 linear feet) of Robert Derby Gartrell (1895-?), creator of the Robin Hill Evergreen Azalea Hybrids, which have become one of the most popular and widespread of the modern azaleas. Material types include notebooks, note cards, correspondence, citation, articles, talks, photographs, legal papers concerning the Robin Hill azaleas, and registration sheets.

Arrangement

The papers are organized in two series: Series I: Azalea Notebooks or "Bed Books " which are listed in two distinct groups by Robert Gartrell's son-in-law, Donald H. Voss (Boxes 1-5) and Series II: Correspondence and Topical Files (Boxes 6-8). he azalea notebooks were kept in the order listed by Voss in his notes to preserve easy access to the extra information in his notes. The second series of files are arranged chronologically within the folder and have combined some of the original folders to conserve space. They were not necessarily kept in the order indicated in Voss' notes.