Alma C. Guillet
Make Friends of Trees and Shrubs
If you had visited Central Park in New York City sometime during the 1930s through the 1960s, you might have had the good fortune to go on a walking tour led by Alma C. Guillet, who wrote and illustrated Make Friends of the Trees and Shrubs (1962, Doubleday & Company) about trees and shrubs in Central Park.
Alma would have led you around the park, pointing out the hundreds of interesting trees and shrubs and telling you a folk story about each one.
Personally, I’ve never been to Central Park. I mostly know it from scenes from movies filmed within the park so it is difficult sometimes for me to fathom how big it really is. But it was a beloved place for Alma, our latest Lost Lady of Garden Writing.
Her Biography
Alma was born in 1877 in New York, the third of six children born to Francis H. Clark and Henrietta Clark. She married Dr. Cephas Guillet on Dec. 27, 1904, and immediately following the wedding, they left for Toronto, where Dr. Guillet was a professor of modern languages. The article about their wedding, which was described as an elaborate affair, also noted that Alma completed a course at the Hahnemann Hospital Training School for Nurses in Rochester.
I never found any census records or other documents that indicated Alma actually worked as a nurse after attending nursing school and getting married.
Per census records, Alma and Cephas had one son, John Francis, born October 4, 1905.
For most of their married life, Alma and Cephas lived in New York City. I did find a census record from 1910 showing them living in Terre Haute, Indiana, which was curious since that seemed to be a bit out of the way of Toronto and New York City. Their names are misspelled on those census records so to verify it wasn’t another Cephas Guillet with a wife and young son, I checked newspapers from that time period and discovered that Cephas spent about a year as a professor of psychology and experimental pedagogy at the Indiana normal school, which is now Indiana State University.
Cephas died in 1948. Alma died in 1978 at the age of 100, making her the longest-lived Lost Lady of Garden Writing so far. (Her son, John, died the year before, in 1977, when he was 74 years old.)
Her Book
I think Alma wrote just one book, Make Friends of Trees and Shrubs, published in 1962. For those who might think they are too old to write and publish a book, let Alma be your inspiration. She was 82 years old when her book was published. She not only wrote the book, she also drew all the illustrations.
Each page of the book lists a type of tree or shrub found in Central Park, tells a story about that plant, and then lists some of the species of that particular plant found in the park. The illustrations, as Alma notes in the book, are arranged in the order that the plants are listed on the page.
Alma researched the trees and shrubs of Central Park for many years, perhaps decades. She notes in the Preface:
“For over twenty years Mr. Alexander (Associate Curator of the New York Botanicl Garden) has examined and identified specimens from the park that I have brought to him. A student of folklore himself, he has read and criticized the folklore. He had also examined the drawings for accuracy as well as botanical data.”
I believe Alma intended to write a second book, Strolls and Hikes in Central Park, which she mentioned in the preface of this book, but I cannot find evidence of it existing.
There is an article in the March 9, 1963 issue of The New Yorker magazine with more information about Alma and her love of Central Park. I personally don’t have access to their archives, but can offer this snippet if anyone is interested in reading more about Alma.
“Interview with Mrs. Alma C. Guillet, 84, who knows everything about the flora of Central Park. She lives near Morningside Heights & has haunted the Park for 35 years. She has identified over five hundred species of trees & shrubs, including 60 kinds of hawthorn & she's drawn most of them. Many of the oldest & finest trees & shrubs are foreign. In the 1860's, when the Park was planted, nurseries here were few & small & it was easier to buy trees from abroad. She visits the park occasionally in the winter, & continually in the spring & fall. Summers she spends with her son & his family in Ontario. The northern section of the Park is most natural. She's begged the Parks Dept. to put in trails for schoolchildren there. She has written a book about trees & shrubs in American parks & plans to follow it up with a series of guidebooks to Central Park. Her book is called "Make Friends of Trees and Shrubs", & was brought out by Doubleday last summer. She's given the royalties from it to the Park Association of New York City to buy rare trees & shrubs for the Park.”
Alma also wrote a brief history of Central Park for the book. It is interesting reading all on its own, with tidbits about the first 100 years of the park, going back to its beginnings in 1853, how the land was cleared and planted and how they kept planting even during the Civil War. There were many twists and turns involved!
One last comment about the folklore in the book. As Alma noted, many of the trees and shrubs first planted in Central Park were not native to the area because there weren’t that many local nurseries in the 1800s from which to buy nursery stock. Many of the original trees planted in the park came from Asia or Europe, so the folk tales reflect the cultures of those areas. However, there are plenty of folk tales about native trees and shrubs. Some of them stretch the imagination a bit but she spent years doing research, so I have no doubt she could have backed them up with sources, given the opportunity to do so.
Other Tidbits
Alma belonged to the Daughters of the American Revolution! I saw a tidbit in a newspaper article about that and found this information on ancestry.com.
‘Mrs. Alma Clark Guillet.DAR ID Number: 85561; Born in Lima, N. Y. ; Wife of Cephas Guillet, Ph. D. ; Descendant of Corp. David Gardiner (or Gardner), as follows: ; 1. Francis Henry Clark (b. 1843), m. Henrietta E. Safford (b. 1846). ; 2. Henry King Clark (1802-80), m. Almena Loomis (1807-88). ; 3. Joel Loomis, m. Alice Chapell. ; 4. Ezekiel Chapell, m. Sarah Gardiner. ; 5. David Gardiner, m. Jermina Gustine. ; David Gardiner (1720-96) fought under Putnam at the battle of Bunker Hill. He enlisted for three years, and, 1781, was honorably discharged from Capt. Timothy Allyn's company. He was born and died at Bozrah, Conn. “
Because they have to show proof of a relationship to a Revolutionary War ancestor, members of DAR usually have well-researched family trees.
And of course, the other thing notable about her is she lived to be 100 years old.
As with most of these Lost Ladies of Garden Writing, the more I search, the more interesting and sometimes puzzling information I find.
I usually follow census records to find addresses, children, occupations, etc.
In the 1920 census, Alma and Cephas were shown to be living on West 122 St. in Manhattan with five lodgers, but their son, who would have been about 14 years old, wasn’t listed. But in 1925, only Alma, her son, and one boarder were listed on the census records, but they were still in New York. By the 1930 census, Alma, Cephas, and John, now 24, were all listed, along with four “roomers” on 114 St. in Manhattan. They all have the occupation of “teacher” in that census. In the 1940 census, Alma and Cephus lived on West 118 St. in New York City with no boarders. Cephas was 74 and his occupation was listed as “Bookbinder Teacher - Private” which was a long way from being a college professor, and Alma was 62 with an occupation of “Supervisor - Arts & Crafts - Church.”
Finally, I never found an obituary for Alma, who I believe was buried in Ontario, Canada, where her son lived.
No matter if anyone thought to write an obituary, Alma has left us with an interesting book about the trees and shrubs of Central Park in New York City.
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I wish I'd known about her book while I was living in NYC. It would have been a great companion.