Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Fred C. Galle Papers, 1901-1998, Accession #10553-ai, Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

These papers were given to the University of Virginia Library in April 1999 by Mrs. Betty N. Galle, Springfield, Illinois.

Biographical/Historical Information

Fred Charles Galle was formerly the Director of Horticulture at Callaway Gardens, Pine Mountain, Georgia, 1953-1979, and served as Curator until his retirement in August of 1983. Active in many horticultural organizations, Galle was the president of the American Rhododendron Society, 1979-1981, winning its Gold Medal Award in 1983. He has also served as a past director of the Holly Society of America, and president of both the American Association of Botanic Gardens and Arboreta and the American Horticultural Society. From 1964 until 1971, Mr. Galle served on the Advisory Council of the United States National Arboretum in Washington , D.C.

His landmark book, Azaleas , published by Timber Press in 1985, was listed by the U.S.D.A. National Agriculture Library at Beltsville, Maryland, as one of the fifty great American gardening books. Another one of his books, Hollies: the Genus Ilex , won the American Horticultural Society Book Award and, according to August E. Kehr, it is the "first authoritative and comprehensive guidebook" on hollies in the English language. Galle received his bachelor and masters degree in Horticulture from Ohio State University and did graduate work at the University of Tennessee. He was also a veteran of World War II, winning a Purple Heart, Bronze Star, and a Cluster. In 1964, Galle was elected a Fellow of The Royal Horticultural Society, London, Great Britain.

Scope and Content Information

This collection consists of the papers and records of horticulturist Fred C. Galle (1919-1998), chiefly pertaining to his study of azaleas and hollies, including research notes, photographs and slides, correspondence, printed and typescript articles, electrostatic copies of articles, azalea seed samples, photostatic copies of two works by botanist Ludwig Eduard Theodor Loesener (1865-1941) concerning hollies and other plants in their family, and cassette tape recordings concerning entries from an encyclopedia of the Satsuki Azalea and a text about Ludwig Eduard Theodor Loesener translated by Al Faessler (audiocassette 0020, tapes 1, 2). About a hundred years ago, Loesener wrote a two-part monograph in Latin and German on the plant family Aquifoliaceae, which includes the genera Ilex (hollies) as its largest subgroup, and was the last definitive work on hollies prior to that of Galle.

Much of this material was assembled to aid Galle in the research and writing of his book, Hollies: the Genus Ilex , and most of the earliest dated material consists of printed articles, electrostatic and photostatic copies of articles, and pages from reference books concerning hollies, azaleas, and other plants.

Correspondents found in the correspondence file concerning azaleas include: Richard Abel, John Creech, Toichi Domoto, Ted Groszkiewicz, George W. Harding, Dr. J. Heursel, August E. Kehr, Massaki Kunishige, Takeo Kuwana, David G. Leach, Jay W. Murray, W.R. Philipson, W. Schmalscheidt, Henry T. Skinner, Hideo Suzuki, and William T. Turner.

Correspondents in the holly correspondence folder include: Richard Abel, Barton M. Bauers, Sr., T.R. Dudley, Gene Eisenbeiss, Shiu-ying Hu, R.J. Hutton, Mike Lynch, Elwin R. Orton, Jr., W.J. Tancig, and Linda J. Willms.

There are also complete sets of photostatic copies of Monographia Aquifoliacearum I & II , with the Index, by Theodor Loesener, 1901 & 1908.

Arrangement

Arranged alphabetically under two Series: Azaleas & Miscellaneous Files, and Hollies.