SALEM, MA – With more than nine acres of trees and historic plantings, the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) has been designated as a Level 1 Arboretum by The ArbNet Arboretum Accreditation Program and the Morton Register of Arboreta. PEM is unique among U.S. art museums for its rich and varied campus that includes museum buildings, offices, more than a dozen historic houses and associated gardens and green spaces covering 4.1 acres in historic Salem, Massachusetts. An additional campus in Rowley, Massachusetts, encompasses 5.3 acres and is home to PEM’s James B. and Mary Lou Hawkes Collection Center and its associated grounds.
“This designation reflects the tremendous work that has been accomplished and is underway to make PEM’s green spaces a vital and enriching part of the museum experience,” said Lynda Roscoe Hartigan, PEM’s Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Executive Director and CEO. “PEM is fortunate to have many treasured spaces on its campus, including a contemporary 5,000-square-foot garden designed by Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects and the landmark Colonial Revival garden at the museum’s Ropes Mansion. We hope the arboretum designation will encourage deeper engagement, exploration and curiosity about our natural and landscaped environments.”
The ArbNet Arboretum Accreditation Program is the only global initiative to officially recognize arboreta at various levels of development, capacity and professional practices. PEM is also now recognized as an accredited arboretum in the Morton Register of Arboreta, a database of the world’s arboreta and gardens dedicated to woody plants.
As part of the PEM FORWARD Strategic Plan (FY 24–28), the museum has been developing and improving the gardens and plantings across its two campuses. These green spaces reflect horticultural efforts from the 17th century to today. Notable plantings include a 100-year-old copper beech tree in PEM’s Ropes Mansion Garden and an array of species along the museum’s Axelrod Walkway, including dawn redwoods (Metasequoia glyptostroboides), Carolina silverbells (Halesia carolina), cryptomeria and ginkgos. Outside PEM’s Ward House, built in 1684, visitors will find bayberry, used in candle making, and other crops that are in keeping with what the residents would have grown in the 17th century.
Botanist Charles Sprague Sargent, the first director of Harvard University’s Arnold Arboretum, donated more than 90 woody plants for the Ropes Mansion Garden in 1913. “John Robinson, who originally designed the garden, would be thrilled to see the arboretum status,” said Robin Pydynkowski, Head Gardener at PEM. “The arboretum certification shows PEM's commitment to our living collection of woody plants, allowing best practices to be used in a proactive manner to not only protect and improve what we have but also expand our arboretum going forward.”
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About ArbNet
ArbNet is an interactive, collaborative, international community of arboreta. ArbNet facilitates the sharing of knowledge, experience and other resources to help arboreta meet their institutional goals and work to raise professional standards through the ArbNet Arboretum Accreditation Program. The accreditation program, sponsored and coordinated by The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois, in cooperation with American Public Gardens Association and Botanic Gardens Conservation International, is the only global initiative to officially recognize arboreta based on a set of professional standards. The program offers four levels of accreditation, recognizing arboreta of various degrees of development, capacity and professionalism. Standards include planning, governance, public access, programming, tree science, planting and conservation. More information is available at www.arbnet.org.
About the Peabody Essex Museum
Founded in 1799, the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in Salem, Massachusetts, is the country’s oldest continuously operating museum. PEM provides thought-provoking experiences of the arts, humanities and sciences to celebrate the creative achievements and potential of people across time, place and culture. By connecting people through inquiry, empathy and dialogue, PEM encourages an understanding of our shared humanity and fosters a sense of belonging in a complex, ever-changing world. We build, steward and share our superlative collection, which includes African, American, Asian export, Chinese, contemporary, Japanese, Korean, maritime, Native American, Oceanic and South Asian art, as well as architecture, fashion and textiles, photography, natural history and one of the nation’s most important museum-based collections of rare books and manuscripts. PEM offers a varied and unique visitor experience, with hands-on creativity zones, interactive opportunities, and performance spaces. The museum’s campus, which offers numerous gardens and greenspaces, is an accredited arboretum and features more than a dozen noted historic structures, including Yin Yu Tang, a 200-year-old Chinese home that is the only example of Chinese domestic architecture in the United States.