Talk:Arnold Arboretum

State of Arnold Arboretum
A likely candidate for worst entry in wikipedia? Lots of stuff directly copied from the AA-website, but deprived of its lay-out and typography. The result is very close to being unreadable.

I think it is looking much better than when the above poster looked at it. Possibly we can clean it up with a fwew more citations.

questions of emphasis
Does the Great Amur Tree Disaster really deserve its own section, equal to topics like "Research"?

No mention of Lilac Sunday?

Dates
Many of Wikipedia's historical articles are full of facts that are next to useless because dates aren't provided.

Take a look at the article on Olmsted and Sargent's notable Brookline neighbor, Isabella Stewart Gardner. Ha ha!

Here we are told Olmsted worked on the Arboretum. Yeah? When?

We also like being told that Sargent was named director "shortly after" 1872. It has more of a mystique than being told the year he -was- named director, don'tcha know. (And when rectifying that, a friendly hint: You'd better check to see if the year he was named director and the year he took up his directorship were the same.)

On the other hand, the author does name the year H. H. Hunnewell made his donation to the Arboretum, 1903. Of course, Horatio Hollis Hunnewell died in 1902, but never mind.

We're also told the Hunnewell Building was designed 11 years before construction was funded. Now, that is possible if, say, the design lay fallow waiting for that to happen. But that statement's a no-show.

I won't begin to unravel the (excusing the computer programming colloquialism) spaghetti code thrown at us in the first couple of paragraphs under 'History', typical of these middle-school efforts. We get an 1872 founding, followed by an 1842 bequest, then an 1800 inheritance, then acquisitions lasting until 1837 which--surprise!--resulted from events in the 1600s, then an 1871 building, and it's back to good old 1872 again, at the start of para. 3.

And were we told that 1872 was the founding date? Gee, I guess not, because we're told again at the start of para. 4.

This is the wasteland that is Wikipedia. But in all seriousness, it can be fixed.

But hurry. To paraphrase an old Woody Allen routine: The aliens will be back at some point, and they will ask: Are the suits ready? --Jim Luedke Jimlue (talk) 06:12, 6 March 2011 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 5 one external links on Arnold Arboretum. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20051228104826/http://www.arboretum.harvard.edu:80/research/research.html to http://www.arboretum.harvard.edu/research/research.html
 * Added tag to http://arboretum.harvard.edu/about/staff/sheila-connor/
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110219214205/http://www.publicgardens.org:80/content/what-napcc to http://www.publicgardens.org/content/what-napcc
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20051227134244/http://www.loc.gov/preserv/prd/gardfor/gfhome.html to http://www.loc.gov/preserv/prd/gardfor/gfhome.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080502145934/http://www.nps.gov:80/history/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/56arnold/56arnold.htm to http://www.nps.gov/history/NR/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/56arnold/56arnold.htm
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080514161210/http://www.nps.gov:80/history/nr/TwHP/wwwlps/lessons/86bostonparks/86bostonparks.htm to http://www.nps.gov/history/NR/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/86bostonparks/86bostonparks.htm

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at ).

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 10:50, 18 October 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 6 external links on Arnold Arboretum. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20091007133215/http://arnoldia.arboretum.harvard.edu/static/home to http://arnoldia.arboretum.harvard.edu/static/home
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20051228104826/http://www.arboretum.harvard.edu/research/research.html to http://www.arboretum.harvard.edu/research/research.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20091007133215/http://arnoldia.arboretum.harvard.edu/static/home to http://arnoldia.arboretum.harvard.edu/static/home
 * Added tag to http://arboretum.harvard.edu/about/staff/sheila-connor/
 * Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.publicgardens.org/content/what-napcc
 * Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/56arnold/56arnold.htm
 * Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/TwHP/wwwlps/lessons/86bostonparks/86bostonparks.htm

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 11:57, 9 July 2017 (UTC)

Incorrect name cited
In the "History" section, a name is cited incorrectly. Instead of "Jackson Thornton Johnson", it should be "Jackson Thornton Dawson". Mr. Dawson was the father of James Frederick Dawson who was a partner of Frederick Law Olmsted. Jdl9 (talk) 15:56, 16 September 2017 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Arnold Arboretum. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080513095659/http://www.centerforplantconservation.org/ to http://www.centerforplantconservation.org/
 * Added tag to http://via.harvard.edu:9080/via/deliver/advancedsearch?_collection=via

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 22:25, 30 December 2017 (UTC)