National Cherry Blossom Festival records

The collection tells the story of the beginning of the Festival mostly through letters and newspaper articles. In addition, the official festival programs relate the different activities and volunteers. The collection has seven series arranged by type of material. Due to its completeness, the most useful series in the collection is the early history. The series includes photocopies of the first letters written in 1909 from the Superintendent of Public Buildings and Grounds and Washington Monument to the Landscape Gardener of Greenhouses, and Monument Grounds. These letters and others in the folder discuss the original donation in 1909 and a second donation in 1912. Newspaper articles and official festival programs add to this history. Although not complete, the collection does includes the type of material one would expect to find in a collection maintained by a festival volunteer, especially a volunteer who at times held various positions of authority. There are programs, information about advertisement costs, by-laws of the NCBF records of organizations affiliated with the events, and photographs of festival activities. The collection covers the years 1909-2002. It is 9 boxes and approximately 3.5 linear ft.