Living Library of Trees: Mapping Knowledge Ecology in Arnold Arboretum

Keywords

Index Terms: botanical data, deep learning, digital archives, ethnobotany, historical visualization, interspecies relations, science and technology studies (STS)

Abstract

As biodiversity loss and climate change accelerate, botanical gar- dens serve as vital infrastructures for research, education, and con- servation. This project focuses on the Arnold Arboretum of Har- vard University, a 281-acre living museum founded in 1872 in Boston, understood as a hybrid site where scientific inquiry, envi- ronmental stewardship, and interspecies encounters meet. Drawing on more than a century of curatorial data, the research combines historical analysis with computational methods to visualize the in- tertwined biographies of plants and people. The resulting digital platform reveals patterns of care and scientific observation, along with the ethical, infrastructural, and collective dimensions embed- ded in botanical data. Using techniques from artificial intelligence, geospatial mapping, and information design, the project frames the arboretum as a system of shared agency—an active archive of more- than-human affinities that records the layered memory of curatorial labor, the situated nature of knowledge production, and the poten- tial of design to bridge archival record and future care.