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From the Archives: Honoring Dr. Katherine K. Muller
By Hannah Barton, Garden Archivist
In March of this year, Santa Barbara Botanic Garden had the honor of rededicating our Education Building to Dr. Katherine K. Muller, the Garden’s longest tenured director and enthusiastic champion of the organization’s education and conservation efforts. Dr. Muller served as director from 1950 to 1973 and remained involved with the Garden until her death in 1995. Given her many invaluable contributions to the Garden, we see her as being responsible for putting us on the path to becoming the renowned research- and education-focused organization we know and love today.
During her 47-year association with the Garden, some of her most notable contributions include the introduction of new programs and publications, the hiring of influential staff members, and important institutional expansions. While Dr. Muller led the Garden, the grounds expanded to 64 acres (nearly 26 hectares) and membership doubled. In addition to her many responsibilities as director, Dr. Muller also managed to remain heavily involved in research efforts. She wrote regular newspaper articles on wildflowers of the region, co-authored books such as the updated edition of “Trees of Santa Barbara” with Richard E. Broder and Will Beittel and the new “Wildflowers of the Santa Barbara Region” with Campbell Grant. She also oversaw the production of Clifton Smith’s book “A Flora of the Santa Barbara Region, California.” Dr. Muller started her tenure at the Garden as education associate in 1948, becoming the Garden’s director in 1950, where she remained heavily involved in the Education program. During this time, she initiated a docent program, led field trips for the public, gave lectures, and taught classes. She also had the fortitude to implement staff-directed designs and displays on the Garden grounds — and led the Garden to win a succession of blue ribbons for drought-tolerant design in 1951, 1954, 1955, and 1957. In addition to her research and educational involvement, she directed many institutional expansions, including the additions of the east and west wings to the Blaksley Library (1959 and 1961) and construction of the north wing (1964, initially the research wing and now the Garden Shop); the Propagation Unit (1973); and finally the Herbarium Building (1974), now the Katherine K. Muller Education Building.
The Katherine K. Muller Education Building houses our Education and Engagement Team offices, as well as the recently completed Reading Room. Our Reading Room has been reconfigured to safely and securely house our institutional archives, special collections, artwork, and object collections, as well as serve as a dedicated space where staff, volunteers, and guests can consult our collections by appointment. Since it was previously the Herbarium Building, the lower half of the building was constructed to be as fire-safe and climate-controlled as possible, making it the perfect spot to establish a stable environment for our nonliving, institutional collections.
The process to convert this space began in early 2022 with a very generous donation by a patron who wishes to remain anonymous. With this donation, we embarked on a months-long renovation of the building’s basement: cleaning, painting, and organizing the collections, education materials, and furniture. We were able to expand and relocate compact shelving, which now houses our rare books, photography, and manuscript collections. We were also able to increase our art storage capacity and add more space to display this collection on a rotating basis. Some longtime members may remember the large library table, original to the 1942 Blaksley Library. That table has been preserved and now serves as the Reading Room table, open for research use on a by appointment basis.
We’re so pleased to honor former Garden Director Dr. Katherine K. Muller and all she contributed. The refreshed Katherine K. Muller Education Building makes it doubly exciting! Garden members can make an appointment to visit the new Reading Room space and access our amazing collection for their next research project. To make an appointment, visit SBBotanicGarden.org/explore/collections/library/.
