Donald Alton Beadle Bromeliad Slides, 1977-1998

Summary

Creator:

Beadle, Donald A. (Donald Alton), 1930-2018

Abstract:

This collection is comprised of 3 half-boxes of photographic slides taken by Donald Alton Beadle. These slides show a variety of bromeliad plants. Beadle dedicated his time to hybridizing and creating different types of bromeliads, including the Billbergia 'Hallelujah,' eventually buying a nursery and photographing them so they could be displayed to a wider audience.

Extent:

1.5 Linear Feet 3 Boxes

Language:

The materials are written in English

Preferred citation:

Donald Alton Beadle Bromeliad Slides, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida.

Background

Scope and content:

Slides are grouped together by type of bromeliads and also organized by number within each group.

Series I: Slides, 1977-1998, contains 3 half-boxes of photographic 35mm slides placed in plastic sleeves. Each slide is stamped and/or written with a month and year on it, presumably when the photograph was taken. Many slides are also labeled with a number.

Biographical / historical:

Donald Alton Beadle was born in Lafayette, Louisiana on June 29, 1930. At the age of 19, Beadle joined the Air Force and later went to college after four years of service, becoming a petroleum engineer. He eventually started his own company, Macero Minerals, in Corpus Christi, Texas. Soon after becoming friends with his neighbor John Anderson, Beadle discovered and became enamored with bromeliads, joining a bromeliad society. He focused on the Billbergia, of which there were only 20 available at the time. After experimenting with hybridizing pollen, he found that freezing it could preserve it for up to two years. After pollen, he hybridized the 'Domingos Martins' with the 'Ed McWilliams' and created the Billbergia 'Hallelujah' which was later prized for its rich red color and white and pink spots. After this successful hybrid, Beadle began to create more Billbergia hybrids, such as 'Afterglow' and 'La Noche.' After running out of space for his plants in his Corpus Christi home, he then moved to the Los Milagros nursery in Venice, Florida in 1986 and began photographing his work, allowing his hybrids to be seen and admired by a wider audience. In 2000, Beadle retired and sold the nursery to Michael Kiehl, who renamed it Michael's Bromeliads. Beadle passed away in Venice, Florida on October 31, 2018.

Acquisition information:

Joann Buell donated these materials to the University of Central Florida Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives in 2019 (CFM2020_01).

Arrangement:

Slides are grouped together by type of bromeliads and also organized by number within each group.

Rules or conventions:

Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Related

Related material:

The Michael A. Spencer Bromeliad Research Collection. Collector, Michael A. Spencer amassed this collection of publications, photographs, drawings, correspondence programs and other materials focusing on the discovery, taxonomy and cultivation of bromeliads. Mulford B. Foster, Racine Foster and Lyman B. Smith are among the significant bromeliad collectors whose work is documented in this fine collection.

The Michael A. Spencer Collection on Theodore Mead, who was a horticulturist and owned an orange grove in Eustis, Florida and developed a property in Oviedo, Florida to research and hybridize plants. The collection contains Mead's notebook and family correspondence, together with a brochure and news clipping about the founding of Mead Gardens in Winter Park, Florida.

Michael A. Spencer Collection on Julian Nally. Nally grew bromeliads and other plants on the property that had once belonged to Henry Nehrling at Gotha, Florida. This collection documents both his work at the property and his personal life.

Michael A. Spencer Collection on Henry Nehrling. These materials were collected by Michael Spencer because of his interest in botany and his links with Central Florida. Of particular interest are Nehrling's notebooks, correspondence, photographs and plant labels. The collection also contains a few materials, which belonged to Mr. Spencer concerning the attempts to save Nehrling's Palm Cottage Gardens.

Henry Nehrling Papers. Henry Nehrling was a horticulturist famous for his gardens in Gotha and Naples, Florida. These papers are primarily manuscripts of his articles in the American Eagle and other writings about plants. They include a few news clippings, plant lists, correspondence and other documentation of a business and personal nature.

Archival Collection of Dr. Henry H. Nehrling from the Collection of Michael D. Kahn. These materials were in the possession of Betty Pooler Mitchell Nehrling, Henry Nehrling's second wife. The collection consists of letters, documents, photographs, postcards and monographs which provides insight into the familial and financial affairs of the Nehrling Gardens. It also offers a look at Henry Nehrling during the tumultuous years of Florida's boom and bust, and a glimpse of his failing physical and mental state while he sought refuge in a quiet communal colony in Southwest Florida.

The Bromeliad Society International (BSI) Archive. The Bromeliad Society International (BSI) Archive consists of historical material, including photographs related to cultivation of bromeliads; field notes related to the collection of bromeliads in the wild; list of plant entries in judged bromeliad shows; incoming and outgoing correspondence from early bromeliad growers.

Indexed terms

Subjects:

Bromeliaceae
Botany
Plant hybridization
slides (photographs)

Restrictions:

The entire collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

Unpublished manuscripts are protected by copyright. Permission to publish, quote or reproduce must be secured from the repository and the copyright holder.

Preferred citation:

Donald Alton Beadle Bromeliad Slides, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida.

Location of this collection:

UCF Special Collections

John C. Hitt Library

12701 Pegasus Drive, Building 2

Orlando

FL

32816-8030

USA

Contact:

https://library.ucf.edu/about/departments/special-collections-university-archives/