Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore Research Paper

The history of the festival can be traced back to 1912, when Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo donated 3,000 cherry blossom trees to the city. Today, they seem to be an inherent part of the D.C. cityscape. However, the process to bring them over took many years of collaborative effort, beginning with Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore, an American writer and geographer, who would go on to become the first female board member of the National Geographic Society.

In 1885, after returning from her first trip to Japan, Scidmore approached the U.S. Army Superintendent of the Office of Public Buildings and Grounds with the idea of planting Sakura trees along the Potomac River waterfront. Her proposal was initially rejected. However, she continued to suggest the idea to every new superintendent over the next 24 years. …show more content…
At the time, famed chemist, Dr. Jokichi Takamine, was in Washington D.C. with Mr. Midzuno, the Japanese consul in New York. Upon learning about the Sakura initiative, Dr. Takamine offered to donate two thousand additional trees to the city as a gift from Tokyo.

Unfortunately, the donation was plagued by disease and the trees were consequently burned; a replacement shipment - this time with 3,020 trees - arrived to the city in March 26, 1912. That same month, the first two trees were planted in West Potomac Park by First Lady Helen Herron Taft and Viscountess Chinda, the wife of the Japanese