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Your absentee bid for Lot 013 - Grouping of five Antique Boy Scout Botany Merit Badge Specimen Collections with Over 100 Pages of Pressed Flowers, Plants, Leaves and Ferns, collected by Commissioner L.E. Sweitzer, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, 1922, 8" W x 11" H each was successfully submitted—thank you for bidding with us!
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Lot 013 - Grouping of five Antique Boy Scout Botany Merit Badge Specimen Collections with Over 100 Pages of Pressed Flowers, Plants, Leaves and Ferns, collected by Commissioner L.E. Sweitzer, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, 1922, 8" W x 11" H each
Lot 013 - Grouping of five Antique Boy Scout Botany Merit Badge Specimen Collections with Over 100 Pages of Pressed Flowers, Plants, Leaves and Ferns, collected by Commissioner L.E. Sweitzer, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, 1922, 8" W x 11" H each
Grouping of five antique botanical specimen collection folders created for Boy Scout merit badge requirements in 1922. The collection consists of Parts I through V, each contained in its own file folder marked "Botany Merit Badge" with file cards indicating "Commissioner L.E. Sweitzer" of Pittsfield, Massachusetts as the collector. Each of the five files contains a typed list of botanical contents and more than 20 pages of carefully pressed and mounted specimens, totaling over 100 pages throughout the complete collection. Specimens include a wide variety of plants, flowers, leaves, and ferns, each meticulously affixed to paper with tape and annotated with handwritten identifications including common names, scientific names, and collection dates ranging from April through July. Notable specimens visible include Everlasting or Immortelle (Antennaria neglecta), Houstonia or Bluets (Houstonia coerulea), American White Hellebore (Veratrum viride), Marginal Shield or Evergreen Wood Fern (Aspidium marginale), and Sheep Laurel (Kalmia augustifolia). The collection demonstrates systematic botanical fieldwork with specimens organized by family and blooming period.
Leonard Edward Sweitzer (1890-1977) was a lifelong Boy Scout leader in Pittsfield, Massachusetts who received the Silver Beaver Award, the highest adult award in Scouting, in 1932. Born in Leadville, Colorado, Sweitzer worked as an electrical engineer for General Electric according to his WWI draft registration. He and his wife Edie were associated with the Morewood School, where Edie was known as "the nature lady" and served as a volunteer teacher. His son Kenyon L. Sweitzer (1926-2013) followed in his father's footsteps, earning the rank of Eagle Scout before graduating from Pittsfield High School in 1943 and entering the U.S. Navy as an Aviation Cadet during World War II. The specimens remain in remarkably preserved condition given their age, with the pressed botanicals retaining clear detail and the paper supports showing minimal deterioration.
