T
here is no versus about it, although there were a few differences between the two men’s lives. If they had known each other, they would surely have traded ideas, suggestions and knowledge, and perhaps would have helped each other in different ways. But Thompson was born in 1869 and Wallace in 1915. Thompson died in 1930 when Wallace was yet a stripling. Wallace died in 2005. There was no note in our archives stating that Thompson and Wallace ever met, however, the results of the two men’s work came together during the time Dr. William “Bill” Feldman was the director of the
TWO COLLECTIONS, TWO ERAS, Combining W.B. Thompson vs. H.B. Wallace Text by Sylvia Lee, BTA Historian
"
Legacies
Wallace became
concerned
about
the
decreased number of plants in their natural settings and brought dryland plants from around the world into his “backyard” to maintain a gene pool of their original diversity.
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Photo by Joseph Pacheco
Boyce Thompson Arboretum (1984-2005). Matt Johnson, the manager of the Desert Legume Program (DELEP) and Bill Feldman would visit H.B. Wallace each year. After looking at all of his plants, they would sit down to lunch and write plans for DELEP for the coming year. Then 6 | Boyce Thompson Arboretum | Winter 2020
Wallace would provide a $20,000 grant to the Arboretum for the next fiscal year. Wallace was born into wealth but amassed a fortune himself through developing techniques that boosted the poultry production in the
