More than a Century of Trees - From David Ross Boyd to David L. Boren

“I could not visualize a treeless university seat. I immediately began to make preparations for making a thousand trees grow where none had grown before.”

So said David Ross Boyd when describing his first year at the University of Oklahoma in 1892. From the very first, landscaping figured in Boyd’s plans for the development of the university. Each president to follow has added to the landscaping legacy begun by Boyd and each, in his own way, has made the OU campus more attractive. The last two decades have seen a landscaping renaissance for the OU campus. Under the guidance of OU President David L. Boren and OU First Lady Molly Shi Boren, the university’s landscapers have transformed the campus into one of the most beautiful in the nation.



This 1924 panoramic photograph of the University of Oklahoma was hand colored to make it more attractive. One cannot help but notice that the landscaping elements provide the variety of color that makes the image more pleasing to the eye.