John Nash Ott Collection
Inclusive Dates
circa 1942 – 1986
Preservation Sponsor
Illinois State Historical Records Advisory Board
Abstract
The John Nash Ott Collection spans decades of Ott’s prolific filmmaking hobby-turned-career, including episodes of his weekly 1950s television series How Does Your Garden Grow?, elements from his self-distributed educational films on a range of topics including the benefits of full-spectrum light, and Kodachrome time-lapse footage of flowers blooming that he brought with him for his lectures at garden clubs across the country.
Collection Items
To request more information about the items in this collection, please contact the archive at
info@chicagofilmarchives.org.
Items with Viewable Media
- 2 Rotodendron
- 2 Tulips
- 4 Coffee
- Aberdeen
- Abundance From India's Acres - A-Roll
- Abundance From India's Acres B-roll
- Abundance From India's Acres - Master Magnetic [Soundtrack]
- Abundance From India's Acres - Neg. Track - English Version
- Adam to Atom
- African Violet
- African Violets
- African Violets
- African Violets AB
- African Violets AB
- African Violets AB
- African Violets AB
- Andy Blason Orchid
- Andy Blason Orchid
- Annual Poppy
- Aphids on Orange
- Apple Blossom
- Apple Blossoms
- Apple Teeth [Gateway to Health]
- Azaleas
- Beans
- Bees Honey Dance Apple Box
- Bees Honey Dance Apple Box
- Black Spot
- Blossom to Bottle
- Blossom to Bottle Negative Soundtrack
- Blossoms to Bottle
- Blossoms to Bottle [A-Roll]
- Blossoms to Bottle [B-Roll]
- Brown Eyed Susan
- Brown Eyed Susan
- Brown Eyed Susan
- Butterfly
- Calceolaria
- Caliandra
- Caliandra
- Caliandra
- Caliandra Time-Lapse
- Camelia
- Camelia
- Camelia
- Camelia
- Camelia
- Camelia
- Camelia
- Camelia
- Camelia
- Cana
- Canna Lily
- Carnations
- Cell Div.
- Cell Growth + Division
- Cherries
- Chrysanthemum
- [Clouds]
- Clump Red Cells
- Coal Servant of Mankind - Answer Print
- Coal, The Servant of Mankind - [A-Roll]
- Coal, The Servant of Mankind - [B-Roll]
- Coffee
- Columbine
- Corn Worm
- Cyclamen T. Lapse
- Dahlia
- Dahlia
- Dancing Flower
- Dancing Flower
- Dancing Flowers
- Dancing Flowers
- Dancing Flowers
- [Dancing Flowers - Soundtrack]
- Dancing Flowers Stage
- Dancing Violet Color + Sound
- Dancing Violet Color + Sound
- Dandelions-Crabgrass
- Delphinium [A-Roll]
- Delphinium II
- Delphinium II
- Delphinium II
- Delphinium II
- Delphinium II
- Delphinium II
- Disney "Tomatoes"
- Dixieland B Postrack
- Dogwood
- Dogwood
- Dr. Fred D. Miller and the Gateway to Health
- Dr. T Roberts Archer Fish Intro
- Dr. T Roberts Archer Fish Intro
- Dr. Tilden Robers
- E Pig Cell Division
- Eggplant
- Eng'r Shoop Orig'l Edited
- Eng'r Shoop Orig'l Edited
- Exploring the Spectrum [A-Roll]
- Exploring the Spectrum [B-Roll]
- Exploring the Spectrum - Flower Scene
- Exploring the Spectrum - Flower Scene
- Exploring the Spectrum Flower Scene
- Exploring the Spectrum Misc Scenes
- Exploring the Spectrum Misc Scenes
- Exploring the Spectrum Misc Scenes
- Exploring the Spectrum Misc Scenes
- Exploring the Spectrum Misc Scenes
- Exploring the Spectrum Misc Scenes
- Exploring the Spectrum Misc Scenes
- Exploring the Spectrum Misc Scenes
- Exploring the Spectrum Misc Scenes
- Exploring the Spectrum [Negative Optical Track]
- Exploring the Spectrum [Negative Optical Track]
- Exploring the Spectrum - Opt S/T
- Exploring the Spectrum - Part 1 & 2 [Picture Negative]
- Exploring the Spectrum Part 3 Section A
- Exploring the Spectrum Part 3 Section A [Picture Negative]
- Exploring the Spectrum Part III
- Exploring the Spectrum Part III
- Exploring the Spectrum Part III [Optical Soundtrack]
- Exploring the Spectrum Part III [Picture]
- Exploring the Spectrum Part III [Picture Negative]
- Exploring the Spectrum Part III [Soundtrack]
- Exploring the Spectrum [Parts I & II]
- Exploring the Spectrum [Reel 1 Picture]
- Exploring the Spectrum [Reel 1 Soundtrack]
- Exploring the Spectrum [Reel 2 Picture]
- Exploring the Spectrum [Reel 2 Soundtrack]
- Fertilife #4
- First Federal Rose
- Fish 6-10-37
- Fish Bite
- Fish Bite
- Flower of Death - Orchid Mstr.
- Flowers Opening
- Flowers Opening
- Fly Trap
- Fuchia
- Fuchia
- Gateway to Health
- Gateway to Health
- Gateway to Health 59 [Slit 16mm]
- Gateway to Health - Color Master
- Gateway to Health - End Section - Color Master
- Gateway to Health - End Section - Neg.
- Gateway to Health [Negative Optical Soundtrack]
- Gateway to Health [Negative Optical Soundtrack]
- Geraniums
- Geraniums
- Geraniums (Pink)
- Gloxinia
- Gloxinia
- [Golden Vigoro Lawn Food]
- Greenhouse
- How Does Your Garden Grow #20 - Day Lilies - Kodachrome Original - A Roll
- How Does Your Garden Grow #20 Day Lilies - Original Kodachrome - B Roll
- How Does Your Garden Grow #26 Dahlias - Orig Koda - A-Roll
- How Does Your Garden Grow #26 Dahlias - Orig Koda - B-Roll
- How Does Your Garden Grow - #26 Dahlias - Positive Track
- How Does Your Garden Grow: African Violets
- How Does Your Garden Grow: African Violets
- [How Does Your Garden Grow] African Violets [A-Roll]
- [How Does Your Garden Grow] African Violets [B-Roll]
- How Does Your Garden Grow: Dahlias
- How Does Your Garden Grow: Dahlias
- How Does Your Garden Grow: Dahlias
- How Does Your Garden Grow - Dahlias - B Negative
- [How Does Your Garden Grow] Day Lilies [Negative Optical Soundtrack]
- [How Does Your Garden Grow] Delphinium [B-Roll]
- [How Does Your Garden Grow] Flower Boxes [A-Roll]
- [How Does Your Garden Grow] Flower Boxes [B-Roll]
- How Does Your Garden Grow: From Blossom to Bottle
- [How Does Your Garden Grow] Gladiolas [Negative Optical Soundtrack]
- How Does Your Garden Grow - Gladiolas - Original Kodachrome - A-Roll
- How Does Your Garden Grow: Introduction
- How Does Your Garden Grow - Introduction - [A-Roll]
- How Does Your Garden Grow: Introduction [Negative Optical Track]
- How Does Your Garden Grow - Introduction - Picture B-Roll
- How Does Your Garden Grow: Iris
- How Does Your Garden Grow - Iris - Koda Orig - A Roll
- How Does Your Garden Grow - Iris - Koda Orig - B Roll
- How Does Your Garden Grow - Iris - Neg Track
- How Does Your Garden Grow - Orchids
- How Does Your Garden Grow - Orchids - Neg Track
- How Does Your Garden Grow: Peonies
- [How Does Your Garden Grow] Rock Gardens #11 - Orig. Koda - B-Roll
- [How Does Your Garden Grow] Rock Gardens [Neg Track]
- How Does Your Garden Grow: Roses
- How Does Your Garden Grow: Roses [Negative Optical Soundtrack]
- How Does Your Garden Grow: Roses [Negative Optical Soundtrack]
- How Does Your Garden Grow - Roses - Original Kodachrome A Roll
- How Does Your Garden Grow - Roses - Original Kodachrome B Roll
- [How Does Your Garden Grow] Snaps and Stocks - Kodachrome Original - B-Roll
- [How Does Your Garden Grow] Snaps and Stocks [Negative Optical Soundtrack]
- Hydrangea
- Insects - Orig Roll 6
- Insects - Roll #3
- Iris
- [Leader Lady and Color Bars Negative]
- Lecture Film
- Lecture Film
- Lecture Film
- Light Bulb Filament
- [Lilies]
- Macy Parade
- Marigold Cosmos Lantana Verdena
- Marigold Cosmos Lantana Verdena
- Marigold Cosmos Lantana Verdena
- Marigold Cosmos Lantana Verdena
- Mice
- Millburn Spots
- Miracle of the Bulb (Color Master - German)
- Miracle of the Bulb (Italian)
- Mother in Law, Greenhouse, Orchids
- Mums Orig
- Mums Orig
- Muscle Test [Picture]
- Muscle Test [Soundtrack]
- Muscle Tests Ott Laboratories, Inc.
- Nicotiana
- OCW Seeds
- OCW Seeds
- OCW Seeds
- The Old Pine Tree
- Oleander - African Violet - Carrion Flower - Orig'l
- On a Clear Day
- Orange Original
- Orchids
- Orchids
- Orchids
- Orchids Outs
- Orchids Outs
- Orchids Outs
- Orchids Outs
- Orig Olivia NP
- Original Pink Geranium + Water Lily
- Ott Lab Inc. Muscle Test
- Ott Lab Inc. Muscle Test
- Our Changing World
- Our Changing World [A-Roll]
- Our Changing World [B-Roll]
- Our Changing World [Neg Track]
- Out At Ott's / Miracle of the Bulb
- Paper White Narcissus
- Pathe News
- Peaches - Cherries
- Peas
- Peonies
- Peonies
- Peonies
- Peonies
- Peonies
- Peonies
- Peonies
- Peonies
- Peonies
- Peonies
- Peonies
- Peonies [A-Roll]
- Peonies [B-Roll]
- Peony Mum
- Petunias
- Phagocytes
- [Phagocytes]
- [Phagocytes]
- Phlox
- Physarum Polycephalium [B-Roll]
- Picture Parade
- Pine Cone T.L. Orig'l
- Pine Seed
- Pink Geranium
- Pink Hybiscus Good
- Pinks
- Pitcher Plant + Sundew
- Plums
- Pollen
- Pollen
- Pollen
- Pollen
- Pollen Burst
- Pollen Tube
- Praying Mantis Tomatoe Worm
- Prune Song
- Rag Weed
- Ragweed
- Red Blood Cells
- Red Blood Cells
- Red Blood Cells
- Red Blood Cells
- Red Blood Cells
- Red Blood Cells
- Red Blood Cells
- Red Blood Cells
- Red Cactus
- Red Cactus
- Red Oriental Poppy
- Red Pepper
- Red Poppy
- Rhododendron
- Rhotodendron
- Rice
- Rice
- Rice
- Rice
- Rice
- Rice
- Rice
- Rice
- Rice
- Rice
- Roses
- Roses
- Salpiglossis - Nasturtium - Bachelor Buttons - Hollyhocks - Gladiolas - Orig'L T.L.
- Section from "Our Changing World"
- Seedlings - Corn - Wheat - Cotton
- Sensitive Plant - A-Roll
- Sensitive Plant - B-Roll
- Shells
- Shoop African Lily
- Shooting Star T.L Orig'l
- Singer / Clear Day
- Snap Dragons
- Snow Melting
- The Specialist
- Spider Flower
- Spring Blossoms
- Spring Bulbs
- Spring Bulbs
- Spring Iris
- Spring Iris
- Sqirels
- Squirl
- Story of Two Tomatoes - Take 1 and 2, Tropics Insert (Audio)
- Story of Wheat [A-Roll]
- Story of Wheat [B-Roll]
- Story of Wheat [Negative Optical Soundtrack]
- Story of Wheat Section
- Strawberries
- Strawberries
- Strawberries
- Strawberries
- Suave Rose Comm
- Sundew
- Sweet William
- T.L. Cactus
- Time Lapse Dahlias
- Time Lapse Seedling
- TL African Violets
- TL African Violets
- TL Agapanthus Orig
- Tomato Worm Etc
- Tomato Worm Etc
- Tomato Worm Etc
- Tomato Worm + Praying Mantis
- Tomatoe
- Tomatoe
- Tree Box Print
- Trilium
- Tuberous Begonias
- Tuberous Begonias
- Tuberous Begonias
- Tuberous Begonias
- Tuberous Begonias
- Tuberous Begonias
- Tuberous Begonias
- Tulips T.L.
- Tuplips
- Two Tomatoes
- Two Tomatoes [Negative Optical Soundtrack]
- Two Tomatoes [Negative Optical Soundtrack]
- Two Tomatoes - Negative Optical Track
- [Two Tomatoes - Optical Soundtrack]
- Two Tomatoes - Orig KC - A-Roll
- Two Tomatoes - Orig KC - B-Roll
- Two Tomatoes [Picture Negative]
- U-505
- UNK S-1
- UNK S-2
- UNK S-4 [Phagocytes]
- UNK S-5 [Red Blood Cells]
- UNK S-6 [Phagocytes]
- UNK S-7 [Phagocytes]
- UNK S-8
- UNK S-12 [Orchids Negative Optical Soundtrack]
- UNK S-13
- UNK S-13
- UNK S-13
- UNK S-13
- UNK S-13
- UNK S-13
- UNK S-14
- UNK S-15
- UNK S10 1 of 4
- UNK S10 2 of 4
- UNK S10 3 of 4
- UNK S10 4 of 4
- UNK S11 1 of 13
- UNK S11 2 of 13
- UNK S11 3 of 13
- UNK S11 4 of 13
- UNK S11 5 of 13
- UNK S11 6 of 13
- UNK S11 7 of 13
- UNK S11 8 of 13
- UNK S11 9 of 13
- UNK S11 10 of 13
- UNK S11 11 of 13
- UNK S11 12 of 13
- UNK S11 13 of 13
- UNK S16 Bag 1 of 2 (Paper or Photographic Materials)
- UNK S16 Bag 2 of 2 (Paper or Photographic Materials)
- [Untitled 35mm B&W Negatives - Rats] (Paper or Photographic Materials)
- Untitled A
- Untitled B
- Untitled C (Red Flower Blooming)
- Untitled D (Lab)
- [Untitled Flowers]
- [Untitled Flowers]
- [Untitled Flowers]
- [Untitled Flowers]
- [Untitled Flowers]
- [Untitled Flowers]
- [Untitled Plant]
- [Untitled Plants]
- Venus Flytrap
- Water Lily
- Water Wheel Orig'L
- Water Wheel Orig'L
- Wheat Farmer Neg.
- Wheels A' Rolling
- Winter Scene
- Yellow Busa
Collection Identifier
C.2022-09
Extent of Collection
427 reels of 16mm film totaling approximately 111,000 feet; 1 reel of 35mm film totaling 84 feet; 1 1/4" magnetic audio tape totaling 1200'.
Language Of Materials
English
Custodial History
The collection was donated to the Winnetka Historical Society by John Ott's son, James Forgan Ott, in 2014. The WHS transferred the films to Chicago Film Archives in autumn 2022. The films had previously been stored at Ott's home in Florida.
Related Materials
The film Secrets of Nature in the Margaret Conneely Collection features a behind-the-scenes look at Ott's greenhouse.
A print of Ott's film Plant Oddities is part of the Monica Ross Collection.
A print of Ott's film Plant Oddities is part of the Monica Ross Collection.
Access Restrictions
This collection is open to on-site access. Appointments must be made with Chicago Film Archives. Due to the fragile nature of the films, only digital copies will be provided for on-site viewing.
Use Restrictions
Chicago Film Archives holds the copyright to films made by John Ott Productions, Inc.
Creators
Ott, John Nash Jr.
(was created by)
John Nash Ott, Jr. was born in 1909 to John Nash Ott, Sr. and Jessie Forgan Ott of Winnetka, IL. Ott started tinkering with time-lapse plant photography in 1927, when he was a teenager. After high school, he started working at First National Bank of Chicago, where his grandfather James B. Forgan was president. For the next 20 years, Ott continued to experiment with time-lapse filmmaking as a hobby while working at the bank. He did not go to college, and at no time did his formal education ever include any courses in botany, biology, horticulture, or photography.
Through the 1930s his hobby evolved into a side business, with Ott making short commercial, industrial and educational films for schools, lawn-care companies and other clients, while giving lectures and screening his time-lapse movies for local garden clubs. He gained a reputation as an amateur filmmaker and gardener, and in 1947, Ott quit his bank job and dedicated himself fully to a career as a time-lapse photographer under the banner of John Ott Pictures, Inc.
The self-taught Ott built an elaborate automated film studio in his home’s greenhouse over the course of the 1940s. He outfitted his studio with automated photofloods, iron window shutters, and an army of Bell & Howell Filmo Model 70 16mm cameras, loaded with Commercial Kodachrome film stock and mounted on dollies. He additionally installed automatic temperature, humidity, and irrigation systems to help with growing different species of plants. The nerve center of all of this was a complex setup of switch panels and controls hooked up to a timer. Thus while time-lapse was not new in motion picture photography, Ott’s automatic greenhouse was called “ingenious” by American Cinematographer in 1947. The cost of equipping the home studio was reported to be $100,000 in 1949 – more than 1.25 million dollars in 2023.
Ott began hosting a weekly gardening show on Chicago TV in 1948, called How Does Your Garden Grow? It included advice about growing flowers, time-lapse films of plants growing, and answers to readers’ mail. One reporter wrote in 1952 that How Does Your Garden Grow? was “a combination of the Fountain of Youth, a trip to California, and a sunny 70 degree morning in May. … The program is the very stuff of life for hog tied Chicago area gardeners who spend winters despondently riffling fingers thru the barren earth of a window box. Ott not only feeds house plants, he nourishes twitching green thumbs, too.” An article in an April 1954 issue of TV Guide titled “His Treasure’s in a Jam Closet” begins, “No Chicago TV star is looking forward to color television more than WNBQ’s wizard of time-lapse photography, John Ott. The striking films of blossoming plants and flowers that enhance his popular show How Does Your Garden Grow? are impressive even in black-and-white. Transmitted in color, they’ll carry a powerful impact.” In March 1955, How Does Your Garden Grow? was the first show broadcast in color by Chicago’s NBC affiliate.
In the 1950s, he made several successful educational films and was commissioned to work on time-lapse sequences in Disney’s Nature’s Half Acre (1951) and Secrets of Life (1956). He also made innovative microscopic time-lapse films of subjects like cancer cells and fungi which were of great value to scientific researchers during this period. By 1953, one Chicago Tribune article called him “the planet’s most renowned botanical motion picture photographer and the time-lapse film authority.”
Ott moved to Florida in 1966 and switched gears to studying the effect artificial light and other modern inventions had on human health and well-being. He wrote books on the subject, founded the Environmental Health and Light Research Institute in Sarasota, Florida, and produced a documentary in the ‘70s called Exploring the Spectrum. He developed and sold full spectrum lights called OttLites, and sunglasses called Ott Naturals that he claimed fixed a variety of ailments.
He married socialite Emily Fentress in 1935 and had two sons, James and John; the couple divorced in 1945. Ott served in the Navy from 1943 to 1945. He married Agnes Anderson Greenough in 1945, and they had one son, Henry. Ott died in 2000 at the age of 90 in Sarasota, and is buried in Chicago’s famous Graceland Cemetery.
Through the 1930s his hobby evolved into a side business, with Ott making short commercial, industrial and educational films for schools, lawn-care companies and other clients, while giving lectures and screening his time-lapse movies for local garden clubs. He gained a reputation as an amateur filmmaker and gardener, and in 1947, Ott quit his bank job and dedicated himself fully to a career as a time-lapse photographer under the banner of John Ott Pictures, Inc.
The self-taught Ott built an elaborate automated film studio in his home’s greenhouse over the course of the 1940s. He outfitted his studio with automated photofloods, iron window shutters, and an army of Bell & Howell Filmo Model 70 16mm cameras, loaded with Commercial Kodachrome film stock and mounted on dollies. He additionally installed automatic temperature, humidity, and irrigation systems to help with growing different species of plants. The nerve center of all of this was a complex setup of switch panels and controls hooked up to a timer. Thus while time-lapse was not new in motion picture photography, Ott’s automatic greenhouse was called “ingenious” by American Cinematographer in 1947. The cost of equipping the home studio was reported to be $100,000 in 1949 – more than 1.25 million dollars in 2023.
Ott began hosting a weekly gardening show on Chicago TV in 1948, called How Does Your Garden Grow? It included advice about growing flowers, time-lapse films of plants growing, and answers to readers’ mail. One reporter wrote in 1952 that How Does Your Garden Grow? was “a combination of the Fountain of Youth, a trip to California, and a sunny 70 degree morning in May. … The program is the very stuff of life for hog tied Chicago area gardeners who spend winters despondently riffling fingers thru the barren earth of a window box. Ott not only feeds house plants, he nourishes twitching green thumbs, too.” An article in an April 1954 issue of TV Guide titled “His Treasure’s in a Jam Closet” begins, “No Chicago TV star is looking forward to color television more than WNBQ’s wizard of time-lapse photography, John Ott. The striking films of blossoming plants and flowers that enhance his popular show How Does Your Garden Grow? are impressive even in black-and-white. Transmitted in color, they’ll carry a powerful impact.” In March 1955, How Does Your Garden Grow? was the first show broadcast in color by Chicago’s NBC affiliate.
In the 1950s, he made several successful educational films and was commissioned to work on time-lapse sequences in Disney’s Nature’s Half Acre (1951) and Secrets of Life (1956). He also made innovative microscopic time-lapse films of subjects like cancer cells and fungi which were of great value to scientific researchers during this period. By 1953, one Chicago Tribune article called him “the planet’s most renowned botanical motion picture photographer and the time-lapse film authority.”
Ott moved to Florida in 1966 and switched gears to studying the effect artificial light and other modern inventions had on human health and well-being. He wrote books on the subject, founded the Environmental Health and Light Research Institute in Sarasota, Florida, and produced a documentary in the ‘70s called Exploring the Spectrum. He developed and sold full spectrum lights called OttLites, and sunglasses called Ott Naturals that he claimed fixed a variety of ailments.
He married socialite Emily Fentress in 1935 and had two sons, James and John; the couple divorced in 1945. Ott served in the Navy from 1943 to 1945. He married Agnes Anderson Greenough in 1945, and they had one son, Henry. Ott died in 2000 at the age of 90 in Sarasota, and is buried in Chicago’s famous Graceland Cemetery.