United States of America -- New York -- Westchester -- Rye
Scope and Contents:
The folder includes worksheets and photocopies of articles.
General:
Located on the banks of the tidal Blind Brook estuary, lined with salt marshes, Bird Homestead was the home of Henry Bird (1869-1959), a prominent entomologist and president of the New York Entomological Society who specialized in the study of moths. The landscape and garden was of a modest size and represents a unique combination of a small self-sufficient farm with ornamental perennial beds, shrubs, and roses plus fruit trees that combined both beauty and utility, along with specific plants grown for entomological research. The Greek revival style house, outbuildings, picket fence and stonewall all date to the 19th century, a rarity on Westchester County's Long Island Sound Shore.
The garden features date primarily from the 1920s and 1940s, with additions in 2012 for educational purposes. The Bouton-Bird Erikson family owned the property for five generations from 1852-2009. The non-profit Bird Homestead Preservatio trust now operates the property as a historic, environmental, and educational site.
The Greek revival style house built in the 19th century, white oak trees shading the house, the remains of earlier gardens, and outbuildings including a barn, a workshop and chicken coop. The small family farm was self-sufficient until well into the 20th century, raising chickens and growing fruits and vegetables. The property is being restored by the Bird Homestead Preservation Trust and is used to teach children about the natural environment including organic gardening in four raised beds on the site of an earlier large cold frame. A cedar arbor for grape vines was recently hoisted back to stand vertically in the garden after many years of leaning at a severe angle. Surviving shrubs near the house include lilac, wisteria, roses, azalea, mock orange and beautybushes, and a bed of ferns is undisturbed by neglect for many years.
Henry Bird encouraged the use of beneficial insects in the garden rather than spraying pesticides and maintained a small garden area with plants that would attract the insects he wanted to study. Bird also was a proponent of native plants and established a large natives garden at 'Bye-Wood' on the Mr. and Mrs. William J. Knapp estate, which led him to write "A Proposed Type of American Garden" with Louise Allen Knapp, published in 1929 in ASLA's "Landscape Architecture" journal. Daughter Alice Bird Erikson (1903-1993) was an artist and trained as a landscape architect at the Lowthorpe School of Landscape Architecture. In 1942 she illustrated Trees of the Countryside (Alfred A. Knopf) by Margaret McKenny, who had been a classmate.
Persons associated with the garden include Henry Bird (former owner, 1959), Alice Bird Erikson (former owner and landscape architect, 1903-1994); City of Rye, New York (2009- ).
Related Materials:
Bird Homestead related holdings consist of 1 folder (24 digital images)
Collection Restrictions:
Access to original archival materials by appointment only. Researcher must submit request for appointment in writing. Certain items may be restricted and not available to researchers. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
Collection Rights:
Archives of American Gardens encourages the use of its archival materials for non-commercial, educational and personal use under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law. Use or copyright restrictions may exist. It is incumbent upon the researcher to ascertain copyright status and assume responsibility for usage. All requests for duplication and use must be submitted in writing and approved by Archives of American Gardens. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, The Garden Club of America collection.
Sponsor:
A project to describe images in this finding aid received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care Initiative, administered by the National Collections Program.
United States of America -- Pennsylvania -- Chester -- Oxford
Scope and Contents:
19 digital images (2009, 2022-2023) and 1 file folder (digital).
General:
In just over 20 years this 10-acre former hayfield has been converted close to what it might have been before it was cultivated, a healthy multi-level ecosystem that supports insects, reptiles, birds, fungi, deer and other mammals. The meadow garden, wetlands garden, and young woodlands garden are philosophy put into practice by entomologist Doug Tallamy and Cindy Tallamy. That philosophy is found in Tallamy's many books such as Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in your Yard (Timber Press, February 4, 2020). This garden is stocked almost exclusively with plants that are native to the Piedmont Plateau, many grown from seed by the owner. Wildflowers include Virginia bluebells, native goldenrods, sunflowers, aster varieties and skunk cabbage although herbaceous perennials are limited by mammalian predation. Flowering shrubs include native viburnum, fringe tree and winterberry for invertebrates and birds, caged in wire hardware cloth to protect them from deer. Shrubs that are most valuable to birds and insects, blueberry and chokeberry, and species specific milkweed for monarch butterflies also are grown. Trees that are of the greatest value to caterpillars, insects and birds, the keystone species, include native oak, hickory, beech, willow and dogwood.
An annual count of the variety of moths living on the property measures the success and progress of rewilding. In 2022 there were 1,199 different moth species, or 44 percent of the varieties native to Pennsylvania. Sixty species of birds have been counted. Additional books by Doug Tallamy include "Bringing Nature Home-How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants" (Timber Press, January 1, 2009); "The Woods in Your Backyard: Learning to Create and Enhance Natural Areas Around your Home" Second Edition (NRAES, January 1, 2015); "The Nature of Oaks: The Rich Ecology of our Most Essential Native Trees" (Timber Press. March 30, 2021); and "The Living Landscape: Designing for Beauty and Diversity in the Home Garden" Rick Darke and Doug Tallamy (Timber Press, July 1, 2014).
Persons associated with the garden's design: Doug and Cindy Tallamy.
Collection Restrictions:
Access to original archival materials by appointment only. Researcher must submit request for appointment in writing. Certain items may be restricted and not available to researchers. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
Collection Rights:
Archives of American Gardens encourages the use of its archival materials for non-commercial, educational and personal use under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law. Use or copyright restrictions may exist. It is incumbent upon the researcher to ascertain copyright status and assume responsibility for usage. All requests for duplication and use must be submitted in writing and approved by Archives of American Gardens. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
Topic:
Gardens -- Pennsylvania -- Chester -- Oxford Search this
Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, The Garden Club of America collection.
Sponsor:
A project to describe images in this finding aid received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care Initiative, administered by the National Collections Program.