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The Garden Club of America collection

Creator:: Garden Club of America Search this

Names:: New York Flower Show Search this

Extent:: 37000 Slides (photographs) (35mm slides); 33 Linear feet ((garden files)); 3,000 Lantern slides

Type:: Collection descriptions; Archival materials; Slides (photographs); Lantern slides; Plans (drawings); Brochures; Articles; Correspondence; Clippings

Date:: circa 1920-present

Summary:: This collection contains over 37,000 35mm slides, 3,000 glass lantern slides and garden files that may include descriptive information, photocopied articles (from journals, newspapers, or books), planting lists, correspondence, brochures, landscape plans and drawings. Garden files were compiled by Garden Club of America (GCA) members for most of the gardens included in the collection. Some gardens have been photographed over the course of several decades; others only have images from a single point in time. In addition to images of American gardens, there are glass lantern slides of the New York Flower Show (1941-1951) and trips that GCA members took to other countries, including Mexico (1937), Italy, Spain, Japan (1935), France (1936), England (1929), and Scotland.

A number of the slides are copies of historic images from outside repositories including horticultural and historical societies or from horticultural books and publications. The GCA made a concerted effort in the mid-1980s to acquire these images in order to increase its documentation of American garden history. Because of copyright considerations, use of these particular images may be restricted.

Biographical/Historical note:: The Garden Club of America was established in 1913 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, when the Garden Club of Philadelphia and eleven other garden clubs met to create a national garden club. Its purpose is to foster the knowledge and love of gardening and to restore and protect the quality of the environment through educational programs and gardening and conservation efforts. The GCA was incorporated in Delaware in 1923, with its headquarters established in New York City. Today, local clubs are organized under twelve regional zones. The GCA continues its tradition of hosting flower shows and publishing material related to gardening in the United States.

The GCA's glass lantern slides were used by The GCA for presentations and lectures about notable gardens throughout the United States dating back to colonial times. An effort was made in the late 1980s, in preparation of the 75th anniversary of the Garden Club of America's founding, to collect the disbursed slides. These slides were to eventually form the Slide Library of Notable American Parks and Gardens. The informational value of this collection is extensive since a number of images of the more than 4,500 gardens represented show garden designs that have changed over time or no longer exist. While the majority of images document a range of designed upper and upper-middle class gardens throughout the U.S., the scope of the collection is expanding as volunteers photograph and document contemporary gardens including community and vernacular gardens.

The gardens illustrate the design work of dozens of landscape architects including Marian Coffin, Beatrix Farrand, Lawrence Halprin, Hare & Hare, Umberto Innocenti, Gertrude Jekyll, Jens Jensen, Warren Manning, the Olmsted Brothers, Charles Platt, Ellen Biddle Shipman, and Fletcher Steele. Because of their proximity to the gardens, works of notable architects and sculptors may also be featured in the images.

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.

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 -- France Search this; Gardens -- Italy Search this; Gardens -- Japan Search this; Gardens -- Mexico Search this; Flower shows Search this; Gardening -- United States -- societies, etc Search this; Gardens -- England Search this; Landscape architecture Search this; Gardens -- United States Search this; Gardens -- Spain Search this; Gardens -- Scotland Search this

Genre/Form:: Plans (drawings); Brochures; Articles; Correspondence; Clippings; Lantern slides; Slides (photographs)

Citation:: 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.

Identifier:: AAG.GCA

See more items in:: The Garden Club of America collection

Archival Repository:: Archives of American Gardens

GUID:: https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/kb617385372-1028-4cb7-b07d-04fea2e51c47

EDAN-URL:: ead_collection:sova-aag-gca

Online Media:

Ogunquit -- Mace Garden

Collection Creator:: Garden Club of America Search this

Type:: Archival materials; Digital images

Place:: United States of America -- Maine -- York County -- Ogunquit; Mayfair Garden (Ogunquit, Maine)

Scope and Contents:: 19 digital images (2023) and 1 file folder.

General:: The 2/3-acre property was overgrown but had towering trees that would be saved and woven into a complex tapestry in a landscape with challenges: dry shade and a downward slope behind the house. The property had passed down in one family from 1897 until 1960, and when the current owners acquired it in 1964 they modernized the entrance to the house, added decks and a brick terrace, and built an outbuilding modeled on a Japanese teahouse. The owner studied and became a landscape architect in 1979 and was inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright and Roberto Burl Marx to integrate the garden and the house. A deck off an upper level faces tall trees and a 120-year-old climbing hydrangea is draped over a pergola on the brick terrace. Finding the existing plants were best adapted to the heavy clay soil they nonetheless have worked in about ninety varieties of native and cultivated trees and shrubs. Perennials and spring bulbs are underplanted in freeform beds with winding pathways, and ground cover plants including invasive goutweed have replaced underperforming grass lawns.

The teahouse was used by growing children for sleep overs, and to entertain friends. It has its own garden with ferns, iris, daylilies, Japanese weeping cherry, kousa dogwood, conifers, and a footbridge over a recirculating stream and fishpond. A bamboo grove is contained by sunken metal barriers that go more than a foot into the ground. Ground covers in the teahouse garden include silver lace, lily of the valley, vinca and mosses.

Statues and sculptures are placed to denote different rooms in this woodland garden. The plant selection, especially perennials, bulbs and flowering azalea and rhododendron add pops of color throughout the year. To maintain the garden a mixture of compost, cow manure and evergreen fertilizer is applied throughout in early May, with bulb booster included where needed.

Persons associated with the garden's design: Louesa Gillespie (1962- ) and Martin Mace, consultant (1962-1977).

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 -- Maine -- Ogunquit Search this; Woodland gardens Search this; Tea gardens Search this; Gardening in the shade Search this

Genre/Form:: Digital images

Collection Citation:: 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.

Identifier:: AAG.GCA, File ME077

See more items in:: The Garden Club of America collection; The Garden Club of America collection / Series 1: United States Garden Images / Maine

Archival Repository:: Archives of American Gardens

GUID:: https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/kb63b553027-b29f-4388-81ce-93955fccfc6f

EDAN-URL:: ead_component:sova-aag-gca-ref31909

Litchfield -- Ethan Allen Garden

Photographer:: Stoner, Diane B. Search this; Oneglia, Ellen Search this; Patterson, Marla J. Search this

Owner:: Hinkel, Paul R. Search this; Hinkel, Jane B. Search this

Provenance:: Litchfield Garden Club Search this

Collection Creator:: Garden Club of America Search this

Type:: Archival materials; Digital images

Place:: United States of America -- Connecticut -- Litchfield -- Litchfield; Ethan Allen Garden (Litchfield, Connecticut)

Scope and Contents:: 14 digital images (2017, 2023) and 1 file (digital) folder.

General:: The gambrel-roofed house built in 1736, reputed to be the birthplace of Ethan Allen in 1738, has been enlarged by many owners since then, and the sloping 1.41 acres garden always has presented challenges for ornamental presentation. Parterres with roses and perennials were established by garden designer Rosaline Spring LaFontaine in 1956. The current owners acquired the property in 1982, then in 2003 redesigned and planted a formal garden with French influences. These include extensive hedges, defined flower beds, a tea house as a focal point, and an unstructured hedge of forsythia, birdhouse and secret garden at the southern edge of the slope. At the eastern edge nine Norway spruce were planted to buffer noise from a nearby highway

Directly behind the house on the most level area there are two cutting gardens bisected by a stone path. An allée of crabapples leads down the slope that culminates in the teahouse designed by the owner who is an architect. Clipped boxwood hedges with curved corners were arrayed symmetrically to emphasize the axis of the garden and, at the same time, diminish the visual impact of the slope. The formal character of the garden is seen in the four lilac standards that flank the main path. Other plants include seven varieties of daylilies, five varieties of hostas, three hydrangeas, spikes of baptisa and ligularia, large alliums, Joe Pye weed, rhododendron and azalea.

Recently most of the shrubs in the boxwood parterres succumbed to infectious leaf minor blight and had to be removed. Other boxwood hedges remain. Features include tuteurs and an antique planted urn. One permanent feature of this garden, in a corner, is the stone incinerator from the 18th century when the property was a working farm.

Persons associated with the garden's design: Rosaline Spring LaFontaine, 1956; Hinkel Design Group, 2003.

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 -- Connecticut -- Litchfield Search this; Formal gardens Search this

Genre/Form:: Digital images

Collection Citation:: 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.