United States of America -- Massachusetts -- Middlesex -- Cambridge
Scope and Contents:
The folder includes garden plans.
General:
Located off a cul-de-sac in the heart of Cambridge on approximately a quarter acre of land, Muffin's Garden is intimate and secluded. Muffin's Garden was installed in 1963. The current owner had little experience in gardening when the property was initially purchased and has guided the evolving design over fifty years. The garden had been laid out by the wife of local architect David Barns in the late thirties. The tall pink dogwood, katsura, and huge yew were present when the current owners moved in.
In 1984, the owners worked with landscape architect Alice Page Pickman. Pickman's plans show the redesign of the front entry, a new approach to the front door, a new home for the fountain with a large planting bed, and a new walkway, with plant recommendations. From 1995 to 1999, landscape designer Patricia Pratt supplied bulbs, plant material, and provided consultation. A pool was added with the pedestal fountain resettled within it, and the surrounding beds were reorganized and replanted. Caprizzi and Co. created curving bluestone edging around the pool and capped the "Radcliffe" wall with bluestone. The rock garden was begun and the whole garden redefined in a series of ordered spaces. In 2005, landscape architect Julie Moir Messervy sketched the design for the oval stone patio in the woodland garden.
The property is a long, irregular rectangle on an east/west axis and the house is located at its eastern edge. The garden is linear in shape, defined in English style by a series of "rooms" that flow informally from one to another. Ornamental pots, shallow steps, or the break in a wall mark the transitions between areas. The pool and fountain were designed to be viewed from the breakfast room. The entertaining and sitting areas on the terrace are easily accessed through the drawing room. The lawn area transitions to a bluestone path and onto Messervy's oval bluestone terrace set in the woodland and rock garden.
Trees are a determining feature of the garden, as nearly half the area behind the house is woodland. There are towering maples, hawthorn, hemlock, white pines, two katsura, tree-sized yews, and specimen trees such as stewartia, silverbell, magnolia, and swarf Japanese maples. As a result of the number of trees on the property, shade tolerant shrubs, bulbs, and plants have been carefully selected. Rhododendron, mountain laurel, hollies, viburnums, and Japanese pieris border the property.
Garden features include benches, bulbs, wooden fences, ferns, flower beds, foundation planting, garden borders, garden walks, gates, patios, ponds, retaining walls, rock gardens, shrubs, sheds, sculptures, stepping stones, terraces, urban gardens, stone walkways, walls, woodland gardens, and woodlands.
Persons associated with the garden include: Mrs. Otto G.T. Straub (former owner, 1926-1938); Professor and Mrs. Summer H. Slichter (former owners, 1938-1963); Al Jackson (gardener, 1963-2000); Carol Johnson (landscape architect, 1963); Alice Page Pickman (landscape architect, 1983-1984); Pat Pratt (landscape designer, 1995-1998); Julia Moir Messervy (landscape architect, 2005); Tom Maley (sculptor); David Gulde (gardener, 2001-); Jerry Gilligan (stonemason, 2005).
Related Materials:
Muffin's Garden related holdings consist of 1 folder (22 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 -- Massachusetts -- Cambridge
Scope and Contents:
The folder includes garden plans and a planting list.
General:
This two-thirds of an acre urban garden encloses an 1876 house with a sunken garden between the house and street, and a back garden comprising lawn, an undulating border, a woodlands garden and a carriage house. The gardens have developed over the last 30 years, during which time the trees and evergreen hedges have matured and soared in height, especially those bordering the driveway that runs the length of the property from the street to the carriage house. Low stones walls enclose the sunken garden in front of the house and the mixed border in back, with a tall wooden fence marking off the sunken garden. The borders are planted densely and for sequential bloom so the garden is filled with color from April to October. Numerous sculptures are placed around the property, including unique sculptural benches. The owner, who is an architect, describes this garden as a place to move and to grow interesting specimen plants rather than as a place for relaxation.
The mature evergreen hedge bordering the driveway has a mix of cedar and cypress that replaced hornbeams destroyed in a fire. The incense cedar is sheared to contrast with the other trees, and in other areas trees have been shaped to their location, such as the weeping copper beech that frames a fountain made from a very large cypress wood barrel and a rusted copper pipe in the back garden. A path of stepping stones leads into the woodland garden where shade-loving perennials are the understory, rhododendrons form the middle story and mature evergreen and deciduous trees complete the design. A camellia shrub grown at the edge of the woodland garden is an unusual survivor in the New England climate.
Brattle Street Garden has been awarded two gold medal prizes for Notable Gardens and Outstanding Plant Material from The Massachusetts Horticultural Society. Also the gardens have been open for garden tours in Cambridge.
Persons associated with the garden include: William Bartlett (former owner, 1876-1906); Horace Bright (former owner, 1906-1984); Joanne Holtje (garden design and maintenance, 2003-present); Senta Barton (garden design and maintenance, 2003-present); Ann Sinclair (garden design and maintenance, 2001-2004); Michael Green (sculptor).
Related Materials:
Brattle Street Garden 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.
The Underwood Garden (South Dartmouth, Massachusetts)
United States of America -- Massachusetts -- Bristol -- South Dartmouth
Scope and Contents:
The folder includes worksheets and photocopies of original plans and an article.
Biographical / Historical:
Suzanne Marjorie Stockard Underwood (1917-2001) was one of the first women to graduate with a master's degree in 1943 from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University in Cambridge. She was a pioneering modernist architect who worked with Marcel Breuer drafting and building models. In addition to practicing architecture, she was a skilled landscape designer.
General:
Gardened by the same family since 1949 this 1.3 acre property with a "modern colonial style" house on stilts designed by the original owner features trees and shrubs. The temperatures at the coastal New England location are moderated by its proximity to water but the garden is subjected to high winds, salt air and, originally, thin rocky soil that was improved with homemade compost. The garden was planned for year round interest with trees and shrubs that would flower or fruit every month and conifers and broad leaved evergreens for winter. Lower limbs on some of the trees were removed to open the view to the bay, and the house was raised on stilts for the same reason. There are winding grassy paths throughout the gardens with narrow stone paths leading to the front door of the house and to the formal sunken garden. Many of the boxwood, hollies, junipers and rhododendron were rooted cuttings planted in the 1950's that have grown to full size while dwarf conifers have outgrown their cultivar status.
The planned succession of bloom times for this garden started in spring with magnolias and andomedas, followed by azaleas, crabapple and dogwood, then Japanese snowbell, hydrangeas and stewartia. Sourwood bloomed in august, franklinia in September, roses would continue blooming into November, and hollies provided color and decorative material in December. Specimen trees that are featured include blue China fir, dawn redwood, paperbark maple, a red jade crabapple, and several cut leaved red Japanese maples. Vegetable and rose gardens, irises and some perennial flowers have been added to the tree and shrub gardens over the years.
Persons associated with the garden include Julian and Suzanne Underwood (former owners, 1949-2001) Joan Underwood (current owner (2001- ); Suzanne Stockard Underwood (architect and garden designer, 1949-2001); Julian Underwood (architect, circa 1948); John Brum (gardener, 1960's-); Nate Atwater (sculptor, prior to 1985); Nancy Train Smith (sculptor, prior to 1999); Ron Rudnicki (sculptor of fish pond, 2003); Walter Gonet (garden shed construction, 1995).
Related Materials:
The Underwood Garden related holdings consist of 1 folders (18 35mm slides (photographs); 17 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.
Topic:
Gardens -- Massachusetts -- South Dartmouth Search this
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.
Brown Street Green Garden (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
United States of America -- Massachusetts -- Middlesex -- Cambridge
Scope and Contents:
1 folder and 20 digital images.
General:
The owner's first project after obtaining the one-third acre garden in 1951 was to create a private space with tall wooden fences in back and trees: hemlock, spruce, pine, kousa dogwood, holly and amur cork. The front yard lawn has a granite boulder set in one side of a wide brick walk with hawthorn and cork on the other side, spreading yew mixed with pink and white azaleas in the foundation bed of the gray stucco Cape Cod house, and antique lead containers with seasonal planting. Alongside and behind the house there are three areas: the entry borders, the terrace and lawn, and the wildflower garden. A decorative gate painted yellow-green opens to the entry garden with mixed borders: yew and holly foundation plants, witch hazel, crabapple and Cornelian cherry dogwood for late winter and early spring bloom, mixed spring bulbs and a white Japanese tree peony, and hosta and colorful annuals in summer. A low mound of Japanese maple marks off the corner granite terrace added in 1960 that is surrounded by beds of flowering shrubs, spring bulbs, black-eyed Susan and verbena in summer, shaded by kousa dogwood and hemlock. Climbing hydrangea and akebia have grown up the cedar stockade fence. There is a bench copying one seen in Denmark made from a thick teak plank set between two granite cubes and other decorative features.
A stretch of lawn leads to a shady wildflower garden planted with ferns, Solomon's seal, European ginger, many bulbs including scilla, fritillary, trout lily, trillium and narcissus; spring flowering shrubs and white oak-leaf hydrangea, and yew, hemlock, holly and a very tall ash for shade. There are two beehives behind the house that provide honey for the owner. Additions to the house include a deck and bluestone patio where there are two sculptures by Beverly Seamans: Walter the Poodle and Roger the Red, a Rhode Island red rooster. Trees and shrubs are the mainstays of this garden and provide changing colors each season, from flowering white and yellow in spring and summer to red and yellow leaves in autumn. The owner has employed knowledge about gardening gleaned from guided walks through the Arnold Arboretum with Dr. Donald Wyman and her certification from Radcliffe in landscape design in her plant selection, color coordination, placement and maintenance for a garden that is naturalistic yet elegant. She has been a professional landscape consultant for private and larger civic and commercial gardens and has instigated beautification projects in Cambridge.
Persons associated with the garden include: Emily Howard (former owner, 1914-c.1928); Abbie Nichols (former owner, c.1928-1951); Beverly Benson Seamans (1928-2012) (sculptor, no dates available); Julia Child (donor of garden decorations, 2001); Allen Haskell (nurseryman, no dates available).
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.
0.3 Linear feet ((partially microfilmed on 6 reels))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Drawings
Sketchbooks
Date:
1915-1977
Scope and Contents:
Biographical material, correspondence (1920-1977), diaries, notes and writings, art works, subject files (1939-1968), printed material (1919-1971), and photographs (1919-1929) document Geissbuhler's artistic activities in Paris and New England.
Reels 1267-1268: Many letters (1920-1971), written by Geissbuhler to his wife Elisabeth Chase Geissbuhler, are illustrated. Other correspondents include Adelyn Breeskin, Margaret Browne, Edward W. Forbes, and A. Conger Goodyear. Art works consist of 26 sketchbooks (1915-1962), annotated in French and English, and over 600 figure studies (1922-1970). Printed material includes a Sculptors' Guild brochure, art course announcements (1958), and clippings (1924-1971). Other materials consist of 2 autobiographical accounts, an award from the Cambridge Centennial Exhibition (1946), an address book and calling cards.
Reel 1271: Printed material includes reproductions of Geissbuhler's work, an advertisement for the Academie Julian (1919), an exhibition announcement (1921), and a clipping (1925). Photographs (1919-1922) and a photograph album (1921-1929) contain images of Geissbuhler in his studio, his works, his family, and friends including Otto Banninger, Antoine Bourdelle, Alberto Giacometti, his father Giovanni Giacometti, and Germaine Richier. Sixteen photographs show art classes, primarily Bourdelle's classes (1919-1922), and Charles Graffley's studio (1921). Other materials consist of biographical notes, an award certificate and 4 sketches (1918).
Reel 1331: Correspondence consists of letters received from Antoine and Rhoda Bourdelle (1921-1977) and general correspondence concerning art business matters (1927-1971). A diary in 8 volumes (1921-1922) contains some illustrated entries. Printed material (1934-1971) consists of 40 exhibition catalogs, 8 clippings, and a school brochure. Four loose sketches are undated. Seven subject files concerning Geissbuhler's sculpture projects contain letters, business records, notes, and clippings.
Reel 1813: Photographs of Geissbuhler's work and one of his house, ca. 1924-1933.
Unfilmed: Letters (1937-1941) concern Geissbuhler's work for the WPA, Treasury Department, and the Federal Works Agency, primarily the Medford project and the Foxboro, Massachusetts, post office project. Other material consists of 3 forms, 2 exhibition catalogs, a press release concerning government projects, 2 rolled charcoal drawings and 2 photographs of the sculptural relief "Straw Cutting and Weaving" from the Foxboro, Massachusetts post office project, and notes.
Biographical / Historical:
Sculptor; Dennis, Mass. Born in Delemont, Switzerland. In 1914, Geissbuhler traveled to Zurich to become a sculptor's apprentice in the studio of Otto Munch. He attended the Kunst Gewerbe School and worked as Munch's assistant until 1919. In that year, Geissbuhler went to Paris to study with Antoine Bourdelle at the Academie Julian. He maintained a studio in Paris until 1927, when he travelled to the United States and married Elisabeth Chase, a Boston sculptor whom he met in Bourdelle's class. They moved to New England in 1933, and in 1937 he became an art instructor at Wellesley College.
Provenance:
Material on reels 1267-1268, 1271, 1331 and 1813 lent for microfilming 1977-1978; unmicrofilmed material donated 1984 all by Arnold Geissbuhler.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Microfilmed materials must be consulted on microfilm. Contact Reference Services for more information.
A portion of the collection has been digitized and is available online via AAA's website.
Collection Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Collection Citation:
Bessie Potter Vonnoh papers, circa 1860-1991. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
This bulk of this collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Collection Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Collection Citation:
National Academy of Design records, 1817-2012. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
This bulk of this collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Collection Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Collection Citation:
National Academy of Design records, 1817-2012. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Rockefeller, John D., Jr. (John Davison) Search this
Type:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Andrew Dreselly, 1981 June 26. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Rockefeller, John D., Jr. (John Davison), 1874-1960 Search this
Extent:
36 Pages (Transcript)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Sound recordings
Interviews
Date:
1981 June 26
Scope and Contents:
An interview of Andrew Dreselly conducted 1981 June 26, by Robert F. Brown, for the Archives of American Art.
Dreselly speaks of his childhood, apprenticeship, work with several different building firms based in Boston, Massachusetts, and his work with various donors and architects. He contributed craftwork to cathedrals and churches throughout New England and the Mid-Atlantic States, as well as construction projects. He also recalls his time as a charter member of the Lexington Arts and Crafts Association. He recalls Johannes Kirchmayer, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and Arcangelo Cascieri.
Biographical / Historical:
Andrew Dreselly (1893-1985) was a wood carver and sculptor from Cambridge, Massachusetts.
General:
Originally recorded on 1 sound tape reel. Reformatted in 2010 as 2 digital wav files. Duration is 1 hr., 34 min.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and others.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Lilian Swann Saarinen, 1979-1981. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Ernst Halberstadt, 1979 Feb. 16. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Muralists -- Massachusetts -- Interviews Search this
Painters -- Massachusetts -- Interviews Search this
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Dimitri Hadzi, 1981 Jan. 2-1990 Mar. 9. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Sculptors -- United States -- Interviews Search this
