Gardens: The Universal Language

By Taylor Elyea

In January 1937, one hundred forty-seven members of The Garden Club of America ventured on a nineteen-day trip to numerous sites in Mexico. Extensive documentation of that journey, now part of The Garden Club of America Collection at the Archives of American Gardens, makes it clear that the members covered a vast array of Mexican landscapes, gardens, and sites. The group trekked to landscapes in Guaymas, Mazatlán, the Barrancas, Guadalajara, Uruapan, Pátzcuaro, Morelia, Mexico City, Taxco, Cuernavaca, and many other cities. One of the sites visited by the group was the former home of Zelia Nuttall (1857-1933), an aficionado of Mexican gardens and botany and notable American archaeologist.

Zelia Nuttall (1857-1933)

Born in San Francisco to a Mexican-American mother and Irish father, Zelia Nuttall’s love for the Mexican landscape ultimately culminated in her purchase of Casa Alvarado, a 16th-century mansion in Mexico City. Here she explored her newfound interest in Mexican gardens and botany by studying garden and landscape art as well as medicinal herbs. She authored the monograph, The Gardens of Ancient Mexico, which was reprinted in the Smithsonian’s Annual Report for 1923, and shared her love for Mexican landscapes by hosting many visitors in the gardens at her home.

GCA members at lunch in the gardens at Casa Alvarado, former home of scholar Zelia Nuttall. 

It was in these gardens that members of The Garden Club of America enjoyed a luncheon as guests of William Richardson, manager of the National City Bank’s Mexican branch. A copy of Nuttall’s article was provided to each GCA member, courtesy of the Garden Club of Mexico. 

Walled garden, the Churubusco Monastery. Both sites in Mexico City were just two of many visited by the GCA in January, 1937.

During their 1937 trip, GCA members met with their counterparts from a number of different garden clubs throughout Mexico.  A few lines from a detailed travelogue of the trip published in the March, 1937 Bulletin of The Garden Club of America sums up the universal tie that a shared love of gardens brings: “…we have left them with our hearts and our gratitude, eternally…we said goodbye to them with real affection and regret.”

Taylor Elyea
2021 Virtual Summer Intern 
Archives of American Gardens 

Parks for the People

October marks American Archives Month, a time to celebrate archival collections across the country that document innumerable chapters in the United States’ history. The work of landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted is captured in countless archival collections thanks to his firm having a hand in creating over 6,000 landscapes and gardens over the course of a century. In addition to renowned landscape designs, Olmsted is famous for his insightful and enduring design principles. Many research repositories are gearing up to commemorate the bicentennial of his birth in 2022 by sharing collection materials related to Olmsted online. 

The Archives of American Gardens (AAG) includes over six hundred photographs of public parks and gardens that Frederick Law Olmsted and his firm designed. AAG has digitized and described many of these photographs in the Smithsonian’s Collections Search Center so that researchers can discover and enjoy the parks and gardens on their own. For instance, AAG houses historic glass plate negatives of Olmsted’s iconic Central Park in New York City. Forty years after a section of the park opened in 1858, landscape architect (and Olmsted firm alumnus) Thomas Warren Sears captured the pastoral haven amidst urban skyscrapers with his camera.

Central Park, New York, New York (NY147006), circa 1890-1910. From the Thomas Warren Sears Photograph Collection. 

In addition photographing the pastoral scenery at Central Park, Sears collected images of people enjoying Central Park. 

“The Mall, looking north,” (NY147022), 1894. J.S. Johnston, photographer. From the Thomas Warren Sears Photograph Collection. 

AAG’s Historic Garden Stereograph Collection includes commercial stereographs of families making use of rustic architecture in Central Park. Calvert Vaux, Olmsted’s co-designer for Central Park, had the inspiration to incorporate unmilled wood fences, pergolas, and summerhouses into the park’s design.

“[Rustic Rest.]” (STR015026), circa 1900-1910 from Historic Gardens Stereograph Collection. 

Detail from “[Rustic Rest.]” (STR015026), circa 1900-1910 from Historic Gardens Stereograph Collection. 

The largest of Central Park’s original rustic architectural structures was the Kinderberg, a 110-foot summerhouse that Vaux designed for the park in 1866. Park officials dismantled the Kinderberg in the 1940s when it fell into disrepair, so photographs like these are invaluable for capturing the landscape’s early appearance.

Detail from “View in Central Park, N.Y.” (STR015027), circa 1900-1910 from Historic Gardens Stereograph Collection

AAG even records evidence of a romantic turn-of-the-century date!  

Detail from “Lovers' Lane, Central Park, New York, U.S.A.” (STR015021), circa 1900-1910 from Historic Gardens Stereograph Collection. 

 

Central Park is only one example of an Olmsted park featured in AAG’s collections; these images and many others assist researchers as they investigate how Olmsted-planned parks evolved after the firm finished its work. AAG’s efforts to document the past also help the public discover clues about how Olmsted landscapes impacted people’s lives. Thanks to research institutions across the country sharing images from their collections online, the public can better assess how well Frederick Law Olmsted achieved his goal of transmitting the benefits of greenspaces to a diverse array of people. “It is one great purpose of the Park,” Olmsted noted, “to supply to the hundreds of thousands of tired workers, who have no opportunity to spend their summers in the country, a specimen of God’s handiwork.” Archives can help the public envision parks in the past and consider how people’s experiences in them differ—and remain the same—today.  

 

Alanna Natanson

Archives of American Gardens Intern 

Smithsonian Gardens

Bibliography  

“About the Olmsted Legacy.” Olmsted.org. National Association of Olmsted Parks. Accessed July 2, 2020. https://www.olmsted.org/the-olmsted-legacy/about-the-olmsted-legacy. 

“Olmsted–Designed New York City Parks.” NYCgovparks.org. New York City Department of Parks & Recreation. Accessed July 2, 2020. nycgovparks.org/about/history/olmsted-parks.    

Olmsted, Frederick Law. “Selected Writings on Central Park (1858, 1870).” In Empire City: New York Through the Centuries, edited by Kenneth T. Jackson and David S. Dunbar, 278-291. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005. GoogleBooks.  

Sain-Baird, Jessica. “The Story Behind Central Park’s Rustic Architecture.” CentralParkNYC.org. Central Park Conservancy. June 15, 2017. https://www.centralparknyc.org/blog/central-park-rustic-architecture 

 

All images are from Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens.