African gardens – enclos*ure

Fez, Morocco

February 10, 2017August 20, 2017 Cindy at enclos*ureLeave a comment

“Dar Beïda [white house] garden in the Bou Jeloud Palace, Fez, Morocco,” January 1913, by Stéphane Passet, via Archives of the Planet Collection – Albert Kahn Museum /Départment of Hauts-de-Seine.

I believe the image above was taken in what is now called the Jnane Sbil Garden — created as a royal garden in the 18th century and open to the public since the 19th. It was restored between 2006 and 2011.

This autochrome is one of about 72,000 that were commissioned and then archived by Albert Kahn, a wealthy French banker, between 1909 and 1931. Kahn sent thirteen photographers and filmmakers to 50 countries “to fix, once and for all, aspects, practices, and modes of human activity whose fatal disappearance is no longer ‘a matter of time.'”* The resulting collection is called Archives de la Planète and now resides in its own museum at Kahn’s old suburban estate at Boulogne-Billancourt, just west of Paris. Since June 2016, the archive has also been available for viewing online here.

*words of Albert Kahn, 1912. Also, the above photo (A 879) is © Collection Archives de la Planète – Musée Albert-Kahn and used under its terms, here.

Vintage landscape: focal point

September 24, 2016August 18, 2016 Cindy at enclos*ureLeave a comment

Obelisk, probably Cairo area, Egypt, September 1934, by American Colony of Jerusalem Photo Department, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Vintage landscape: Cairo, Egypt

September 13, 2016August 18, 2016 Cindy at enclos*ureLeave a comment

“Cairo’s public gardens on Gezireh,” between 1950 and 1977, hand-colored slide by Matson Photo Service, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

This garden may have been located on or near the current site of the Cairo Marriott Hotel.

Life in gardens: Mr. Hesse

March 3, 2016April 11, 2016 Cindy at enclos*ure3 Comments

“Mr. Hesse, Bot.[anic] Gardens,” Washington, D.C., 1928 or 29, by National Photo Company, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Years later, did he go back and say, “I remember it as so much bigger. . . “?

The little boy was almost certainly the son of George Wesley Hess, who was Superintendent and then Director of the U.S. Botanic Garden from 1913 to 1934. There are more photos of the family and the Garden here.

I bless thee, Lord, because I GROW
Among thy trees, which in a ROW
To thee both fruit and order OW.

— George Herbert, from “Paradise”

Thanks for stopping by

December 31, 2014April 11, 2016 Cindy at enclos*ure12 Comments

. . . to all my readers in 2014.

Our garden in June (the photo above, as well).

I’m also happy to welcome some new visitors thanks to Fine Gardening’s blog, Garden Photo of the Day, which has featured our Kigali garden for December 30 and 31 (and New Year’s Day).