Central Park, New York City, c. 1906, photographer unknown, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Category: design
The winter garden: palms
“Glover House, Washington, D.C.(?),” c. 1900, a cyanotype by Frances Benjamin Johnston, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
I haven’t been able to find out anything certain about Glover House. It seems possible that it was the home of Charles Carroll Glover, who purchased and then donated the land for Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C., in the 1870s. (He lived at “Westover,” at 4300 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., which is now a modern townhouse development.)
He and Johnston moved in the same social circles at the turn of the 19th century. As part of her photography business, she took pictures of the homes of many wealthy Washingtonians (and the White House).
Three more winter gardens are here.
The palm at the end of the mind,
Beyond the last thought, rises
In the bronze decor. . .— Wallace Stevens, from “Of Mere Being“
Vintage landscape: a winter’s night
Sharp shivers thro’ the leafless bow’r. . . *
The east side of the U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C., ca. 1920 – 1950, by Theodor Horydczak, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
*by Robert Burns, from “A Winter Night.”
The Sunday porch: dogtrot in Texas
“Unidentified Dogtrot* House” in Texas (exact location unknown), 1935, probably** taken by Fanny Ratchford, via Texas State Archives Commons on flickr.
Fannie Elizabeth Ratchford was a librarian who worked in the rare books collection of the University of Texas at Austin from 1919 to 1957. During the 1930s and 40s, she also began to put together a photographic and data survey of 19th c. Texas architecture.
Unfortunately, she ran out of time and funding before the planned book could be assembled and published. Her images, correspondence, questionnaires, and lists were donated to the Texas State Archives. Only the photos are available online, but they are wonderful. I’ll post some more in the coming weeks.
They sang Green, Green Grass of Home.
They sang Ne Me Quitte Pas beneath mesquite.— Ange Mlinko, from “Escape Architecture“
*More about dogtrot houses in Texas here.
**According to an email from the Archives: “Although the majority of the images within our Fannie Ratchford photograph collection were taken by Ratchford, she also acquired photographs from the Historic American Building Survey [HABS] as well as other photographers.”
Our garden in fog
All morning bathed in a dovelike brooding. . . .*
We woke up yesterday morning to heavy fog.
Our huge, antique TV dish was recently replaced with a much smaller one, but it was still on the back lawn awaiting pick up.
In the fog, from the upstairs porch, it looked like we’d had a space visitor.
I went out about 7:00 a.m. and took these naturally soft-focused pictures.
If you hover the cursor over the slideshow, you can stop it or move it in either direction.
You can scroll through larger versions of the images by clicking on ‘Continue reading’ below and then on any tile in the mosaic.
*by Mark Jarman, from “A.M. Fog.”
Continue reading “Our garden in fog”
enclos*ure 