landscape – Page 98

Life in gardens: Little Duck Key

July 3, 2014April 11, 2016 Cindy at enclos*ure3 Comments

Out of the cradle endlessly rocking. . .

“American dreams at Little Duck Key [– part of the Florida Keys]. Commercial camping sites and travel trailer courts have sprung up throughout the Keys. Even on the smaller Keys like Little Duck, where no facilities have yet been constructed, camping is permitted by local authorities,” ca. 1975.

“Campers on Little Duck Key sleep in their own hammocks,” ca. 1975.

“Beach at Little Duck Key. Little Duck, in the lower Florida Keys, is a tiny island which has not been commercially developed[;] the beach is open to visitors, who are not always careful to preserve its unspoiled appearance,” ca. 1975.

All three photos here were taken by Flip Schulke for DOCUMERICA, a 1970’s photography program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. They are shown with the original captions.

The EPA hired over 100 photographers to “document subjects of environmental concern.” The work continued until 1977 and left behind an archive of about 20,000 images.

In addition to recording damage to the nation’s landscapes, the project captured “the era’s trends, fashions, problems, and achievements,” according to the U.S. National Archives, which held an exhibit of the photos, “Searching for the Seventies,” in 2013.

There are more pictures from DOCUMERICA here.

Over the sterile sands and the fields beyond, where the child leaving his bed wander’d alone, bareheaded, barefoot . . . .

Borne hither, ere all eludes me, hurriedly,
A man, yet by these tears a little boy again,
Throwing myself on the sand, confronting the waves,
I, chanter of pains and joys, uniter of here and hereafter,
Taking all hints to use them, but swiftly leaping beyond them,
A reminiscence sing.

— Walt Whitman, from “Out of the Cradle. . .“

Vintage landscape: Redlands gate

June 30, 2014April 11, 2016 Cindy at enclos*ure4 Comments

The Redlands estate is at Carter’s Bridge, near Charlottesville, Virginia. All photos here taken in 1933, by Frances Benjamin Johnston, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

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Redlands is one of many Virginia houses associated with the descendants of Robert “King” Carter. It is still owned by members of the Carter family and is open to the public during Historic Garden Week in the spring.

The Sunday porch: Austin, Texas

June 29, 2014June 30, 2014 Cindy at enclos*ureLeave a comment

“Remains of log dogtrot house near Webberville Road. . . Austin Texas,” 1935, probably by Fannie Ratchford, via Texas State Archives.

Unfortunately, it’s a little out of focus, but still beautiful.

. . . I woo the wind
That still delays his coming. Why so slow,
Gentle and voluble spirit of the air?
Oh, come and breathe upon the fainting earth
Coolness and life!

— William Cullen Bryant, from “Summer Wind“

Vintage landscape: Bay St. Louis

June 28, 2014April 11, 2016 Cindy at enclos*ure3 Comments

“Gate to the Hamilton residence. Bay St. Louis, Mississippi,” c. 1901, Detroit Publishing Co., via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.*

The beach town of Bay St. Louis is located on the Mississippi Gulf Coast on the Bay of Saint Louis.

“Harry’s villa.”

The structure around the tree was known as a shoo fly. The elevated platforms were popular along the Gulf Coast as breezy places to avoid deer flies.

“Shoo-fly at Madame Boyle’s.” (“Harry’s villa” and “Madame Boyles” seem to be the same cottage.)

There’s another version of a shoo fly here.

“Along the bay,” a photochrom print.

Bay St. Louis was devasted by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Almost nine years later, it has made a good comeback and is listed among Coastal Living‘s “Dream Towns in the Gulf Coast.”

You can scroll through larger versions of these photos by clicking on ‘Continue reading’ below and then on any of the thumbnails in the gallery.

*All photos here were taken in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, c. 1901, by Detroit Publishing Co., via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.