Category: life in gardens

Madison Square

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christmas-tree-madison-sq-garden-nyc-1913-bain-library-of-congressRaising the Madison Square Christmas tree, ca. 1912 or 1913, New York City, by Bain News Service, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division (all photos here).

The park is located at Fifth Avenue and Broadway at 23rd Street.

christmas-tree-2-madison-sq-garden-nyc-1913-bain-library-of-congress

Madison Square may have been* the site of the first illuminated community Christmas tree in America — lit on December 24, 1912.

christmas-tree-4-madison-sq-garden-nyc-1913-bain-library-of-congress

The tradition is continued today by the Madison Square Park Conservancy.

Light is a dancer here and cannot rest.
No tanagers or jays are half so bright
As swarms of fire that deep in fragrance nest
In jungles of the gilt exotic night. . .

— John Frederick Nims, from “Christmas Tree“

*There may have been two prior illuminated community trees: in San Diego in 1904 and Pasadena in 1909.

The Sunday porch: Jericho

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rae-family-home-christmas-1918-victoria-australia-via-museums-victoriaRae family home with fern fronds as Christmas decorations, Jericho, Victoria, Australia, ca. 1918, via Museums Victoria Collection.

Jericho was a gold mining town, established in the 1860s. The local tree ferns resembling palm trees were said to remind early settlers of the biblical Jericho.  By 1918, the old settlement was well into a decline, and its last buildings were destroyed by a bush fire in 1939.

The winter garden: classwork

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Botany class, Barnard College, Library of CongressA botany class at Barnard College, New York City, between ca. 1915 and ca. 1920, by Bain News Service, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. (Click  here to see a larger version on the Library’s flickr photostream.)

Nature class

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Schoolchildren in nature class, FB Johnston, Library of Congress

Seventh Division schoolchildren and teacher studying leaves out of doors, Washington, D.C., ca. 1899, by Frances Benjamin Johnston via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

In 1899, Johnston became interested in progressive education and made a photo survey of students at public schools in Washington, D.C.

The Sunday porch: late afternoon

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A repeat porch from June 2014. . .

A gathering on the south portico (or back porch) of the White House, probably between 1890 and 1910, photographer unknown, via the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

The portico was built in 1824, principally from an 1807 design by architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe, then Surveyor of Public Buildings.  Latrobe was appointed and supervised by Thomas Jefferson, who loved  neoclassical design and called Palladio’s books “the bible.”

The South of France

Roman temple
“simple and sublime”

Maria Cosway
harpist
on his mind

white column
and arch

— Lorine Niedecker, from “Thomas Jefferson“