“Ice skaters on Rock Creek on the grounds of the National Zoological Park,” Washington, D.C., 1905, photographer unknown, via Smithsonian Institution Commons on flickr.
Schools are closed in Washington today, with 4″ to 8″ of snow predicted.
Category: life in gardens
Vintage landscape: land of flowers
“Land of Flowers,” open-air dance, c. 1920, by Burgert Brothers, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Impressive.
All the images below are details from the same picture.
The Burgert Brothers — Al and Jean — owned the leading photography studio in Tampa, Fla., from 1918 until the early 1960s.
I couldn’t find anything more about this particular photograph, but I did find a similar image taken by the Burgerts.
The other picture, taken in 1923, shows the dance students of Mme. Lee Scovell as they performed a scene from the ballet “Land of Flowers” at the Temple Terrace Country Club. The photo above could be from the same performance, or it could be of an earlier class of Mme. Scovell’s.
We, the Fairies, blithe and antic,
Of dimensions not gigantic,
Though the moonshine mostly keep us,
Oft in orchards frisk and peep us.— Leigh Hunt, from “Song of Fairies Robbing an Orchard“
Vintage landscape: the homesteaders’ garden
“Homesteaders seated outside in garden surrounding house, probably [in] Washington State,” ca. 1905, by Albert Henry Barnes, via University of Washington Commons on flickr.
This photo was taken by the same photographer as Monday’s picture of repeating haycocks in an apple orchard.
There may be a little porch underneath the vines*, but it’s hard to tell. There is one fairly large window at the end of the house. In order for settlers to acquire a homestead, “[t]he law stipulated that a domicile suitable for permanent residence of at least 10 by 12 feet with a minimum of one window must occupy the property,” according to the Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest.
*It looks like English ivy, which is now terribly invasive in the state of Washington.
Vintage landscape: garden of the mind
“Young mother, twenty-five, says, ‘Next year we’ll be painted and have a lawn and flowers,’ rural shacktown, near Klamath Falls, Oregon,” September 1939.
Photo and caption by Dorothea Lange for the U.S. Farm Security Administration, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
‘Established’ is a good word, much used in garden books,
‘The plant, when established’. . .
Oh, become established quickly, quickly, garden!
For I am fugitive, I am very fugitive —— Mary Ursula Bethell, from “Time“
The Sunday porch: as backdrop
What better setting for some summertime snapshots than a charming porch dripping with vines?
These are the Cabot children (and probably their mother), photographed by Thomas Warren Sears and via the Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, Thomas Warren Sears Collection.*
The Archives’ website says that these images were taken in 1930, but I would guess between 1900 and 1910, based on the clothing.
Sears studied landscape architecture at Harvard University between about 1900 and 1906. During that time, he also won awards for his amateur photography. One can well imagine him taking his camera to the summer home of friends and taking some casual pictures.
After graduation, he worked for Olmsted Brothers Landscape Architects. By 1913, he had established his own office in Philadelphia, from where he designed various types of landscapes in the mid-Atlantic region until the mid 1960s.
The Archives of American Gardens holds over 4,600 of his black and white glass negatives and glass lantern slides taken between c. 1900 and 1966.
Earlier this month, the Archives announced the acquisition of the Ken Druse Garden Photography Collection, which includes thousands of transparencies and slides of over 300 American gardens. Selected images will eventually be added to the Smithsonian’s online catalogue.
Little girl. . . .
She has things to do,
you can tell. Places to explore
beyond the frame . . .— Tami Haaland, from “Little Girl,” from When We Wake in the Night
*Used with permission.
enclos*ure 