Category: life in gardens

Vintage landscape: what a lovely idea

Cindy at enclos*ure7 Comments

A garden party. . .

Bill Cunningham’s (always) charming fashion video in today’s New York Times, about The Newport Vintage Dance Week — here — made me think of these Library of Congress photos of bygone garden parties.

President and Mrs. Coolidge at White House garden party, June 3, 1926, by National Photo Company.

Click on any thumbnail below to scroll through larger photos of a variety of garden and lawn parties.

The online National First Ladies Library describes Grace Coolidge as “bright, intelligent, witty, with a strong sense of humor.” Her Wikipedia entry says she was the most popular woman in Washington.
At the same party, Mrs. Coolidge with Prudence Prim, her white collie. The Coolidges had 4 cats, 7 birds, and 9 dogs.
Representative Edith N. Rogers and Carl Brunner at the same White House garden party (probably for disabled vets). Rep. Rogers looks quite chipper despite appearing to be in mourning for her husband, who died in 1925. The other lady (Mrs. Brunner?) is more serious and seems to have brought her bible (or phone book). All 3 photos by National Photo Company.
President Theodore Roosevelt hosted this lawn party about 1905. Photo by Underwood & Underwood.
About the same time, Alice Roosevelt attended this garden party in Japan, given by the U.S. Ambassador.
1911 lawn party on Governor’s Island, N.Y. The event was annually sponsored by the Army Relief Society, which raised money for regular army widows and orphans.
Florence Kimball and her escort being offered food at a 1908 Governor’s Island lawn party. Both G.I. photos by Bains News Service.
Garden party at the Hartsdale Train Station in the Bronx, Sept. 20, 1919. The event was “Floralia.” Photo by Bronx Parkway Commission.
“Floralia” covered 5 acres with exhibitions of flowers, vegetable, and garden sculpture.
A Fairbanks, Alaska, party c. 1918. Note the raised wooden sidewalk and the greenhouse attached to the house. Fairbanks had only been founded in 1901. Photo by National Photo Company.
A 1920 lawn fete for Near East Relief. Twin Oaks was a 30-acre estate in Cleveland Park in Washington, D.C., built in 1888 by the first President of the National Geographic Society and owned at the time of this photo by his daughter, Grace.
These girls were performing at the same fete. The house still exists and has been owned by the ROC (Taiwan) since 1947. Photo by National Photo Company.
At the same party, the Japanese flower booth. Photo by National Photo Company.
1925: The Countess Szechenyi and her daughter Sylvia appear in many LoC society event photos. The Countess was a Vanderbilt heiress, who married a Hungarian count, who was also Ambassador to the U.S. Sylvia also married a Hungarian count. She was the last member of the V. family to live at The Breakers at Newport, R.I. She died in 1998. I haven’t found the location of Mt. Alton. Photo by National Photo Company.
A tea party in “Plant Park”, which was an attraction of the Gilded Age Tampa Bay Hotel. The park and building still exist as part of the University of Tampa. There was a small zoo in the park, which may explain the posts (fence?) around the pond.
At the Mina House hotel in Cairo, Egypt, c. 1920s. Note the Great Pyramid in the upper right side.
A tea party for the Jerusalem YMCA after a tennis tournament, August 1939, by the American Colony of Jerusalem.
Garden party for the 60th Anniversary of the American Colony of Jerusalem, Sept. 25, 1941. The Colony had really disbanded by this time.
Sometimes a garden party can be for just two (or four). About 1900, photographer unknown.

Vintage landscape: Alabama porch and yard

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“Typical farmhouse, spring housecleaning, homemade quilts and bedding in sun. Coffee County, Alabama.” Photo taken April 1939 by Marion Post Wolcott.

Via Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black and White Negatives Collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Vintage landscape: Maplewood cottages

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“Cottages at Maplewood [Waseca, Minnesota],” ca. 1880-1899. By Detroit Publishing Co., via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Maplewood Park on Clear Lake was a national vacation attraction at the end of the nineteenth century. Click the image to enlarge it.

For another sort of summer cabin living, see today’s New York Times, here.

Vintage landscape: take water, add children

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Before air conditioning, water was the best remedy for hot summer weather.

The children in the photos just above and below were enjoying a public fountain in Washington, D.C., in the summer of 1912.

The fountain is the Peace Monument on the U.S. Capitol grounds.

Below are children in a public pool in Washington, D.C., also in 1912.

All of the above four photos were taken by Harris & Ewing.

The three photos below of bathers in Rock Creek Park were taken by the National Photo Company between 1920 and 1932.

The photo label for the above picture is “Women and children find some relief by wading in the creek on one of the hottest days in the history of the Capital. Snapped in Rock Creek Park today.”

The highest temperature recorded for Washington, D.C., was 106°F, in 1918 and 1930. The city just missed matching the old record yesterday, only reaching 105°F.

Below are children playing in an “old swimming hole” in the Washington, D.C., area. The photo was taken by Theodor Horydczak between 1920 and 1950.

The photo below shows a group of proper young ladies at the free public baths, Harriet Island, St. Paul, Minnesota.  It was taken by the Detroit Publishing Co. around 1905.

How hard to be so dressed up at the lake!

Below are children playing with a rope at a beach, possibly at Atlantic City, New Jersey.  The photo was taken between 1890 and 1910 by the Detroit Publishing Co.

The lure of water in a fountain during hot weather is universal. Below are children in Japan or Korea in 1908. The photo was taken by Arnold Genthe.

All images via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.  Click on any photo to enlarge it.

Kwita Izina

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I know I promised news of our garden renovation for my next post, but I didn’t want to wait too long before sharing my photos of the baby gorilla naming ceremony on Saturday in Kinigi-Musanze in the north of Rwanda.

The Rwanda Development Board has been holding a naming ceremony (Kwita Izina) for each year’s babies since 2005 to raise awareness of conservation in the Volcanoes National Park and to highlight the work of the various Rwandan tourism enterprises.

Banana stalks are traditionally used to mark the way to an important event. On Saturday, there were banana stalks staked up on both sides of the road from Kigali to Kinigi-Musanze (a 2-hour drive) about every 25 yards.
The tents and banners of the event. Unfortunately, the sky stayed overcast so we never really got a good view of the volcanoes.

Unfortunately, good animal conservation practices did not allow for the actual presence at the ceremony of this year’s 20 babies. But we had a card with their pictures, their mothers’ names, and a place to write their new names as they were called out.  You can ooh and aah over more of their really cute pictures at this link.

This baby’s mother is Nchili, and he likes kissing. Photo via kwitizina.org.
This baby’s mother is Rwandrushya. According to http://www.kwitizina.org, he has already challenged the silverback of his group.

However, we did have a fun bit of theatrics with 2o children costumed as gorillas.

The “baby gorillas” arrive.  Click the photos to enlarge them.
The “baby gorillas” cavort for the crowd as their park ranger observers take note.

They did a really good job of mimicking the movements of real young gorillas, and they were even accompanied by observers taking notes.  However, the masks were maybe a little too toothy.

The baby gorillas pose for the press.

We had a great morning, although it was quite cold — next year I will bring a blanket — and it was too overcast to see the volcanoes’ peaks.

A Rwandan drumming group entertains before the naming ceremony.
They were followed on the stage by traditional Intore dancers.
The arrival of the Prime Minister. Unfortunately, the rumor that Robert DeNiro was coming to the ceremony turned out to be untrue.
The baby gorillas onstage as the Mayor of Musanze announces a baby’s name.
A faint glimpse of a volcano peak behind the tents.

Gorilla tourism in Rwanda has contributed to a 26.3% growth in the mountain gorilla population since the last census in 2003.  Tourism brought US$200 million in revenues to Rwanda in 2010.