Our mid-March, mostly spent in Washington, D.C., has been more like April this year, and I saw a few dandelions popping up. (And the famous cherry trees — 100 years old this year — are already at their peak.)
The Dandelion’s pallid tube
Astonishes the Grass,
And Winter instantly becomes
An infinite Alas —The tube uplifts a signal Bud
And then a shouting Flower, —
The Proclamation of the Suns
That sepulture is o’er.
I think these early spring photos of an old house and farm near Falmouth in Stafford County, Virginia, are charming. (Click them to see larger versions.)
Unfortunately, I have not been able to find out anything about the property, which was called Old Dunbar Quarters when the photos were taken in the late 1920s.
The photos were taken by Frances Benjamin Johnston as part of the Carnegie Survey of the South (Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division).
I’m still traveling, so most of my next posts will be of vintage photos that have caught my interest in the last month. They are from the Carnegie Survey of the Architecture of the South (at the Library of Congress).
Thanks to all who have commented on posts lately. I’m sorry that I can’t answer everyone individually right now.
In 1927, photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston was commissioned by Helen Devore to photograph her estate, Chatham Manor, which she had restored.
Documenting the house and its gardens led Johnston to undertake the Carnegie Survey of the South during the late 1920s and all of the 1930s.
Chatham was built between 1768 and 1771 and overlooks the Rappahanock River near Fredericksburg, Virginia. It has the distinction of having hosted both George Washington and Abraham Lincoln for overnight stays.
After a nearby civil war battle in 1862, it was used as a hospital, and Walt Whitman and Clara Barton nursed wounded soldiers there.
It is now owned by the National Park Service and is open to the public.
Click on any thumbnail below to scroll through 23 enlarged photos of Chatham. Excepted where otherwise captioned, all are by Frances Benjamin Johnston via the Carnegie Survey of the South collection of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
I love this gate and fence, which in 1938 enclosed the Arlington Plantation House (also called Splane) in the town of Washington, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana. The house is still standing and was entered into the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
It was built in 1829. I have seen the style called Greek Revival, but also Mid 19th Century Revival: Exotic Revival. I have not been able to find a more recent photo of the house or garden.
In 1853, the residents of Splane would have witnessed (and might have succumbed to) a yellow fever epidemic that killed one-third of the population of Washington.
These photos were taken in 1938 by Frances Benjamin Johnston as part of the Carnegie Survey of the South (Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division).
enclos*ure 