“Kindergarten in a vegetable garden,” Washington, D.C., ca. 1899, by Frances Benjamin Johnston, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Before she became immersed in the work of photographing old houses and gardens, Johnston was a photojournalist and a portraitist. In 1899, she became interested in progressive education and made a photo survey of students at public schools in Washington, D.C.
Garden at Enniscorthy, the Cole-Morrill house, Albemarle County, Virginia, 1932, by Frances Benjamin Johnston, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
The 1850 house still exists, and its 500 acres have been placed in a conservation easement. An earlier home on the plantation sheltered Thomas Jefferson’s family when the British raided Monticello in 1780.
Farmhouse on Michaux Plantation, Danville area, Virginia, 1935, by Frances Benjamin Johnston, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. (There are two more views here.)
I could not find out when this simple house* was built or if it still exists. It is somewhat similar to this house in the same area, which Johnston’s notes say was built between 1776 and 1850.
Michaux was one of eleven plantations in southern Virginia owned by the Hairston family, one of the largest slaveholders in the South. Its name probably indicates that the land was also once owned by a member (this one?) of the local branch of the Michaux family.
This is the kingdom that you find
When the brave eye-holes stare
impartially against the air. . .— Joy Davidman, from “Stark Lines-Resurrection”
*It reminds me of the old house or schoolhouse quilt block pattern.
Irises along the embankment, West Potomac Park, Washington, D.C., 1921, a hand-colored glass lantern slide by Frances Benjamin Johnston, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing
A flowery band to bind us to the earth. . .–John Keats, from “A Thing of Beauty“
A view from the summer house at Oatlands, Loudoun County, Virginia, in the 1930s, by Frances Benjamin Johnston, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Oatlands Plantation was established in 1798 by a member of Virginia’s prominent Carter family. In 1903, it was sold to William and Edith Corcoran Eustis, and Mrs. Eustis began to revive the old gardens in the Colonial Revival style. Since 1965, the property has been a site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. It is open to the public from April 1 to December 30.
enclos*ure 