glass lantern slides – Page 3

Vintage landscape: the stage

July 22, 2016February 1, 2017 Cindy at enclos*ureLeave a comment

The outdoor theater of the Piranhurst estate of Henry Ernest and Ellen Chabot Bothin, Montecito, California, 1917, hand-colored glass lantern slides by Frances Benjamin Johnston, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

The Bothin’s fortune was made in coffee and spices (San Francisco), real estate, and water. Their estate became famous in the 1920s for the parties and performances held in its 350-acre “Tea Gardens” — which included the clipped cypress theater shown here.

3 Piranhurst, California, 1917, F.B. Johnston, Library of Congress — Looking from the stage to the box seats.

Today, the site is in ruins and is part of the Mar Y Cel open space preserve. There are histories of the property here and here.

1 Piranhurst, California, 1917, F.B. Johnston, Library of Congress — The backstage wings, a photo by F. B. Johnston, 1917, also via Library of Congress.

Vintage landscape: Thornedale

June 28, 2016June 28, 2016 Cindy at enclos*ureLeave a comment

Sugar maple allée at “Thornedale,” Millbrook, New York, 1919, hand-colored glass lantern slide by Frances Benjamin Johnston, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Helen Stafford Thorne is credited with the garden’s design. The estate still exists under family ownership.

The Sunday porch: lattice and brick

December 7, 2014April 11, 2016 Cindy at enclos*ure3 Comments

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“William Windom house, 1723 de Sales Place, Washington, D.C., Terrace,” ca. 1925, four hand-colored glass lantern slides by Frances Benjamin Johnston, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Johnston used these slides in her “Gardens for City and Suburb” lectures. (You can scroll through larger version by clicking on ‘Continue reading’ below.)

De Sales Place (now Row) is an alleyway between L and M Streets, N.W. (It connects 18th and 19th Streets.) The house is gone; an office building occupies the site.

The William Windom who gave his name to the home was twice Secretary of the Treasury, as well as a Congressman and Senator from Minneasota. He died in 1891. His son, also a William, may have been living in the house at the time of these photos. He died in 1926.

[We] usually learn that modesty, charm, reliability, freshness, calmness, are as satisfying in a garden as anywhere else.

— Henry Mitchell, from The Essential Earthman

Continue reading “The Sunday porch: lattice and brick” →

Vintage landscape: marriage counseling

November 19, 2013April 13, 2016 Cindy at enclos*ure4 Comments

Photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston used slides of various prints and illustrations in her popular Garden and House lectures — which she gave from 1915 to 1930.

She took the ones below from the February 1875 issue of Fruit Recorder and Cottage Gardener. They are now part of the Frances Benjamin Johnston Collection at the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

The successful lady gardener dresses in modest clothes with sensible hat and apron and stays home to care for her flowers.

While the unsuccessful one dresses in low-cut bodice and frilly hat, threatens her flowers and chickens with an umbrella, and then goes out on the town.