Tag: hanging plants

Fairbanks, Alaska

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“Mrs. Brandt’s home, Fairbanks, Alaska,” 1916, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Fairbanks was founded in 1901 as a trading post supplying gold miners in the area.  It became an incorporated city in 1903. “By 1905, [it] had electricity and sewer service, a powerplant, a three-story skyscraper, saloons, stores, police and fire protection, and a thriving “Red Light” district,” according to fairbanks-alaska.com.

This may be the home of Margaret Brandt, a widow who was a city telephone operator from 1905 to 1938.

The photograph is one of over sixteen thousand created or collected by Frank G. Carpenter and his daughter, Frances, to illustrate his geography textbooks and popular travel books.

Click on the image for a larger view.

Greenhouse portrait

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“Woman in greenhouse,” ca. 1910, an autochrome by Mrs. Benjamin F. Russell, via George Eastman Museum Commons on flickr.

I have not been able to find out anything about Mrs. Russell.

Hanging gardens, Basel

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Street entrance, Basel Museum of Culture, 2015, enclos*ure

In Basel, Switzerland, the day after Thanksgiving, we went looking for lunch and ended up at the very pretty bistro of the Museum of Culture — located on the same square as the Münster.

The museum posters decorating the café were so interesting that we decided to go next door (above, left side) and take a look.

Given the quiet, very traditional appearance of the street entrance, we were completely surprised by what we found on the other side of the archway.

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In an enclosed courtyard, seven, four-story tall columns of plants hang from the deep eave of an irregularly folded roof of glistening ceramic tiles.

The museum* is 166 years old and houses a current collection of over 300,000 ethnographic artifacts from around the world. The hanging columns were installed in 2011, part of an extensive renovation of the building by Herzog & de Meuron.

To scroll through larger versions of the photos (and several more), click on ‘Continue reading’ below and then on any thumbnail in the gallery.

Next: more about the Schürhof, the sloping courtyard below the columns.

*Admission to the Museum der Kulturen is about $16, but the last hour of the day (4:00 – 5:00 p.m.) is free.  This is plenty of time to see the large room of Medieval and Renaissance art displayed there until the prestigious Kunstmuseum Basel, currently being renovated, reopens in 2016.  (You can also see some of its late 19th century and early modernist art at the Museum für Gegenwartskunst or Contemporary Art until February 21, 2016.  The Gegenwartskunst also has a small exhibition of paintings and sculptures by Cy Twombly until March 13.  Admission is free.)

Continue reading “Hanging gardens, Basel” →

The Sunday porch: interiors

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More well-furnished porches in Queensland, Australia. . .

5 Queensland porch interior, late 19th c., StateLibraryQueensland“Verandah at The Hollow, near Mackay, Queensland, about 1875,” photographer unidentified (all photos here), via State Library of Queensland Commons on flickr (all photos here).

I love the office setup on this very deep porch with an adjoining fernery or bush-house. There is also a sewing machine on the table between the two women.

These photos are not very clear, but you can click any thumbnail in the gallery below to scroll through larger versions.  There are four additional pictures there too.

7 Queensland porch interior, late 19th c., StateLibraryQueensland“Unidentified family on the verandah of a Cairns residence, ca. 1895.”

What a beautiful plant collection.

2 Queensland porch interior, late 19th c., StateLibraryQueensland“Furniture on the verandah of a Queenslander home, ca. 1925,” photographer unidentified.

The white chairs on the left with the extended armrests are “squatter’s chairs,” typical to Queensland porches. There are two more examples here.

“Verandah of Gracemere Homestead, near Rockhampton,” ca. 1940.
“Furnishings on a verandah of a Queensland home, ca. 1925.”
“Verandah at ‘Fairseal,’ the residence of W.C. Hume at Torwood, Brisbane, 1890.”
“Invicta, the home of the Kingsfords in Cairns, ca. 1888.”
“Verandah at The Hollow, near Mackay, Queensland, about 1875.”
“Unidentified family on the verandah of a Cairns residence, ca. 1895.”
“Furniture on the verandah of a Queenslander home, ca. 1925.”

Additional links:
Gracemere Homestead 1940 photo,  Rockhampton, Gracemere Homestead in 2001, GracemereHomestead history

W.C. Hume short biography, Brisbane, squatter’s chair

The Kingsfords, Cairns

The Sunday porch: tea party

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Tea on porch, 1887, State Library of Queensland, Australia“Group of women having a tea party in Queensland, Australia,” ca. 1887, photographer unknown, via State Library of Queensland.

Beautiful Platycerium or staghorn ferns on the wall and columns. These could be Platycerium superbum, which are native to Australia. The one on the left seems to be supporting another plant — maybe a coleus.

How quiet it is, how silent,
like an afternoon in Pompeii.

— Louise Glück, from “A Summer Garden“