“Gardens surrounding the Indian Pueblo of Zuni, in which are raised a variety of vegetables, such as peppers, onions, garlic, etc.,” c. 1873, by Timothy H. O’Sullivan, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
The Zuni people of western New Mexico have long built a form of kitchen garden (now) called “waffle gardens.”
Each square plot is about 2′ to 8′ wide with bermed sides of unamended soil. The design efficiently captures and holds rainwater and retards evaporation. The Zuni traditionally filled their gardens with corn, beans, and squash.
Timothy H. O’Sullivan, who took the picture above, photographed events of the Civil War as an employee of Alexander Gardner.
From 1871 to 1874, he traveled the southwestern United States as part of a survey of the land west of the 100th meridian. Later, he worked in Washington, D.C., as an official photographer for the U.S. Geological Survey. He died of tuberculosis at age 42.
“Zuni gardens,” c. 1927, by Edward Curtis, via Library of Congress.
Edward Curtis, a Seattle photographer, took over 40,000 images of life in 80 native American tribes. The photo above was one of 2,000 he published, from 1907 to 1930, in the 20-volume The North American Indian.
How many ways can you plant out a lawn with a basic round fountain in the center? From 1871 to the early-1900s, the White House tried out a number of designs on its north side.
This photo was taken during the 1860s. The statue of Thomas Jefferson had been there since 1848. Photo by National Photo Company, via the Library of Congress.
In 1871, the statue was replaced by a round fountain (the statue went to the Capitol Building).
By 1885, the fountain was surrounded by flower beds in teardrops and circles. Photo by Underwood & Underwood, via the website The White House Museum.
The design was more elaborate by 1894. Photo by B.L. Singley, via American Garden History.
There was a more squared-off arrangement in 1901. Photo by Detroit Publishing Co., via Library of Congress.
Above, gardeners were planting out the fountain area in 1902, via The White House Museum.
By 1905, the whole Victorian mess had been cleared out for simple plantings of bulbs and peonies. Photo by Detroit Publishing Co., via Library of Congress.
Above, sometime later, before 1920, the peonies were gone. I like all the irises around the fountain. Photo by Detroit Publishing Co., via Library of Congress.
Above is my photo of the north lawn in March 2012.
ADDENDUM: I found one more photo.
This would have been the view from the W.H. Dining Room during the years of Victorian bedding out. Taken ca. 1889 -1906 by Frances Benjamin Johnson, via Library of Congress.
Among the many treasures of the Library of Congress’s online catalogue are several thousand digital images of antique photochrom prints.
The prints were colored images made from black-and-white photographic negatives transferred onto lithographic printing plates. The process was invented at a Swiss printing company in the 1880s. By the mid 1890s, it had been licensed it to many other companies, including the American Detroit Publishing Company, which had exclusive rights in the U.S.
A ferris wheel (la grande roue) in Paris, near the Eiffel Tower, ca. 1890-1900.
In 1898, Congress passed an act allowing private publishers to print postcards that could be mailed for only a penny each — half the rate of a letter. Millions of photochrom postcards were purchased — and often collected in albums or framed — in the first two decades of the nineteenth century.
A tablet of lithographic limestone, known as a “litho stone,” is coated with a light-sensitive coating, comprising a thin layer of purified bitumen dissolved in benzene. A reversed half-tone negative is then pressed against the coating and exposed to daylight for a period of 10 to 30 minutes in summer, up to several hours in winter. The image on the negative allows varying amounts of light to fall on different areas of the coating, causing the bitumen to harden and become resistant to normal solvents in proportion to the amount of light that falls on it. The coating is then washed in turpentine solutions to remove the unhardened bitumen and retouched in the tonal scale of the chosen color to strengthen or soften the tones as required. Each tint is applied using a separate stone bearing the appropriate retouched image. The finished print is produced using at least six, but more commonly from 10 to 15, tint stones.
The Luxembourg Garden.
Often the printer was provided with notes about realistic colors, but sometimes he had to work from his imagination alone. However, Detroit Publishing’s catalog said that its photochrom prints joined “the truthfulness of a photograph with the color and richness of an oil painting or the delicate tinting of the most exquisite water color.”
In these images of Belle Epoque Paris, the printer used ivory, pink, and apricot for the buildings and ground, quiet blues and greens for water and sky, and put a buttery light at the horizons. The tints soften and still the monumental spaces on this walk from the Louvre to the Arc de Triomphe at L’Etoile.
A panorama of the seven bridges over the Seine River. The Eiffel Tower in the distance was built in 1889.
(All photos were taken by the Detroit Publishing Company, ca. 1890-1900; all via the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. To scroll through the images in full size, click on ‘Continue reading’ below and then on any of the thumbnails in the gallery.)
The Louvre.
The Carrousel. This arch was built in 1805 to celebrate Napoleon’s victories.
Rue de Rivoli. The arcades and shops along the street were built between the early 18th century and the 1850s.
The Tuileries Garden. Its name came from the tile makers (tuileries) who were removed from the site on Catherine de Medicis’s orders so that she could build a (later-destroyed) palace and grounds. The palace garden was redesigned in the 17th century by André Le Nôtre for Louis XIV.
The Tuileries Garden.
Place de la Concorde. During the revolution, the guillotine was placed here and took over a thousand lives. Later, the space was named la Concorde in a gesture of reconciliation. Since 1833, its central feature has been the 3,200-year-old obelisk from Luxor, Egypt.
Place de la Concorde and Pont (bridge) de la Concorde.
Rue Royale and Place de la Madeleine. This church is dedicated to Mary Magdalene. Its construction began in 1764, but it was not consecrated until 1845.
Ave. Napoleon III (now Ave. Winston Churchill) and the Grand Palais (left) and Petit Palais (right). The two display halls were built between 1896 and 1900 for the Universal Exhibition of 1900.
The Arc de Triomphe. The first stone of the arch was laid in 1806, but it was only completed in 1836 and dedicated to the French army.
Avenue Champs Elysees, looking back toward the Tuileries Garden and the Louvre. The tree-lined boulevard was originally designed about 1667 by André Le Nôtre to extend the view from the Tuileries.
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.
“Gardens surrounding the Indian Pueblo of Zuni, in which are raised a variety of vegetables, such as peppers, onions, garlic, etc.,” c. 1873, by Timothy H. O’Sullivan, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
“Zuni gardens,” c. 1927, by Edward Curtis, via Library of Congress.
enclos*ure 