Garden History & Design

In honor of the Garden Club of America’s 75th anniversary, GCA donated its historic collection of 3,000 glass slides along with 30,000 slides of gardens past and present to the Smithsonian Institution. The core of the Smithsonian’s collection, these images are added to annually by club members across the country who are actively documenting gardens. This archive, according to the Smithsonian website, “includes a collection of approximately 60,000 photographic images and records that document historic and contemporary gardens throughout the United States. The images, which show views from colonial times to the present, include a considerable range of garden features such as furniture and ornamentation, as well as all manner of design styles.”

Since 2000, the Garden Club of Hartford has documented the following gardens; all photos are courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, Garden Club of America Collection. Accession numbers are at the end of each entry; browse the Smithsonian website for more photos by visiting: http://sirismm.si.edu/siris/collectionaag1.htm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Scarborough Farm Press Release November 2017

Hartford Garden Accepted into the Smithsonian Archives of American Gardens

 A remarkable garden in Hartford has just been accepted into the Smithsonian Archives of American Gardens. “Scarborough Farm,” at 84 Scarborough Street, was documented by the Garden Club of Hartford, under the auspices of The Garden Club of America.

            The project took over a year, and homeowners Dr. Christopher Manning and Charles Riott worked with five members of the Garden Club to complete the documentation: Nora Howard of Avon, Jan Whelan of West Hartford, and Debra Herr, Holly Holden, and Mara Sfara, all of Farmington.

            According to Mrs. Howard, chairman of the club’s Garden History and Design Committee,“The garden owners were gracious in welcoming our team to their garden many times throughout the four seasons, and we took hundreds of photographs. We sent 53 images to the Smithsonian, along with an extensive history of the property and a description of the garden today.  We are grateful to Dr. Manning and Mr. Riott for their insight and assistance, and we are very proud that their garden is in the Smithsonian Archives of American Gardens.”

            The house at Scarborough Farm was built in 1913 by Charles A. Goodwin and his wife Ruth Cheney Goodwin. Dr. Manning and Mr. Riott purchased the property in 1994, and have transformed the grounds into spectacular gardens of flowers, fruits, herbs, vegetables, trees and shrubs. The owners do all the gardening themselves, experimenting, expanding, and thoroughly enjoying the challenges and joys of gardening.

            Mrs. Howard noted that this garden was appropriate for the Smithsonian Archives American Gardens because of its long history, its diverse horticulture, its deliberate design, the generous participation of its owners, and especially for its location in Connecticut’s capital city. “One of my goals has been to focus on gardens that are located in the city for which our club is named.” This is the fourth garden in Hartford documented by the Garden Club of Hartford.

            The Garden Club of America Collection in the Smithsonian Archives of American Gardens has over 40,000 images and written materials documenting thousands of  gardens in the United States and the work of leading designers. The initial collection was donated by The Garden Club of America to the Archives of American Gardens in 1992. It provides scholars, researchers, and interested persons with visual documentation of cultural, historic, and vernacular gardens that are not documented elsewhere. Throughout the United States, there are over 200 garden clubs that document gardens for the Smithsonian, under the auspices of The Garden Club of America. There are over one hundred gardens in Connecticut that are documented in the Archives of American Gardens.

            Garden documentations are deposited at the headquarters of the Smithsonian Archives of American Gardens in Washington, D.C. Staff members and interns oversee the collection, and welcome researchers and other visitors to view the documentations. The Archives of American Gardens also has a website featuring portions of all the garden documentations and photographs for those interested in more information.