The Genius of Place: Images of Gardens and Landscapes From America and Around the World 1920-1984

FAIN: ZPA-283354-22

Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (Philadelphia, PA 19103-1443)
Janet Evans (Project Director: May 2021 to present)

The partial funding of three staff positions involved in a project to digitize, describe, and upload items that document the history of gardens in Philadelphia, the United States, and abroad and to develop a webinar program for general audiences.

9/29/2022 - shift in project goals to online exhibits - "This reflects our change in strategy from creating a webinar presentation and promoting it on social media to creating additional online exhibits and promoting them through our existing in-house and partner networks."

Through this one-year project, we will improve access to and preserve three valuable collections related to the history of gardening, landscape design, and horticulture between 1920 to 1984. An estimated 2100 items will be digitized, catalogued, or rehoused, or a combination of all three tasks. Presentations of the items to a variety of audiences will tell the story of the evolution of gardening and urban greening efforts. These three collections together provide rare and intriguing glimpses into the history of gardening practices and landscapes in U.S and around the world. Due to the ephemeral nature of gardens, these images document places that have significantly changed or disappeared entirely, and provide history and context that would otherwise not exist.

Associated Products

Jay V. Hare Lantern Slide Collection (Database/Archive/Digital Edition)
Title: Jay V. Hare Lantern Slide Collection
Author: Janet Evans
Author: Penny Baker
Abstract: This is a collection of 1881 slides depicting gardens and landscapes from America and around the world, 1920-1940. Jay Veeder Hare (1878 -1953) was born in Schodack, New York. He attended the Peirce School in Philadelphia and graduated from Temple University Law School. He began his long career with the Reading Company in 1897 as a junior clerk who rose through the ranks, retiring from the railroad in 1945 as secretary and treasurer of the Reading Company, parent company of the Reading Railway System. He was a member of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s executive council from 1929 to 1949. Mr. Hare gave many illustrated lectures on plants and gardens based on his extensive world travels. He obtained lantern slides from commercial photography houses. The collection is strong in images from Japan, Italy, Spain, the United States and Switzerland, with representation from Bermuda, England, Ireland, France, Monaco, Germany, New Zealand, and South Africa. The images, many of which are hand-colored, depict typical or famous gardens, well-known city parks, tourist views of areas of spectacular natural beauty such as waterfalls and picturesque coastlines, as well as individual plant portraits. Many of the gardens and much of the landscape have changed significantly in the past 100 years or have disappeared entirely.
Year: 2023
Primary URL: https://digitalarchives.powerlibrary.org/papd/islandora/object/papd%3Aspahs-jvhlsc
Primary URL Description: Jay V. Hare Lantern Slide Collection: Gardens and Landscapes from Around the World, 1920-1940
Access Model: Open Access

Louise Bush-Brown Image Collection (Database/Archive/Digital Edition)
Title: Louise Bush-Brown Image Collection
Author: Janet Evans
Author: Penny Baker
Abstract: This collection of 740 images documents the history of the Neighborhood Garden Association of Philadelphia founded in 1953 by noted horticulturist, activist, author and educator Louise Bush-Brown. The images depict the earliest collaborative efforts of the Association, neighbors, garden clubs, and settlement houses who worked together to green and beautify neighborhoods and vacant lots throughout the City beginning with the first garden block on Mercy Street sponsored by St. Martha’s Settlement in Southeast Philadelphia and the now lost Ken-Watt Court a collaboration with the storied United Neighbors Association in 1953 to its partnership with the Penn State Extension to establish the first demonstration garden in the Mantua section of West Philadelphia in 1965.
Year: 2023
Primary URL: https://digitalarchives.powerlibrary.org/papd/islandora/object/papd%3Aspahs-lbbic
Primary URL Description: Louise Bush-Brown Image Collection
Access Model: open access

Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Archives Digital Image Collection (Database/Archive/Digital Edition)
Title: Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Archives Digital Image Collection
Author: Janet Evans
Author: Penny Baker
Abstract: This collection of 2,120 images documents activities and projects undertaken by or in partnership with the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society from its inception in 1827 to the 21st Century (apart from Philadelphia Flower Show documentation, which is in a separate collection). The bulk of the material is from originals dating from 1940 - 2010. Consisting of scanned documents and photographic images, born-digital images, and digitized video and audio clips, this collection documents Philadelphia-area horticultural activity including: WWII Victory Garden Harvest Shows; PHS’s work from 1970s forward on urban greening projects created in concert with community leaders and activists; major projects on public landscape revitalization; and vacant land stabilization.
Year: 2023
Primary URL: https://digitalarchives.powerlibrary.org/papd/islandora/object/papd%3Aspahs-padic
Primary URL Description: Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Archives Digital Image Collection
Access Model: open access

Mapping the Oasis Garden Club, 1954-1967 (Exhibition)
Title: Mapping the Oasis Garden Club, 1954-1967
Curator: Janet Evans
Abstract: This online exhibition follows the news coverage of the Club by the Philadelphia Tribune and is documented by images from the Louise Bush-Brown Neighborhood Garden Association Collection. Under the leadership of Elizabeth J. Forrester, director of Women’s and Girls’ program at Western Community House, 1613 South Street, the Oasis Garden Club was organized in February 1954. At its height, the Club's African-American membership numbered more than 50 blocks and operated in roughly the area of Pine Street to Washington Avenue, and west of Broad Street to the Schuylkill River.
Year: 2022
Primary URL: https://phsmcleanlibrary.omeka.net/exhibits/show/the-oasis-garden-club-----a-ph/the-oasis-garden-club-----a-ph
Primary URL Description: Mapping the Oasis Garden Club, 1954-1967

The Geranium Files: Ken-Watt Court and the Neighborhood Garden Association (Exhibition)
Title: The Geranium Files: Ken-Watt Court and the Neighborhood Garden Association
Curator: Janet Evans
Abstract: This online exhibition traces the history of an early urban greening project undertaken by the NGA, the Ken-Watt Court Community Club, and the United Neighbors Association. In 1953-1954, court residents collaborated on improvements that included replacing outside privies with indoor plumbing, building restoration and maintenance, and, at the request of the Ken-Watt Community Club, declared Ken-Watt as the first Philadelphia Garden Court. The Court, located at Kenilworth and Watts Streets, was demolished along with other South Philadelphia blocks to make way for the high-rise housing project Hawthorne Square (later renamed Martin Luther King Plaza). The housing project was imploded in 1999.
Year: 2022
Primary URL: https://phsmcleanlibrary.omeka.net/exhibits/show/geranium-files--ken-watt-court/the-geranium-files--ken-watt-c
Primary URL Description: The Geranium Files: Ken-Watt Court and the Neighborhood Garden Association

The Philadelphia Chinatown Community Garden: Early Years (Exhibition)
Title: The Philadelphia Chinatown Community Garden: Early Years
Curator: Janet Evans
Abstract: This online exhibition shows Philadelphia's Chinatown Community Garden, founded by the neighbors in 1974 and active for a decade. The garden was lost to the Vine Street Expressway expansion project in 1985. This exhibition focuses on the garden’s early years, its intergenerational focus and health benefits to the community, and its introduction of plants indigenous to China to the wider community of Philadelphia gardeners.
Year: 2022
Primary URL: https://phsmcleanlibrary.omeka.net/exhibits/show/chinatown-community-garden--19/chinatown-community-garden--19
Primary URL Description: The Philadelphia Chinatown Community Garden: Early Years

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