The Beatrix Farrand Society NEWS
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Fall 2006 The Beatrix Farrand Society NEWS Beatrix Farrand Society From Munstead Wood to the Maine Woods, or How Officers: President- the Jekyll Collection Came to Reef Point bvr,,dithB.rankard . .Patrick Chasse The story of how Beatrix Farrand Vice President- acquired Gertrude Jekyll's extensive collec- . .Emily Fuchs tion of garden plans is still sorrewhatshrouded in mystery. As Farrand wrote to Mldred Secretarv-Treasurer- Bliss in lvlay 7948, "Very few people have been told of the good fortune that has conr to . ,Howard Monroe Reef Point. The story is rather a long one, but will be abbreviated for you. Sorrr short Directors: tirrn agoa list of duplicate booksof the MassachusettsHorticultural Saiety was sent rrE . .Richard Crawford and nry eye was caught by the rnodest itern Certrude Jekyll, A Collection of Plans, . .James Fuchs Working Drawings, and Accorrpanying Letters on C-ardensDesigned by Certrude Jekyll. ...Dane K McGuirc To cut a long story short, the papers which have been bought for Reef Point seem to be . .l€e Patterson . .Judith Tankard the entire output of Gertrude Jekyll's long and distinguished career." Unfortunately the long story is no longer kncrvn. Advisors: Farrand's lifelong interest in Gertrude Jekyll beganwith her visit to Munstead . .Eleanor Ames . .Gilben Butler Wmd in July 1895 on a trip to England with her rrDther, Mary CadwaladerJones. The . .Robert Golden entry in Beatrix's garden notebookis brief--gGodalmingtrip. Jekyll MunsteadWood"--so ...Marti Harmon it is unclear whether she rret the farrpus gardener herself at that tirrn. Munstead Wmd" . .Scort Koniecko of course, was horne in Surrey, located not far from the rnarket tovn of . .Elizabeth Moore Jekyll's . .Bruce Riddell Godalming.In 1895 Jekyll's reputation was basedpurely on her horticultural expertise . .Beth Straus and not on her farned garden design collaboration with the architect Edwin Lutyens, which beg;ana few years later. Jekyll had been contributing horticultural notes to The Newsletter Editor: C-a.rdenand other journals, but she had not yet produced the books that would bring her Judith Thnkard worldwide farre in the early 1900s. In 1895 Jekyll's houseat MunsteadWood (designed [email protected] g by Lutyens in 1896) had not even been built and the gardens uere only in the early stages of developrrent. What Beatrix and her rrnther rrny have seen !\€re acres of wmd- land gardens filled with plantations of Ghent hybrid azaleas,rhododendrons, and natu- Open Day ralistic groupings of native plants flanking paths that rreandered through the nrcods. August 5, 'O7 Thesewmdland gardens were inspired by William Robinson's The Wld Carden (1870), a book that rocked the horticultural world at a tirrE when bedding-out uas the Garland Farmwill again norrrr Not surprisingly, Beatrix called at Gravetyelvlanor, Robinson's horrc in Sussex,a general be open to the few weeks after visiting MunsteadWod. Again, it is unclear whether she actually rrrt public for the Garden Robinsonon this visit, but she surely would have kncryvnabout himthrough his assai- Conservancv's Ooen ation with Charles SpragueSargent. On Farrand's final visit to Gravetye in February Garden Day, from 10 1933, just two years before he died, Robinsonpresented her with an inscribed copy of AMto4PMon his book, The English Flower Grden (norruin the library at Thuya Carden). Sunday, August 5th. In 1955, Farrand described the farrnus portrait of Jekyll, painted in 1921 when Several private MDI gar- she was 76 years old: "The sensible hands and thoughtful face shorv this leader of g;ar- dens will also be open. deners in her old agewhen sight was failing, but not intelligence." It is a coincidence Garland Farm hcts and that Farrand herself was 76 years old when she acquired the Jekyll papers. At the tirre helpers are needed of her death in 1932, C'ertrudeJekyll had attained legendary status as England's rrmt farrpus gardener, but Munstead Wood itself had seen better days. The shrubberies had Beatrix F arrand Societv grcrn up around the house and the farmus borders had all but disappeared It was not P.O.Box 111 Mt. Desert, ME 04660 until 1947 that Jekyll's forrrer estate was broken up and her papers and collections e-mail: were scattered. It is unlikely that she rnadeany specific prwisions for their safekeep i nfo@-ReatrixFarrand. org ing after her death, but her nephew Francis Jekyll used the rnaterial when prepari ng his website: (1934). www.BeatrixFarrand.or g affectionate rrernoir, C-'ertrudeJekyll: A lvtenpir In Septernber 1940 he offered the collection tothe Royal Horticultural Society's RedCrcs Saleof botanical books, but (2O7, Phone: 288-0237 for reasons that are unclear today, it was withdrawn fromsale; presurrnbly because he or (288-OBFS) sold themprivately. It was not until 1948 that the collection resurfaced cont. p. 2 Page2 he Jekyll: from p. l. in Bctorl where Farrand was able to acquire it for a "nnderate surn" She Eg noted that it consisted of 300 plans (nnre likely it r,rasplans for 300 gar- ;x dens), plant lists, photographs,and other recods. It was the acquisition fH ;F- of a lifetinre and the jer,rielin the crovn for her landscape study center at (,,.t, (uh rX Reef Pcint. 9d Orrer the next several years, the Jekyll papers uere sorted and sE repaired as nnny of the plans were on fragile tracing paper. Firre thou- Qqt sand labels ra,erernade for the plans and by 1952 rarak r,rasconplete and gH serreral visitors had already seen thern Farrand notd that "any student oo lr of C-ertrudeJekyll's work will be obliged to corE to Reef Point for study." .gt Sadly this was a shat lived dream and in 1955, when she decided to dis- .:E band Reef Point, Farrand rnade arrangenEnts to donate the collection to X.k gl- the Unirrersiry d California at Berkeley, but not before dfering it to Mldred Bliss. There it remained-it storage until a graduate student rediscorrered the treasure in 1974. Fo,rr years later the Jekyll expert Betty tvlassingham\as invited to catalog the collection, and in 1.989I pre estolratflonFnogness pard a catalog of Jekyll's six photograph alburrs that were part of the Reef Point Cdlectian, having been acquired in 1948 with funds prodded by Agrrcs Mlliken. Electrical Rewiring Farrands incarparable gift to Berkeley of the Jekyll Collectioru Greenhouse Foundation in additian to her c*vn plans, a 2,74O volunr library, and a herbariunf Barn hor + interior set a standard anpng landscape architects. Over the years nnny scholars Insulation of Cape&Addition harrecqrsulted the naterial, which has aided in the rehabilitation of both Chimneys Farrand ard Jekyll gardens. Today the library at Garland Farm has BFSCffice Setup micrdilns d the Jekyll plans and phcograph albuns as raell as copies y' of plans for Farrand's cornnissiq$ on lvbunt Desert Island For further Field Parking Improvement y' infarnaticr abqrt the Jekyll and Farrand collections, visit Drainage Corrections rarwvr,.cedberkel ey. edu/cedarc hi ves. This article was presented as an illustratd lecture by 200s Judith Tankard at the August BFS2006 Annual luftr.ting" Critical Tf ee Suppor t/Prun in g Library Shelvin g Installation Save the Date: BFSAnnual Meeting Front Garden Fence g Saturday, August 4th, 2OO7 National Register Listin The third Annual Meeting of the Beatrix Farrand Society will 2006 be held Saturday,August 6, at 1O AM, at C-arlandFarm. y' Painting (original color) Members and their guestsare welcome. y' Clltural LandscapeReport Reglazing y' Restoration Shrub Pruning V Gallery Railings Field Nursery Preparation oCritical Tiee Work--Part II 2007 oBegin Garden Restoration oFront Path Restoration oRear Carden Fence 'O5. oBFBath room Restoration fr the "List" since oField Parking Grading oGlassPorch Restoration Howardand Hamsell tickets... "Wish List" News from the Librafy byMarriHarnnn Page 3 The library at Carland Farm is on its way to fulfilling Beatrix Resources: Farrand's gml of a resource center for the study of landscape gardening obcuments and photos of and design. We have already received donations of over 1,200 books as Beatrix Farrand designs well as plans, microfilms, and other collections that reflect a brmd oBookswith Beatrix Jonesor spectrumof the cultural understanding about plants, ecologr, and artis- Beatrix Farrand bookplates. tic expression. oPerson al corresponden ce. From managing forests to properly wiring a pond fountain, from furnishines. and objectsfrom garden biographies to garden poetry, from travel logs to the rules of Feng Shui, from the architecture of the pyramids to a guidebook on rmses, Mrs. Farrand from photomicrographs to Rembrandt's landscape drawings, from coun- oReference books in art, try walks to the alpine plants of China, and rrmch rrnre, the subjects are arch itecture, h or ticulture, diverse and intellectually expansive. Of particular interest are sorne of design,planning, and botany. the older bmks, such as H. Inigo Triggs' rare foliq The Art of Garden Design in Italy ( 1906), lvl E. Bottornl ey's The Design of SnnlI Properties: Eq uipm€Dt! (new,/used) A Brck for the Hone Awner in City and Country (1926), and Henry B. (1901). oCarouselProjectors Ellwanger's classic torre, The Rose One especially attractive bmk is H. H. Thonns's 7he Ideal &rden (1910), with its unusual rDgital Video Camera embossed green co/er shcwing a garden filled with surnnrer flowers. The oFixeGbedPhotocopier book includes sixteen color plates of watercolors, plus dozens of black- oLar ge-screen Television and-white illustrations. Dear to any gardener's heart is the title of the oMicrofilm Reader first chapter, 'The Ogre of Dogrnatism" oDgital Camera{ Two recently donated volurres originally carre from the library oBookshelves of lvlary Cadwalader Jones: The Elizabethan Honre: 2 Dialques, a limit- oFlatFiles ed-edition facsimile of two sixteenth-century works by Claudius oFile Cabin ets (4-drawer ) Hollyband and Peter Erondell; and Earlhanl the history of Percy rC-opyStand y' Lubbak's country estate in England Two other donations have original Beatrix Farrand bmkplates: Donatellq by Lord Balcarres (1903), and oWoodenSawhorses Ccrtrude Jeykll: A lulennir, by Francis Jeykll (1934).