A Backward Glance in Winter

Over the past 30-odd years, I slowly amassed a large collection of gardening books, seed and plant catalogues, some dating from the 1880s, photographs of American gardens from the Civil War onward, old seed packets and other ephemera. While there are blogs, tweets, Web sites, and still an amazing assortment of horticultural magazines—yes, print is alive, and for some publications, like Organic Gardening and Fine Gardening, doing quite well--I find myself turning to the gardening magazines and journals published more than a century ago for inspiration.

While stuck in the Information Age, where bytes rule, there is something about peering into the past and examining what plants, structures and other elements made up the American landscape during the Industrial Age, perhaps a parallel to our current cultural condition. It’s a challenge to put yourself in that place—considering the events and technology that were available—and trying to give your mind’s eye a 19th Century viewpoint.

This photograph, ca. 1862-1863, is from the U.S. Library of Congress, from the series, “Photographs of the War of the Rebellion.”1 It’s a view “from above of an overgrown large garden, crossed with paths, small buildings, arches and flower beds. Officers and African Americans stand in the pathways.”

Of course, not everyone during this period had magnificent gardens—either home gardens or public gardens. However, many home gardens—whether urban or rural--of the time were quite unique. One of my favorite photographs was taken in Bureau County, Illinois in 1868 and shows a gingerbread Gothic-style farmhouse with an ornamental fence and a few ornamental trees, a barn with an extended decorative pergola and vines growing on it. It was an incredible early garden on what was still untamed and almost endless prairie that stretched for miles behind the farmstead.

That doesn’t mean that everyone could afford an ornamental garden such as that, or that they even had the inclination to create one given all the other worries of survival on the Midwestern prairie.

Just like today. Not everyone down your street has a spectacular garden, I would wager. Gardeners are a unique bunch. And the stories, photos and other details of gardens and gardeners long gone make a fascinating read during these cold winter months.

¹From "U. S. Navy. Edisto Island. Morris and Folly Islands. Fort Warren, Mass. Andersonville Prison, Miscellaneous." photographic album, p 61 (Edisto Island).  Accession source: Library of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, Commandar of the State of New York