Archives of American Gardens
 | |
| Location | Capital Gallery Building, Washington, D.C. |
|---|---|
| Type | Archives |
| Public transit access | L'Enfant Plaza (Washington Metro) |
| Website | Official website |
The Archives of American Gardens (known colloquially as AAG) is an archive dedicated to preserving documentation and content related to gardens in the United States. The Archives are located in Washington, D.C., United States and is maintained by Smithsonian Gardens, which is a unit of the Smithsonian Institution.
As a research center, the Archives of American Gardens houses approximately 80,000 photographs and records which pertain to over 6,350[1] gardens throughout the United States. Photographs and images date from the 1870s[1] to the present and showcase garden features such as fountains, sculptures, gates, fences, ornamentation, parterres, and other related structures. The Archives also documents garden styles, such as patio gardens, herb and rose gardens, community gardens, and Italianate estates.[2]
Collection
AAG maintains photographs, images, drawings, written documentation, business files, garden plans and related material, of over 6,350 gardens in the United States. The Archive also collects documentation related to landscape architects, including the collections of Thomas Warren Sears, Robert M. Fletcher, and Perry Wheeler. The Garden Club of America Collection, which was donated in 1992[3], includes documentation of landscape architects such as Marian Coffin, Lawrence Halprin, Beatrix Farrand, Hare & Hare, Gertrude Jekyll, Umberto Innocenti, Jens Jensen, Charles Platt, Ellen Biddle Shipman, and Fletcher Steele.[1] The Archives also has the collection of J. Horace McFarland, Katharine Lane Weems's estate, The Chimneys, postcard collections, and documentation about the Smithsonian's own gardens. The Archives also has a collection of over 3,000 hand-colored glass lantern slides from the 1920s and 1930s and a collection of over 37,000 35mm slides of gardens.[3]
Mission
To collect and make available for research use unique, high quality images of and documentation relating to a wide variety of cultivated gardens throughout the United States that are not documented elsewhere since historic, designed and cultural landscapes are subject to change, loss and destruction. In this way, AAG strives to preserve and highlight a meaningful compendium of significant aspects of gardening in the United States for the benefit of researchers and the public today and in the future.[3]
References
- ^ a b c "Archives of American Gardens". Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
- ^ "Landscape Studies Online Resources". Foundation for Landscape Studies. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
- ^ a b c "Archives of American Gardens". Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 26 January 2012.