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Publications & BOOKSThis short list is a concise introduction to the topic of California landscape history. |
 California Eden: Heritage Landscapes of The Golden State
CGLHS is excited to announce the publication on June 11, 2024 of California Eden: Heritage Landscapes of the Golden State. Featuring 22 vintage Eden articles freshly edited and updated in full color. There are also essays by coeditors Christine Edstrom O'Hara and Susan Chamberlin establishing the context for these historic cultural landscapes. Learn More |
Marvelous maps and text for each era illustrate the Historical Atlas of California by Derek Hayes (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007) and illuminate many aspects of the cultural landscape. |
The most extensive scholarly treatment of California landscape history to date is California Gardens: Creating a New Eden by David C. Streatfield (Abbeville Press in 1994). It was based on a series of in-depth articles by the author. |
An earlier, essential reference is Victoria Padilla’s book, Southern California Gardens: An Illustrated History (UC Press, 1961) reprinted by Allen A. Knoll Publishing, Santa Barbara, in 1994. |
Harry M. Butterfield (1887-1970) remains the best California horticultural historian. His original articles published in The California Horticultural Journal (later Pacific Horticulture) and his unpublished papers (archived at the University of California, Davis) were the basis for Judith M. Taylor and Harry M. Butterfield, Tangible Memories: Californians and Their Gardens, 1800-1950, a book published in 2003 by Xlibris Corporation. |
A revised edition of Michael R. Hardwick’s book, Changes in Landscape: The Beginnings of Horticulture in the California Missions (originally published by the Santa Barbara Mission in 2002) is available from Paragon Agency, Orange, CA. |
There are many entries devoted to California designers in Pioneers of American Landscape Design, edited by Charles A. Birnbaum and Robin Karson (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2000). Additional entries are included in the follow-up volumes: Shaping the American Landscape edited by Birnbaum and Stephanie S. Foell; and Shaping the Postwar Landscape edited by Birnbaum and Scott Craver. |
An important complement to Anderson's book, this volume from California Natural History Guides has extensive information on Indigenous landscape management, including the central role of fire in the landscape, and a valuable discussion of pyrodiversity and prescribed burns. |
M. Kat Anderson’s Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and the Management of California’s Natural Resources (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005) is a good survey of the topic by one of its pioneers, and the rich bibliography will lead readers even deeper. |
This early history of the rose in California by Darrell g.h. Schramm is an essential reference. Native species, varieties introduced by the Spanish colonizers and subsequent settlers, roses arising in California, and a chronological history of California rose nurseries are some highlights. Rose rustlers will appreciate the lists of introductions and lost roses at the end. No footnotes but the bibliography is extensive. |
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Rainbow! A HISTORY OF THE ROSE IN CALIFORNIA
While books, such as Landscapes of Exclusion: State Parks and Jim Crow in the American South by William E. O’Brien and Black Landscapes Matter edited by Walter Hood and Grace Mitchell Tada, have examined systemic racism in access to parks and scenic open space, this one is devoted to five African American leisure sites in California—all in the vicinity of Los Angeles. Black Angelenos tried to be free from white harassment at Bruce’s Beach, Ocean Park, Lake Elsinore, the Parkridge Country Club and Subdivision, and Eureka Villa. There is a chapter devoted to the historical context of Jim Crow California, extensive endnotes, and a superb bibliography NewsletterSign up to join our FREE email list and get the latest news and events info. |
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