CGLHS is proud to announce the upcoming lecture in our series at The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens: “California and the Birth of the Modern Garden.”
Wade Graham, author of American Eden: From Monticello to Central Park to our Backyards: What Our Gardens Tell Us About Who We Are, explores the birth and career of the modern garden in California between 1920 and the 1960s. Starting from his mother’s transformation of the family’s Santa Barbara home from 1967, he charts the pre-war origins, postwar evolution, and global influence of this unique garden idiom, the first truly American landscape style, from pioneers R. M. Schindler and Richard Neutra, to modern masters Thomas Church, Garrett Eckbo, and Lawrence Halprin. He will also reveal the surprising kinship and cross-pollination between the Modernist garden and its seeming antithesis, the Arts & Crafts garden.
A book signing will follow the lecture. American Eden and Dream Cities will be available for purchase at The Huntington store.
This event is free to the public. No reservations are required.
PHOTO: Wade Graham at the Office of the Head Gardener in the Boboli Gardens, Florence (Courtesy Wade Graham).
More about our speaker, Wade Graham:
Wade Graham is a writer, historian and landscape designer with a practice based in Los Angeles. His writing on cultural history, environment, urbanism, landscape, art and other topics has appeared frequently in the Los Angeles Times, the New Yorker, and Harper’s, among other publications.
His books include Braided Waters: Environment and Society in Molokai, Hawaii (University of California Press, 2018), Dream Cities: Seven Urban Ideas That Shape the World (HarperCollins, 2016), and American Eden: From Monticello to Central Park to Our Backyard, What Our Gardens Tell Us About Ourselves (HarperCollins, 2011).
He has a Ph.D in American history from UCLA and has taught urban and environmental policy at the School of Public Policy at Pepperdine University since 2009. Since 1999, he has been a trustee of Glen Canyon Institute, a Colorado River restoration group based in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Join CGLHS for a day at Filoli dedicated to the preservation of historic gardens! Filoli Horticulture Manager Kate Nowell will discuss some of the successes and challenges faced and projects recently undertaken at Filoli. The tour will accommodate a limited number of participants and will include garden areas such as the historic orchard and propagation greenhouses that are not usually open to the public.
Cathy Garrett, President and Design Director of PGADesign, will give an overview of historic landscape treatment standards, including preservation issues and typical approaches. A former member of the Historic State Capitol Commission, she has contributed to the first master plan for the cultural landscape of the Capitol Park in Sacramento.
Kate and Cathy will explore questions surrounding the management of historic gardens, such as: What are the issues and challenges in preserving a historic garden? What happens when a plant gets too big, or dies? There are guidelines, but often no easy answers. Expect a lively conversation!
The event will begin at 9:00 AM and conclude at noon. Afterwards, guests may bring a picnic lunch or purchase lunch at the Filoli café and spend the afternoon visiting the house and strolling the gardens.
Constructed in 1917, the Filoli mansion and its 16 acres of formal gardens are surrounded by a 654-acre estate. The property is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is operated by the nonprofit Filoli Center, in agreement with the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Note: This California Garden & Landscape History Society event will take place in a public botanical garden with uneven paths and steps, and some changes in garden levels with no handrails. We remind each of you to be responsible for your own health and safety by wearing comfortable shoes, being aware of your surroundings, watching your step, and asking for assistance whenever needed. Be prepared in case of inclement weather! Your attendance on this tour constitutes your acceptance of these terms.
PHOTOS: Janet Gracyk
The UCLA Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden is a 90-year-old living museum of plants. In contrast to display gardens, its collection is a teaching and research facility that focuses on global plant biodiversity and the evolutionary history of plants. It has been influenced by the interests of faculty, academic research, gardening trends of the 21st century, teaching resources, and conservation considerations.
Mildred E. Mathias, the garden's namesake, was an extraordinary botanist who explored the world to collect, identify, and propagate an astonishing array of plant material. A scholar and a colleague of Theodore Payne, Ralph D. Cornell, Jack and Bill Evans, and other luminaries of early botanical exploration and development of mid-century southern California, Mathias was one of the very first women to become a faculty member at UCLA in 1951.
To celebrate her remarkable story during Women's History Month, CGLHS has arranged this rare opportunity to learn about the work and contributions of Mathias from MEMBG Manager of Education, Events and Outreach Jules Cooch, followed by a short film, and an introduction to the botanical treasures hidden in the Biological Special Collections. After a specially-guided tour of the garden, lunch with our members and friends in the garden is included and concludes the event. For more information about the garden, see: https://www.botgard.ucla.edu/
Questions about the event? Contact us at info@cglhs.org.
Note: This California Garden & Landscape History Society event will take place in a public botanical garden with uneven paths and steps, and some changes in garden levels with no handrails. We remind each of you to be responsible for your own health and safety by wearing comfortable shoes, being aware of your surroundings, watching your step, and asking for assistance whenever needed. Your attendance on this tour constitutes your acceptance of these terms.
PHOTOS: Top: Mildred Mathias with Gunnera in Costa Rica, 1987 (courtesy Jane Marshall). Middle: Puya venusta (blue); Senna racemosa (yellow); Bottom: garden entrance (all courtesy MEMBG)
