The City Natural: Garden and Forest Magazine and the Rise of American Environmentalism

Garden and Forest Gallery

87 T he visual iconography of Garden and Forest magazine was an important part of its environmental message: to naturalize the city and harmonize its people and their lives within the broader context of green plants, forests and other habitats, and the general forces of nature. The illustrations in this gallery are representative of the magazine’s pages and exemplify its ideals. The gallery includes photographs, line drawings and etchings, and designs for parks and private estates. Together, the images reflect the era’s sense of what it should mean to be urban—to conserve nature, to design with nature, and yet to civilize the landscape for human satisfaction. In the magazine editors’ idea of civilization, natural beauty and human needs—even the most utilitarian needs—find a common unity. Garden and Forest gallery 88 The standard front page of the magazine was plain and simple in its presentation . Inside, however, the magazine pages were filled with artistic work that evoked the beauty of plants, the possibilities of creative landscape design, and the threats facing the environment, especially the forests. Garden and Forest, 30 January 1889, 49. Anschutz Library, University of Kansas. 89 This pen-and-ink drawing depicts the entrance to the Arnold Arboretum, established by Harvard University in 1872 under the directorship of Charles Sprague Sargent. The landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted designed its roads and grounds. In 1882, the Arnold Arboretum was deeded to the city of Boston, Massachusetts, and became part of Olmsted’s park system for the city, the famous “Emerald Necklace.” Garden and Forest, 7 March 1888, 17. Anschutz Library, University of Kansas. 90 Rhododendron arborescens, or smooth azalea, one of the many flowering plants Garden and Forest promoted as an appropriate ornament for the urban environment . Its natural range extended from New York State down the Appalachian mountain chain. Charles Edward Faxon, a staff employee of the Arnold Arboretum and one of the best botanical draftsmen in the nation at the time, drew this figure and prepared a total of 285 illustrations for the magazine. Garden and Forest, 17 October 1888, 401. Anschutz Library, University of Kansas. 91 The adornment of home interiors with flowering and nonflowering plants was another aspect of the magazine’s focus. Indoor gardening was supposed to encourage a sensitivity to the green world that the editors hoped would then extend to the whole urban environment and result in the conservation of beauty across the American landscape. This photograph is of a Chinese narcissus growing in water. Garden and Forest, 21 March 1888, 44. Anschutz Library, University of Kansas. 92 William Augustus Stiles (1837–1897), editor of Garden and Forest and editorial writer for the New York Tribune. Stiles, a longtime friend of Frederick Law Olmsted, was one of the leading defenders of New York’s Central Park. Garden and Forest, 13 October 1897, 401. Anschutz Library, University of Kansas. 93 The Meadows in New York’s Central Park illustrate both the pastoral aspects of Frederick Law Olmsted’s park designs and one facet of the magazine’s vision for America’s cities. Garden and Forest, 9 May 1888, 125. Anschutz Library, University of Kansas. 94 This Garden and Forest illustration of a temple in Japan speaks eloquently of the magazine’s far-ranging interest in the history and aesthetic principles of landscape design. Garden and Forest, 18 April 1888, 89. Anschutz Library, University of Kansas. 95 Garden and Forest featured this photograph of an unidentified site of forest devastation in Michigan as part of its campaign against overcutting, watershed destruction, and aesthetic damage in the nation’s timberlands. Garden and Forest, 19 November 1890, 563. Anschutz Library, University of Kansas. 96 America’s most famous native tree species, the redwood or sequoia (Sequoia gigantea), celebrated by the naturalist John Muir, was under assault by timber cutters. The magazine sought to bring the elegance of this tree and the threats to its existence to the attention of readers and to promote forest conservation. Garden and Forest, 26 November 1890, 575. Anschutz Library, University of Kansas. 97 A magazine for tree lovers in the countryside as well as the city...