Graceland Cemetery: A Design History

Acknowledgments

205 Acknowledgments Nearly thirty years ago, while pursuing a degree in landscape architecture , I first gained exposure to Graceland Cemetery in a history class. This introduction came through poorly reproduced and dimly projected black-and-white slides of photographs taken in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Many of these views, I later discovered, were the work of an important landscape photographer, Arthur G. Eldredge, and were made to illustrate critic Wilhelm Miller ’s publications, including his celebrated design manifesto The Prairie Spirit in Landscape Gardening (1915). Despite the graininess of the reproductions and perhaps in testament to Eldredge’s talents, the images nevertheless compelled me to visit the cemetery. Graceland’s reality in the 1980s, however, proved a profound disappointment; the cemetery ’s lushly planted landscape had markedly declined since the time Eldredge documented it. Instead of trees and shrubs, monuments and other markers now predominated. But this diminished state became a somewhat poignant catalyst, prompting me to investigate Graceland ’s beginnings and the evolution of its landscape design. And, ever inspired and encouraged by my late mentor Walter L. Creese (1919– 2002), I soon launched what would prove to be a years-long effort to recover Graceland’s past. Although I did not foresee it, nearly a decade (and a master’s degree) later I would contribute professionally to efforts to rejuvenate Graceland’s botanical mantle. No less unanticipated , nearly a decade after that, an invitation to chronicle the cemetery’s design history in print found me “down under” in distant Australia (a move made initially to follow the trail of Walter and Mar- 206 Acknowledgments ion Griffin, the Chicagoan designers of Australia’s national capital, Canberra; coincidentally, Marion’s cremated remains are interred at Graceland). Along with multiple marathon flights to Chicago to consult archives and study Graceland’s now once again flourishing landscape firsthand, conducting research across two hemispheres inevitably requires collegial assistance and collaboration. First and foremost, I gratefully acknowledge the tireless assistance of John K. Notz, Jr. A member of the Trustees of the Graceland Cemetery ImprovementFundandadrivingforcebehindthisproject,Johnfirst contacted me in Australia at the suggestion of Frank Lloyd Wright scholar Anthony Alofsin, seconded by Leonard K. Eaton, one of Walter Creese’s dear friends and the pioneering biographer of the now-legendary Prairie School landscape architect Jens Jensen. As is often the case with books, this one took longer than anticipated to write, so I must also thank John for his patience. Thanks are also due him and his wife, Janis, for their generous hospitality during my Chicago sojourns. It was a pleasure to again work with Robin Karson; I am grateful to her not only for her editorial assistance, but also for her ongoing support and timely encouragement. Also invaluable were the skills of developmental editor Joel Ray (who also kindly provided me with archival assistance at Cornell University), project editor Mary Bellino, and illustration researcher Jessica Dawson. Carol Betsch’s poetic sense of place is evident in new photographs that appear throughout the book, bringing the Graceland story up to the present day. At Graceland Cemetery, my work was materially aided by Aki Lew and Diane Lanigan. The Chicago History Museum, which holds many of Graceland’s historical records, also provided expert assistance; I offer special thanks to Lesley Martin and Debbie Vaughan of the museum’s Research Center. I also thank the many librarians, archivists, and fellow scholars in Chicago and elsewhere in the United States who kindly answered my requests, no doubt puzzled to receive e-mail messages from Australia inquiring about the history of a cemetery in Chicago. In the Windy City, Robert Karrow at the Newberry Library, Julie Lynch at Sulzer Regional Library, Julia Bachrach at the Chicago Park District, Michael Conzen at the University of Chicago, and architect David Swan all helped me further my research. The Internet, of course, greatly facilitated, Acknowledgments 207 if not enabled, my working at such a great distance. Art historian Wendy Greenhouse shared her critical insights, and along with other forms of assistance she secured my access to the historical Chicago Tribune. This online resource, unavailable to earlier writers on Graceland, yielded much important new documentation on the cemetery, virtually irretrievable by any other means. Nancy Wilson at the Elmhurst Historical Museum helped me track down clues to the landscape gardening activities of Graceland’s founder, Thomas Barbour Bryan. John Reinhardt of the Illinois State Archives and Jane...