n George B. DORR on Mount Desert Bootrix Forrand Society News Winter 2009. Winter 2009 The Beatrix Farrand Society NEWS Beatrix Farrand Society Officers: George B. Dorr on Mount Desert By Ronald H. Epp James Fuchs President Beatrix Farrand's best-known commission on Mount Desert Island was the private garden she developed for John D. Rockefeller Jr. and his wife at The Eyrie in Seal Harbor in the Richard Crawford 1920s and now known as the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden. The couple's granddaughter Ann First Vice President Rockefeller Roberts celebrated another aspect of Farrand's career, the landscaping of the renowned Diane K. McGuire carriage road system in Mr. Rockefeller's Roads: The Untold Story of Acadia's Carriage Roads and Their Second Vice President Creator (Down East Books, 1990). Few people, however, know about the importance of Farrand's relationship with George Bucknam Dorr (1853-1944), the founder and first superintendent of Acadia Howard Monroe National Park. Both embraced the gardening principles of Charles Sprague Sargent, founder of the Secretary Arnold Arboretum and Farrand's mentor as well as Dorr's step-cousin. The absence of surviving Lee Patterson correspondence between Farrand and Dorr leaves many questions unanswered. Treasurer Long before the establishment of Acadia National Park in 1919, the estate of Dorr's parents, Charles and Mary Dorr, impressed the young Beatrix Jones. Her journal of 1893-95 (now in the collections Directors: at the Environmental Design Archives, University Peggy Bowditch Richard Crawford of California, Berkeley) describes the distinctive Emily Fuchs qualities of Oldfarm, the Dorrs' ninety-acre property James Fuchs on Frenchman Bay located two miles south of Reef Robert Golden Point and built in 1880. Her journal entries imply Marti Harmon that she visited Oldfarm frequently over many Neil Houghton years. "The spiraeas at the entrance to the garden Arthur Keller Scott Koniecko are very effective and have grown well. I. callosa Isabel Mancinelli was very striking in spring and early summer with Diane K. McGuire its red young shoots," she wrote. The landscape was Howard Monroe initially planted with ornamental shrubs and plants Lee Patterson from the Dorr family's summer home in Canton, Bruce Riddell Massachusetts. In 1896 twenty acres of Oldfarm Lois Berg Stack Judith B. Tankard became Mount Desert Nurseries, providing plant George B. Dorr on Mount Desert, 1920s. stock to the Bar Harbor community. The nursery's Courtesy William Otis Sawtelle Collections and Advisors: wide array of hybridized plants earned medals from Research Center, Acadia National Park Eleanor Ames the Massachusetts Horticultural Society and the Society of American Florists. Dorr's nationally Judith Burger-Gossart renowned nursery would provide plants for many of Farrand's Maine commissions. Gilbert Butler George Dorr may have given Beatrix Farrand one of her first clients. At the urging of one Patrick Chassé Carolyn Hollenbeck of Philadelphia's most prominent physicians, Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, Dorr contracted with Beatrix Carole Plenty Jones to clear a wetland owned by Mrs. William H. Bliss (Anna Dorinda Blaksley Bliss) at the foot Beth Straus of Champlain Mountain. While the rationale for this recommendation is not documented, Dorr's confidence in Beatrix most likely grew from their shared experience with the island flora. In the early 1900s, Edith Wharton turned to her niece and to Dorr for expert advice on landscaping The Mount, her new home in the Berkshires. Ten letters from Wharton to Dorr trace his visits to the Lenox property and reveal her enthusiasm for his horticultural expertise. As a result of his suggestions about developing a wild garden at The Mount, Wharton named a path after him, the only named path on this historic property. In 1917, Beatrix wrote an article for Scribner's magazine on "The National Park on Mount Desert." In the article she writes of Dorr's "unswerving and far-sighted devotion to the ultimate usefulness of the island for the use of the people at large." Farrand acknowledges Dorr's "self-sacrificing enthusiasm" in promoting the wild garden concept, integrating into appropriate landscapes plants such as "great osmundas, trilliums, and other moisture-loving plants" that will attract a diversified bird population. While Farrand wrote a number of articles for widely known professional publications such as Garden and Forest, Dorr shared his thoughts about history, horticulture, and conservation in the National Geographic magazine as well as The Sieur de Monts Publications and his best-known work, Acadia National Park (1942). Dorr and Farrand advised Rockefeller on the extensive carriage road system in the park. They were keen on providing public access to the splendors of the park and neither asked for compensation for their services. After Dorr's death in 1944, Farrand must have been aware that his conservation plans for Oldfarm were not implemented by the National Park Service. This foreshadowed her own difficulties in finding support for her educational objectives at Reef Point. Despite these disappointments, in an earlier era Farrand and Dorr interpreted and modified the extraordinary landscapes of Mount Desert Island in a lasting way. Ronald H. Epp is the author of a biography of George Bucknam Dorr to be published by the Library of American Landscape History and the University of Massachusetts Press in 2011. Editor, Judith B Tankard editor@BeatrixFarrand.org copyright © 2009 Beatrix Farrand Society 207-288-0237 Beatrix Farrand Society P.O. Box 111, Mt. Desert, Maine 04660 info@BeatrixFarrand.org www.BeatrixFarrandSociety.org 2 Winter Reading saw most of the gardens on her 1895 trip abroad but also By Judith B. Tankard drew inspiration from them in her own design work. John Dixon Hunt provides an excellentintroduction to the new This year's roundup of winter reading includes a edition that explains, among other things, the controversy number of good books on history, design, and horticulture. surrounding the llustrations-Wharton wanted garden One of the most intriguing titles is Strange Blooms: The Curious plans, while the publisher insisted on dreamy pictures by Lives and Adventures of the John Tradescants by Jennifer Potter Maxfield Parrish (some things never change!). One small (Overlook Press, 2008). The Tradescants, both father and quibble is that the captions that appeared on the original son, were famous royal gardeners and plant explorers tissue overlays for the photographs were not reproduced, in seventeenth-century Britain. leaving the reader to refer to the list of illustrations in the Tradescantia virginiana (spiderwort), front matter. Liriodendron tulipifera (the tulip STRANGE One of Farrand's great tree), and Aquilegia Canadensis (red BLOOMS mentors was William Robinson, columbine) are among the plant The Curious Lives whom she first encountered on William Robinson Adventures her 1895 trip. Richard Bisgrove's The Wild Gardener introductions into Britain from JOHN Tradescant the younger's early new book, William Robinson: TRADESCANTS trips to Virginia. Readers already Jennifer Potter The Wild Gardener (Frances captivated by Philippa Gregory's Lincoln, 2008), concentrates on the importance of Robinson's RICHARD BISGROVE racy fictionalized accounts of the lives of the Tradescants in Earthly writings that include his two most Joys and Virgin Earth will find much more to savor in this famous books, The Wild Garden (1870) and The English Flower well-researched volume, with excerpts from original Garden (1883), and a host of horticultural journals that he sources, extensive notes, and an exhaustive bibliography. edited. Robinson, who was first and foremost a plant lover, An ideal companion to this book is Anna Pavord's The eased the transition from bedding-out with showy annuals Naming of Names: The Search for Order in the World of Plants to borders filled with hardy plants, all of which Bisgrove (Bloomsbury, 2005). Illustrated with plates from herbals discusses in detail. Farrand, who had copies of most of his and other early manuscripts, this book paints the broader books in her library, put Robinson's principles to good use picture of plant exploration and knowledge. Pavord, who is in her garden designs, most notably Dumbarton Oaks. known for her best-selling The Tulip, presents the fascinating A book of more local interest is Oh Garden of Fresh story of the evolution of plant classification from Islam to Possibilities! Notes from a Gloucester Garden written and the New World in an unusually attractive book. illustrated by Kim Smith (David R. Godine, 2009). This New editions of Edith Wharton's books are always pleasant book about the author's quarter-acre cottage welcome and the reissue of two early nonfiction classics will garden near the sea in Massachusetts is reminiscent of be a great interest to BFS members. Both are published Celia Thaxter's An Island Garden (1894) with its personal by Rizzoli in conjunction with The Mount Press and can narrative, quotations from other authors, and enchanting be ordered directly from The Mount by logging on to color drawings. The book is divided into two parts: creating www.EdithWharton.org (proceeds will the framework, in which she discusses her favorite trees benefit the restoration of Wharton's and shrubs, and candidates for the borders, such as peonies, Massachusetts estate). These volumes roses, daylilies, and much more. This is definitely not a are faithful facsimiles produced on practical handbook, but one of inspiration and intangibles. high-quality paper and a treasure for Master Gardener Carolyn Hollenbeck highly anyone without the original editions. recommends two must-haves for hands-on gardeners, The Decoration of Houses (1897), with the new edition of Barbara Damrosch's The Garden Primer coauthor Ogden Codman Jr., was (Workman Publishing, 2008) and the expanded edition Wharton's first book. It set forth their of Tracy DiSabato-Aust's The Well-Tended Perennial Garden ideas about the historical traditions (Timber Press, 2008). Damrosch's book, first published in 1988, has Tracy DiSabato-Aus of interior design as they applied to The since become a classic. It is filled Well-Tended the early twentieth century. A new introduction by the Perennial Garden renowned scholar Richard Guy Wilson provides insight with practical gardening advice that PLANTING & PRUNING TECHNIQUES into the era and the importance of the book. Italian Villas is entertaining and astute. A popular and Their Gardens (1904) is Wharton's lecturer, Damarosch operates Four seminal work on garden design in Season Farm in Harborside, Maine. which she reveals her passion and DiSabato-Aust's book is one of the expert knowledge of the history most useful and frequently consulted and character of the Italian garden. volumes by gardeners-more than Wharton's words, "the (Italian) 180,000 copies of the book have garden must be studied in relation to been sold! Enthusiastic readers join the house and both in relation to the the chorus in praising the book's down-to-earth approach landscape," were certainly taken to and practical information on maintenance and other issues heart by her young niece, who not only that even Master Gardeners can learn from. Verizon Yahoo! Mail eppster2@verizon.net Page 1 of 5 Verizon Yahoo! Mail Verizon Central Yahoo! Search: Web Search Welcome, eppster2@verizon Mail Home All-New Mail Tutorials Help YAHOO! verizon [Sign Out, Member Center MAIL Classic Mail Contacts Calendar Notepad Options Check Mail Compose Search Mail Search the Web Folders [Add Edit] Previous I Next I Back to Messages Inbox (9) Delete Reply Forward Spam Move Draft This message is not flagged. [ Flag Message - Mark as Unread ] Printable View Sent Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2008 18:04:02 -0400 Bulk [Empty] "judith" Add to Address Book Add Mobile Trash [Empty] From: Alert My Folders [Hide] Subject: Re: Fwd: Farrand archives DorrBio2008 (33) To: "ELIZABETH and RONALD EPP" Eliz messages (6) Dear Ron, Horseshoe Pond Re the BFSN, I think it would make a good piece for the Winter issue, so Member Information you don't have to worry about it just yet. It should be the feature article on the front page, so 500 to 750 words, plus a picture. No endnotes. I'll contact you Ron Archives (31) later with a deadline. Your email is most interesting. Re 1, I only mention in passing her work with the BHVIA. I've seen the panels at the Bar Harbor Historical Society. Re 3, I actually quote that delightful episode in my book, as it shows so much about Sargent, etc. Re 4, the list of projects was published in Mildred Bliss's 1960 memoir and is rather curious for its omissions. I've been working on a comprehensive client list, drawn from many sources, including UC Berkeley. I've included Black. Re 5, yes, I have a copy of that article. I hope you will include an extended discussion of all your points in your book on Dorr. Unfortunately I only mention him in passing. I'm covering her whole career and focusing on about 50 projects, all in 40,000+ words. Not an easy task. When is your book due? I'm sorry, but I've pretty much whited out The Mount conference. It was so badly organized and mis-managed and overly ambitious, although the theme, topics, and scholars involved were excellent. Were you a brief speaker or one of the long ones???? The young woman who organized it seemed never to glance at her watch and obviously failed to tell each speaker how long to speak. I finally left in exasperation!!! Do please share the quirky claim about BF's first commission. Best, Judith At 02:11 PM 8/28/2008, you wrote: Dear Judith, Thanks for the informative update. I'll anxiously await the copies and get back to you about their utility to my purposes. I appreciate the opportunity to write something for the newsletter on the Farrand & Dorr relationship, a very general thrust I presume. What length? Timeframe? http://us.f842.mail.yahoo.com/ym/ShowLetter?MsgId=4371_6448132_120541_2487_479... 8/28/2008 Verizon Yahoo! Mail - eppster2@verizon.net Page 2 of 5 I'm listing below several issues that may or may not interest you-- and may or may not be appropriate for the newsletter--that have accumulated as notes in my Farrand files. Let me know and I'll for Beatrix: forward them along to you with the brief Dorr essay on his "job" 1. Beatrix's efforts for as committee member--and Dorr successor-on the Bar Harbor Village Improvement Association. She also had a role in the Seal Harbor VIS design of the village green (unlisted on Farrand 1950 list--see #4 below) 2. A Summary of Beatrix Farrand's Road Notes (September 1930- 11 November 1934). 3. The role of Beatrix Jones in providing a letter of introduction to Elizabeth Hoyt and Gladys Brooks to pursue their studies in Professor Sargent's arboretum. ("Garden Adventure, "Boston and Return by Gladys Brooks. Atheneum, 1962. PP. 69-94. 4. Patrick provided me with a copy of Farrand's list of her own work (c. 1950). Nowhere on this list do I see mention of her work at the Black House (Woodlawn Museum) in Ellsworth. Evidence for her gardening endeavors are in the Hancock County Trustees of Public Reservations archive there and can be accessed by contacting Joshua Torrance at 207-667-8671. 5. Farrand's largely ignored article from the 1917 April issue of Scribner's Magazine on "The National Park on Mount Desert Island," offers her most direct assessment of Dorr's contribution to the development of wild gardens and a landscape undiminished by the park road and carriageways (speaking of carriageways, you are aware that Farrand never billed JDR Jr. for any carriage road consulting for she viewed it as her personal contribution to the carriage road system). I've looked at most of the Farrand- Rockefeller correspondence at the Rockefeller Archive Center and have a list of the dates and subjects of their correspondence). 6. Farrand was a director of The Dorr Foundation, an organization established by Dorr to administer his possessions if he became incapacitated. At The Mount I spoke on "Wild Gardens and Pathways at the Mount: George B. Dorr and the Mount Desert Influence" which will be published later this fall in the conference proceedings. I can forward you a copy of the galleys if you like. I'm sorry we did not connect at that time but my wife and I were preoccupied because our condo had been threatened with a "hundred year flood" in the days before the conference--and the waters had not entirely receded when we arrived late for the Lenox conference. Looking forward to hearing from you. Ron judith wrote: Dear Ron, 8/28/2008 Verizon Yahoo! Mail - eppster2@verizon.net Page 3 of 5 The photocopies are in the mail. If you have any trouble reading BF's script, let me know. I don't think there is anything else at UC Berekely archives related to Dorr, Oldfarm, or MD Nurseries, but I wasn't looking for that information on my visit. If you ever find yourself in Berkeley, it might be worth scheduling a visit. There are dozens of boxes of stuff in addition to the flat job files: photos, letters, reports, etc. Contact Miranda Hambro at designarchives@berkeley.edu to see what they have listed in their internal catalog. Thank you so much for your comments on the BFS and the newsletter. Would you consider contributing a short piece on connection between BF and GD for the newsletter? I'm sure our members would like to know more. Let me know! I'd love to know the quirky claim that Dorr gave BF her first job. Please elucidate. I'm in the final throes of my book, done on rather short notice for the Monacelli Press/Random House. I could have used another several years just poking around for information. I've spent most of my time debunking old myths, but BF is quite silent about personal matters. I actually attended the conference at The Mount, but I no longer have a copy of the program. What did you speak about??? I hope the book on the conference is coming out soon. All best, Judith At 09:30 AM 8/28/2008, you wrote: Dear Judith, Thank you for the phone call. As you can see I did receive your email message on my return from the Hudson River Valley. While in Hyde Park, My wife and I visited the Beatrix Farrand Garden at Bellefield which was charming in its simplicity and floral layout. As a member of the BFS I've much appreciated your writing on the newsletter. I would very much appreciate receiving a copy of the Beatrix Jones journal entry on Oldfarm which I first became aware of while re- reading Jane Brown's work prior to contacting Marti Harmon before she left for the West Coast. (See my address below) My research for the Dorr biography began in 2000 and as Patrick will http://us.f842.mail.yahoo.com/ym/ShowLetter?MsgId=4371_6448132_120541_2487_479... 8/28/2008 Verizon Yahoo! Mail - -eppster2@verizon.net Page 4 of 5 confirm has become an obsession which recently resulted in an offer from Robin Karson at the Library of American Landscape History to publish the completed biography which will be distributed by the University of Massachusetts Press; we met one another when we gave papers at a 2006 garden conference at The Mount. Right now I'm completing the first overly long draft of the Dorr biography. I have documentation on the Dorr family relationship with B. Jones &, Beatrix and Max Farrand which I will gladly share, including documentation relative to Mr. Rockefeller. There is even Dorr's quirky claim that he gave Beatrix her first professional assignment, which I suppose that Patrick has shared with you. Two areas where there is little reliable and verifiable data concerns the actual landscaping and garden design at Oldfarm and the development of Dorr's horticultural business, the Mount Desert Nurseries where Farrand purchased plant stock. Have you run across any documentation on these matters that you could share? Again, thank you for the phone call. I appreciate your interest and hope to meet you prior to the publication of your book on Farrand. I'll be on MDI the week of September 8th, any chance you'll be there? With Best Wishes, Ron judith wrote: >Date: Mon, 25 Aug 2008 10:19:12 -0400 >To: epster2@verizon.net >From: judith >Subject: Farrand archives > > Dear Ron, > Patrick Chasse gave me your email address and also Marti > Harmon told me about your book on George Dorr. I have a photocopy > of Beatrix's Garden Notebook http://us.f842.mail.yahoo.com/ym/ShowLetter?MsgId=4371_6448132_120541_2487_479.. 8/28/2008