Groundbreakers : great American gardens and the women who designed them (2014): Home

May 17 - September 7, 2014

Frances Benjamin Johnston with Camera in Garden, Biltmore, Asheville, NC

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

The LuEsther T. Mertz Library’s Rondina and LoFaro Gallery featured an exhibition of vintage photographs and equipment highlighting the landmark work of pioneering female photographers Jessie Tarbox Beals (1870–1942), Mattie Edwards Hewitt (1869–1956), and Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864–1952).  In addition to historic garden photography by Beals, Hewitt, and Johnston, photo-illustrated books, vintage glass slides, and a digital slide show of hand-colored glass slides were be on view.

Sam Watters, curator of Gardens for a Beautiful America, is an architectural and landscape historian and author of Gardens for a Beautiful America: 1895–1935. He published several books on American houses and gardens and was a columnist for the Los Angeles Times "Home" section from 2008–12.