READING AND WRITING
THE LANDSCAPE
Bob Grese, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
Director, Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum
Professor, School of Natural Resources and Environment
Initial research into design work of
Jens Jensen and O.C. Simonds
Jensen and Simonds were only two American designers and/or
naturalists who wrote passionately about the native landscape
Others included:
 Alfred
Caldwell
 Charles Eliot
 Wilhelm Miller
 Elsa Rehmann and Edith
Roberts
 Charles Sprague
Sargent
 May Thielgaard Watts
 Frank Waugh and
others
Desire to collect obscure articles into
new book: The Native Landscape Reader
Themes:
 Appreciation of nature
 Our American flora
 The native landscape as a source
of inspiration
 Natural parks and gardens
 Restoration and management of
the native landscape
Thomas Cole (1801-1848)
• Born in England
• Founder of the Hudson River School of
landscape painters
• Considered champion of American
wilderness
Charles Sprague Sargent (1841-1927) and
William Augustus Stiles (1837-1897)
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Influential dendrologist from Boston, studied
at Harvard and graduated 1862
Founded Garden and Forest in 1888-1897.
During it’s run, included key articles in
botany, forestry, landscape design and
conservation
Sargent became first director of Harvard’s
Arnold Arboretum IN 1872
Stiles was forceful editorial writer for New
York Tribune
Ossian Cole Simonds (1855-1931)
• Born in Grand Rapids, MI
• Studied architecture and civil engineering
under William LaBaron Jenney at the
University of MI
• Influential Midwest landscape architect,
working at Graceland Cemetery and then
establishing practice of cemetery, estate,
park and campus design based in Chicago
• Founded landscape design program at
University of MI in 1909
H.W. S. Cleveland (1814-1900)
• Born in Lancaster, MA
• Formed landscape design/planning
practice with Robert Morris Copeland in
1854 and with W. M. R. French in Chicago
in 1869 and laid out village of Highland
Park, IL. In 1886 moved to Minneapolis
where he is credited with shaping their
park system
• Was one of early designers to shape
Graceland Cemetery in Chicago
• His book Landscape Architecture as Applied
to the Wants of the West is landmark of
early landscape architecture literature
Liberty Hyde Bailey (1858-1954)
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Born in Grand Haven, MI
Studied botany under William J. Beal at
Michigan Agricultural College and Asa Gray
at Harvard
Spent most of his career at Cornell where he
was a popular professor and founded the
Cornell Plantations
Prolific writer about botany, horticulture,
agricultural extension, nature study, and
environ mental ethics
Andrew Jackson Downing (1814-1852)
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One of earliest and most
influential American
horticulturists through Treatise
on the Theory and Practice of
Landscape Gardening
Adapted to North America
(1841) and his many
editorials in the Horticulturist
Jens Jensen (1860-1951)
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Danish-American landscape architect based in Chicago
Known for his naturalistic design in parks and private estates
throughout the Midwest
Founded two conservation organizations—the Prairie Club and the
Friends of Our Native Landscape
Established his version of “Danish folk school,” The Clearing, in
Ellison Bay, WI
Wilhelm Miller (1869-1938)
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Born in VA but raised in Detroit, MI
Graduated from University of MI in 1892
and Cornell in 1899
Prolific writer on landscape gardening
and related topics, working with Liberty
Hyde Bailey in Cyclopedia of American
Horticulture
In 1914 became head of University of IL’s
landscape extension (1st of its kind in US)
1915 The Prairie Spirit of Landscape
Gardening defined “prairie style”
Frank A. Waugh (1869-1943)
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Born in Sheboygan Falls, WI
Studied horticulture and botany
at Kansas State Agricultural
College
Established Department of
Landscape Gardening at
University of MA-Amherst
Prolific photographer, writer,
artist, musician and teacher
Harold A. Caparn (1864-1945)
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Landscape architect, studies at Ecole des BeauxArts in Paris and at Columbia University in NYC
Born in Great Britain
From 1902 had his own practice in NYC that
included parks, school and college grounds, private
estates and work for the Brooklyn Botanical Garden
Ossian Cole Simonds (1855-1931)
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Born in Grand Rapids, MI
Studied architecture and civil engineering under
William LaBaron Jenney at the University of MI
Influential Midwest landscape architect, working at
Graceland Cemetery and then establishing
practice of cemetery, estate, park and campus
design based in Chicago
Founded landscape design program at University
of MI in 1909
Elsa Rehmann
• Writer and landscape architect
• Lecturer in landscape gardening at
Vassar College from 1923-27
• Co-wrote series on “plant ecology”
in House Beautiful magazine in
1927-28 with Edith Roberts. Later
turned articles into book American
Plants for American Gardens (1929)
Warren H. Manning (1860-1938)
• Born in Reading, MA
• Worked with Frederick Law
Olmsted & Co. as horticultural and
design assistant
• Established one of largest
practiced in landscape
architecture in US and was
actively involved in city planning
and the design of private
residences, parks and institutional
grounds
Jens Jensen (1860-1951)
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Danish-American landscape architect based in
Chicago
Known for his naturalistic design in parks and
private estates throughout the Midwest
Founded two conservation organizations—the
Prairie Club and the Friends of Our Native
Landscape
Established his version of “Danish folk school,”
The Clearing, in Ellison Bay, WI
May Thielgaard Watts (1893-1975)
• Daughter of Danish immigrants to Chicago
• Studied with Henry Chandler Cowles at the
University of Chicago
• Joined the staff at the Morton Arboretum in
1940 as ecologist and naturalist where she
worked for over 20 years
• Wrote regular column, “Nature Afoot,” for
the Chicago Tribune, and wrote Reading the
Landscape of America
• Worked to establish now 61-mile “Prairie
Path” in the Chicago suburbs 1961,
recognized as the first “rail-to-trail”
conversion of its kind.
Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr. (1822-1903)
 Born in Hartford, CT
 Designed Central and Prospect
Parks with Calvert Vaux in NYC
 Style of naturalistic design helped
to establish broad tradition of
park designs in US
 Considered to be “father” of
Americacn landscape architecture
Charles Eliot (1859-1897)
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Born in Cambridge, MA in 1859
Studied with Frederick Law Omsted and joined
firm of Olmsted, Olmsted and Eliot
Was one of founders of the Metropolitan Park
System (Metropolitan Reservations) in Boston area
Henry Chandler Cowles (1869-1939)
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Cowles earned PhD and became an
extemely popular professor at University of
Chicago
Dissertation—”The Ecological Relations of the
Vegetation on the Sane Dunes of Lake
Michigan” (1898) became classic in the
emerging science of ecology
Active in the Prairie Club and Friends of Our
Native Landscape (with Jensen)
Was a founder of the Ecological Society of
America in 1914
Aldo Leopold (1887-1948)
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Born in Iowa and studied forestry
at Yale
Worked for the US Forest Service
where he championed soil
conservation, game and wildlife
management and wilderness
preservation
His book Sand County Almanac is a
classic of American conservation
writing and has influenced countless
environmentalists, particularly with
his promotion of environmental
ethics
Concluding remarks
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Native landscape is something to celebrate—”one
of the means of restoring proper balance and
perspective to our lives” (Bailey)
Connecting children with nature is critical
Conservation and restoration of nature is
increasingly important—has always been
challenging
Continuum from what we do in our backyards to
regional conservation