Gardens for a beautiful America, 1895-1935

At the opening of the 20th century, Americans looked out their windows and saw a landscape that had radically changed since their countryside childhoods.

Since the close of the Civil War, the nation had become a land of industrial cities.

Smokestacks, blackened skies, billboards and honky-tonk signs lined busy roads, and railroads ripped through golden corn fields.

City streets and backyards were treeless and barren. Shocked into action, wealthy women rallied the Garden Club of America in 1913 to garden the 48 states back to moral and environmental health through design and preservation.

To spread the word, they commissioned photographs to show all gardeners, rich and poor, what a garden should be.

For this progressive challenge they turned to Frances Benjamin Johnston,celebrity photographer of country estates. 'Gardens for a Beautiful America 1895 - 1935', written by Sam Watters, presents for the first time 250 colored photographs of urban and suburban gardens taken by Frances Benjamin Johnston and preserved by the Library of Congress for over 70 years. Prepared as glass slides for Johnston's illustrated lectures, these photographs still resonate with her crusading message: garden the nation back to America the beautiful - one elm, one rose, one fountain and shady terrace at a time.