THE HISTORY OF LANDSCAPE DESIGN IN 100 GARDENS by Linda A Chisholm
An excellent book on garden history, taking you on a fascinating visual journey from the ninth to the 21st century. Reviewer Annie Guilfoyle is a garden designer and writer. Author Linda Chisholm lectures at the New York Botanical Garden, her subject being the history of landscape design. Her lifelong interest in the human relationship with the landscape and how this has shaped our natural surroundings, led her to research and write this book. In her introduction, Chisholm is quick to point out that, ‘I make no claim that my choices are the world’s one hundred greatest gardens. Great gardens they are, but I selected them to illustrate important moments in the sometimes evolutionary, sometimes revolutionary history of garden and landscape design.’
Throughout the book the author illustrates how landscape design was clearly linked to people and historical events. It includes gardens from all over the world, and over 15 chapters we travel from the ninth century to the 21st century. Chisholm claims to have visited almost every garden included for her research. By chapter eight, we are into the 18th century and from this point we see the development of the history of American gardens and the stories of the influential people behind them.
Every garden is well represented in photographic form – most of the images taken by landscape and nature photographer Michael Garber. This makes it very accessible for those who might prefer to dip in and out of the book. The final chapter includes a list of Chisholm’s sources and further reading; useful to those wanting to study a particular garden further.
The book would be particularly interesting for those studying the subject of garden history and I would say specifically for anyone who wants to learn more about the history of American gardens.