The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society is working on uncovering the identities of 150 pioneering women gardeners in the 19th and 20th centuries, including several from Chester County, with the aim of filling out the official record in the Library of Congress, writes Zoe Greenberg for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
“People in their circle knew their names, people in their garden clubs,” said Janet Evans, the associate director of PHS’s McLean Library, who is heralding the effort. “But they were officially known as Mrs. John Jones. Even PHS did that up until 1980.”
Among the women are Marie Voight and Elizabeth Bootes Clark, who contributed significantly to Philadelphia’s horticultural legacy.
Voight, who was known as Mrs. Richard Haughton, gained acclaim for her rock garden in Paoli, described by Swiss horticulturalist and rock garden expert Henri Correvon in 1927 as a bounty of plants among the rocks all “naturally distributed in a marvelous scene which I shall never forget!”
Meanwhile, Clark, who never married, designed Devon’s West Acres garden, as well as many others. She earned a degree in landscape architecture and horticulture and designed gardens for other women throughout the Philadelphia area.
Read more about the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society finding out more about these pioneering women gardeners in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
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