Photo courtesy of Cherokee Garden Library
Supporters gather at a Cherokee Garden Library event hosted at the Piedmont Driving Club in Atlanta, GA, featuring Sir Peter Crane, president of Oak Spring Garden Foundation, who discussed "The Garden and the Library" and "The Botanical Legacy of Bunny Mellon."
Photo courtesy of the Kenan Research Center of the Atlanta History Center
The garden space leading to the entrance of the Atlanta History Center features perennial beds, pollinator plants, and native plants, as well as a 60 -foot tree table.
Photo courtesy of the Cherokee Garden Library
One of the founders of the Cherokee Garden Library, Anne Coppedge Carr, works on archiving materials for the library.
Photo courtesy of the Cherokee Garden Library
The Atlanta Journal and Constitution article shows three Cherokee Garden Club members and early planners—Edith “Edie” Redway Wright (Mrs. Charles K. Wright), Margaret Evins Shirley (Mrs. Edward H. Shirley), and Alice Hurt Carr (Mrs. James C. Carr)—reviewing and cataloging books for the soon to be established Cherokee Garden Library.
That same vision was established on a porch in 1975. After a trip to Cheekwood in Nashville, Anne Carr and Louise Allen felt moved by the living history on display. Their love of history combined with their passion for gardens and all things botanical inspired them to start a garden library (one of 60 in the United States), but not without the help of a few other women. Anne Carr invited her fellow Cherokee Garden Club members to join her on the porch one afternoon for tea. There, she rallied the members, and together they founded the Cherokee Garden Library. The name not only recognizes the garden club from which it sprang, but it also pays tribute to the Georgia state flower, the Cherokee rose. Thanks to the foresight and imagination of these women, many horticultural artifacts, books, and visuals are preserved today.
Photo courtesy of the Cherokee Garden Library
The Cherokee Garden Library's postcard collection features an image of the Massey estate from approximately the 1910s-1920s. The estate, owned by Richard W. Massey in Birmingham, AL, boasted elaborate Italian-inspired gardens with fountains and imported statuary.
Photo courtesy of the Cherokee Garden Library
Elberta Peach from THE PEACHES OF NEW YORK by U.P. Hedrick, assisted by G. H. Howe, O. M. Taylor, and C. B. Tubergen for the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, and New York (State) Department of Agriculture. J.B. Lyon Co., printers, 1917.
Photo courtesy of the Cherokee Garden Library
Plate 1952, Magnolia grandiflora v. lanceolata, from CURTIS'S BOTANICAL MAGAZINE and the FLOWER-GARDEN DISPLAYED, where the most ornamental foreign plants, cultivated in the open ground, the greenhouse, and the stove, are accurately represented in their natural colors (London, 1827).
Photo courtesy of the Cherokee Garden Library.
Plate 13, a bouquet of camellias, from Jane Loudon’s THE LADIES' FLOWER-GARDEN OF ORNAMENTAL GREENHOUSE PLANTS (London 1848).
Photo courtesy of the Cherokee Garden Library
Basilius Besler, a botanist from Nuremberg, Germany, born in 1561, created a series of detailed sunflower drawings. Featured here is Plate 205.
Photo courtesy of the Cherokee Garden Library
The Cherokee Garden Library took several years to curate their GARDENS AND CULTURAL LANDSCAPES OF BLACK AMERICA collection. Featured here: Elizabeth Ann, sitting with her dog on porch steps, with a plant stand holding containers on porch, June 1953.
—Cherokee Garden Library Director Staci Catron
Photo courtesy of the Cherokee Garden Library
Director Staci Catron remarks that getting to be so close to Helen Hawkins Clarke's drafting tools gives her chills because the pieces were so personal and integral to Helen's work.
One of the goals of the garden library is for everyone to partake in this experience of connecting with the past. Staci explains, “We try to make sure our collections represent all people of the Southeast, no matter who you are—that’s a big part of our mission. We are very driven to make sure the collection is holistic. As the director, I would never want somebody to walk into the collection and not see themselves represented.” She adds that this includes “acknowledging enslavement in the South and all the complexities around that. We want to speak the truth and let people have the resources they need to dive deeper.” One project that honors this history is a collection of over 850 digitized photos that pertain to gardens and landscapes of Black America, from public parks in black communities to modest homesteads, all through the lens of black photographers. It serves as a very tangible look into a history that’s often ignored or thrown away altogether.
Photo courtesy of the Goizueta Gardens of the Atlanta History Center.
The Kenan Research Center helps serve thousands of researchers every year, some of whom have been depending on the Center for 25 years.
Photo courtesy the Cherokee Garden Library
The Cherokee Garden Club rallied together to create the Cherokee Garden Library. This is the original invitation to the library's opening in 1975.
Photo courtesy of the Cherokee Garden Library
With humble beginnings on a porch, the ladies of the Cherokee Garden Club were able to raise enough funds to open the Cherokee Garden Library and set it up for success for years to come.
Photo courtesy of the Goizueta Gardens of the Atlanta History Center
Architect Phillip Trammel Shutze created a masterpiece of classicism in Swan House and Gardens. In 1966, the site was acquired by the Atlanta Historical Society (now the Atlanta History Center) and opened as a house museum and site the following year. The Swan House Gardens are now part of the Atlanta History Center’s remarkable 33-acre Goizueta Gardens.
Unlike many collections, the Cherokee Garden Library is open to the public, free of charge—you only need to call ahead to book an appointment. This is an important way that the library serves the community. As the archives grow to represent as many people as possible, the library wants to invite the younger generation into the fold as a way of sharing the wealth of knowledge and passing the torch. Staci notes that she’s seen more interest from younger people in the last 10 years. “They’re very interested in gardening, landscaping, and taking care of houseplants,” she says. “They want something tactile in a world of information overload.” In fact, she says they often come in and remark, “It’s so relaxing here. I’m getting the chance to just think.” Staci believes the space is “almost like a sacred place.” The younger generation also tends to be more interested in the library’s environmental works. They gravitate to the many books that cover environmentalism in a more complex way, including land use, water rights, and the intersection of food deserts and race. Staci’s hope is that young people will continue to learn about this history and will one day contribute to the expansion of its collection. In addition, Staci hopes in the next 50 years that the Cherokee Garden Library continues to grow its audience. She says, “Sometimes I feel like we’re a little bit of a best kept secret, but I want the world to know!”
50th Anniversary Celebration
MORE HISTORICAL BOTANICALS
- Empress Jósephine’s Gardens at Château de Malmaison
- The Gardens of Versailles
- The Gardens of Rowallane
