19C Women & Gardens & Parasols - American Frederick Carl Frieseke 1874-1939

Frederick Frieseke (American artist, 1874-1939)  Woman with Garden Parasol at The Hour of Tea

Frederick Carl Frieseke (1874–1939) was an American Impressionist decorative painter. He was born in Owosso, Michigan & studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago & the Académie Julian in Paris. Frieseke & his family resided for 14 years in Giverny, home to Monet. Frieseke was attracted to women, gardens, parasols, & bright sunlight.

Frederick Frieseke (American artist, 1874-1939) Woman with a Parasol in the Garden, Giverney

Frederick Frieseke (American artist, 1874-1939)  Woman with Garden Parasol in The Flower Garden 

Frederick Frieseke (American artist, 1874-1939) The Garden Umbrella & Tea

Frederick Frieseke (American artist, 1874-1939) Lady with the Sunshade in a Garden 

Frederick Frieseke (American artist, 1874-1939) Woman Seated in a Garden under a Parasol

Frederick Frieseke (American artist, 1874-1939) Woman with Garden Parasol 

Frederick Frieseke (American artist, 1874-1939) Woman with Garden Parasol in June

Frederick Frieseke (American artist, 1874-1939)  Lady with a Garden Parasol 

Frederick Frieseke (American artist, 1874-1939)  Woman with Garden Parasol & Hollyhocks

Frederick Frieseke (American artist, 1874-1939) Women under The Garden Umbrella

Frederick Frieseke (American artist, 1874-1939)  The Japanese Garden Parasol 

Frederick Frieseke (American artist, 1874-1939)  Foxgloves & Woman with Garden Parasol 

Frederick Frieseke (American artist, 1874-1939) Woman with Garden Parasol 

Frederick Frieseke (American artist, 1874-1939) Woman with Garden Parasol in Sun and Wind 

Frederick Frieseke (American artist, 1874-1939) Woman with Parasol in The Garden
Frederick Frieseke (1874-1939) Woman with a Garden Parasol, c. 1906
Frederick Frieseke (1874-1939) The Pink Garden Parasol 1913

Frederick Frieseke (1874-1939) Woman with a Parasol Promenades in the Garden
Frederick Frieseke (1874-1939) Woman with Parasol on The Garden Path 
Frederick Frieseke (1874-1939) Woman with a Garden Parasol & White Lilies

Tho Jefferson (1743-1824) Writes about Gardening

Thomas Jefferson by Tadeusz Andrzej Bonawentura Kosciuszko (1746 - 1817) 

1811 August 20.  (Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale). "I have often thought that if heaven had given me choice of my position & calling, it should have been on a rich spot of earth, well watered, and near a good market for the productions of the garden.  "no occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, & no culture comparable to that of the garden. such a variety of subjects, some one always coming to perfection, the failure of one thing repaired by the success of another, & instead of one harvest a continued one thro’ the year. under a total want of demand except for our family table I am still devoted to the garden. but tho’ an old man, I am but a young gardener."

Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827) was an American painter, soldier, scientist, inventor, politician & naturalist. He is best remembered for his portrait paintings of leading figures of the American Revolution, & for establishing one of the first museums in the United States.

Research & images & much more are directly available from the Monticello.org website. 

19C American Gardens by Artist Walter I. Cox 1868–1930

Walter I. Cox (English-born American artist, 1868–1930) Hodges Garden, East Hampton, Long Island, New York

Walter Ignatuis Cox was born in Broxwood Court, Hereford, England. By the age of 13, he was studying at St Gregory's College in Somerset, England. After studying in Paris with Laurens, Lefebvre, & Benjamin-Constant, he returned to England to marry in 1897.  Cox & his wife Lavenia Carson Millett sailed to the United States in 1902, where they were naturalized in Pennsylvania.  They traveled to Victoria, British Columbia and then sailed to San Francisco in 1905. Although he lost many paintings in the 1906 earthquake, they remained active in San Francisco, until at least 1914. By 1920, Cox & his wife were living in Manhattan, frequently making sketching trips to the continent, England, & Scotland. Although he was known as a portrait painter of notables like Presidents Warren Harding & William Taft, I am particularly interested in his garden paintings, which are often images of typically American gardens.  Cox died in Alexandria, Virginia in 1930.

Walter I. Cox (English-born American artist, 1868–1930) Lady under a Tree

Walter I. Cox (English-born American artist, 1868–1930) The Front Porch

Walter I. Cox (American artist, 1868–1930) In the Shade

Walter I. Cox (English-born American artist, 1868–1930) Wine for Two

Walter I. Cox (English-born American artist, 1868–1930) The Back Porch

Walter I. Cox (English-born American artist, 1868–1930) Outdoor Dining

Walter I. Cox (English-born American artist, 1868–1930) Porch Overlooking a Garden

Gardens Decline in Importance as Economy turns from Agricultural to Industrial

The Coming Machine Age & the Declining Importance of the Pleasure Garden

George Washington (1732-1799), who had gone from fumbling young military officer to plantation owner to leader of the Revolutionary army to president of a proud new nation, actually devoted much time & effort to organizing his garden. Despite all of his amazing life experiences, or perhaps because of them, Washington wrote that gardening was among “the most rational avocations of life.”

He believed, as did former Baltimore judge John Beale Bordley (1727-1804), who retired from the political & adversarial life of an attorney to become a gentleman farmer, that gardening contributed to the spiritual health of America's citizens. In 1770, his wife Margaret Chew inherited half of Wye Island, in Queen Anne's County, on the Chesapeake Bay. The Bordleys maintained a winter residence in Annapolis, but they moved to this beautiful estate on Wye Island.

Ever feisty John Adams (1735-1826) wrote to his beloved wife Abigail from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 3, 1776. "I long for rural and domestic scenes, for the warbling of Birds and the Prattle of my Children. Don't you think I am somewhat poetical this morning, for one of my Years, and considering the Gravity, and Insipidity of my Employment? - As much as I converse with Sages and Heroes, they have very little of my Love or Admiration. I should prefer the Delights of a Garden to the Dominion of a World."

George Washington stated in his 8th Annual Message to Congress in 1796, "It will not be doubted, that with reference either to individual, or National Welfare, Agriculture is of primary importance. In proportion as Nations advance in population, and other circumstances of maturity, this truth becomes more apparent; and renders the cultivation of the Soil more and more, an object of public patronage."

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) wrote of the importance of working on the land to artist Charles Willson Peale from his secluded retirement retreat Poplar Forest on August 20, 1811, "I have often thought that if heaven had given me choice of my position and calling, it should have been on a rich spot of earth, well watered, and near a good market for the productions of the garden. No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden. Such a variety of subjects, some one always coming to perfection, the failure of one thing repaired by the success of another, and instead of one harvest, a continued one thro' the year. Under a total want of demand except for our family table. I am still devoted to the garden. But tho' an old man, I am but a young gardener."

But Jefferson saw the age of the spiritual expericence of gardening ending, as he wrote of the British during the War of 1812, “Our enemy has indeed the consolation of Satan on removing our first parents from Paradise: from peaceable & agricultural nation, he makes us a military & manufacturing one.”

The garden did wither as a symbol of power & moral force; as the agricultural gave way to the industrial, & factories flowered on the American landscape. As the gentility of pleasure gardening became available to greater numbers of the middling sort in the emerging republic, it declined in importance to the ruling class. The symbol of might & right shifted from the garden to the machine.

Annapolis gardener William Faris (1729-1804) was a clockmaker at the end of the America’s agricultural age, when people’s perception of time still relied on nature’s manifestations, the rising & the setting of the sun & the changing of the seasons. Industrialization would dramatically change the significance of time & the clock. The clock would soon become the mechanical indication of units by which work, & therefore pay & worth, were measured.

In the earlier agricultural economy of 18th-century America, a man’s worth was measured by his harvest. When he had succeeded in having some leisure time & extra money from his crop production, he devised a pleasure garden in order to control, in an abstract & artful form, at least a small part of unpredictable nature, which otherwise controlled him.  He knew that the setting sun halted his day’s work. An unexpected storm or drought could destroy his daily plans or his yearly harvest.

Irish-born Philadelphia author & seed dealer Bernard M’Mahon (1775-1816) & English-born Annapolis clockmaker & silversmith William Faris were wedged between the old world & the new world, and between the ancient agricultural order & the coming technical age. The looming 19th century industrial era would see cities burgeon & replace the wilderness as the frightening place in the minds of the American people.

Citizens working in the urban machine economies would retreat to bucolic woodlands for the serene security of nature, much as farming citizens of the earlier colonial era clamored for the safety of towns with ordered streets & tidy, fenced gardens, when threatened by the terrifying unknown lurking in the uncivilized nature of the frontier.

Gardening would become just of many diversions in an industrial & technological world, where individuals’ livelihoods were no longer dependent on manipulation of the land & the rising and the setting of the sun.

M’Mahon & his fellow seed dealers & nurserymen contributed to this trend in 19th-century America, as they promoted gardening to all classes & both sexes in the new nation. M’Mahon hoped his book might “make any person…his own Gardener.” 

Working in the soil helped a person understand the cycle of life & death. Many plantation owners, farmers, & gardeners chose to bury their loved ones in their near-by gardens & went there to remember departed relatives & friends.

Whether they gardened or not, early Americans easily understood that gardens, economies, & men are ultimately under nature’s control. Perhaps they found some comfort in the knowledge that nature, not man, renews life year after year. In an agrarian society, people understood the symbolic & symbiotic relationships of people, plants, soil, weather, & the seasons.

Eighteenth century American gardeners understood that there is an order to nature but not always a kindness. People whose lives depended on the success of crops understood that nature controls floods, hailstorms, droughts, tornadoes, & death.

Tho Jefferson (1743-1824) Writes about Gardening

 

Thomas Jefferson by Tadeusz Andrzej Bonawentura Kosciuszko (1746 - 1817) 

1810 March 17.  (Jefferson to William Johnson).  "all of these articles [Benni seed, Egyptian grass, and acacia seed] are highly acceptable. they bring nourishment to my hobby horse: for my occupations at present are neither in reading nor writing. the culture of the earth in the garden, orchard & farms engage my whole attention."

William Johnson Jr. (1771-1834) was an American attorney, state legislator, & judge from South Carolina. He served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1804 to 1834 after previously serving in the South Carolina House of Representatives. Johnson was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Thomas Jefferson. 

Research & images & much more are directly available from the Monticello.org website. 

Tho Jefferson (1743-1824) Writes about Gardening

 

Thomas Jefferson by Tadeusz Andrzej Bonawentura Kosciuszko (1746 - 1817) 

1809 September 22.  (Jefferson to Benjamin Rush).  "I am endeavoring to recover the little I once knew of farming, gardening Etc. and would gladly now exchange any branch of science I possess for the knolege of a common farmer. too old to learn, I must be contented with the occupation & amusement of the art. already it keeps me so much without doors that I have little time to read, & still less to write."

Benjamin Rush (1745-1813) was a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence & a civic leader in Philadelphia, where he was a physician, politician, social reformer, humanitarian, & educator & the founder of Dickinson College. Rush attended the Continental Congress. He served as Surgeon General of the Continental Army & became a professor of chemistry, medical theory, & clinical practice at the University of Pennsylvania. Rush was a leader of the American Enlightenment & an enthusiastic supporter of the American Revolution. He was a leader in Pennsylvania's ratification of the Constitution in 1788. He opposed slavery, advocated free public schools, & sought improved education for women & a more enlightened penal system. As a leading physician, Rush had a major impact on the emerging medical profession. As an Enlightenment intellectual, he was committed to organizing all medical knowledge around explanatory theories, rather than rely on empirical methods.

Research & images & much more are directly available from the Monticello.org website. 

Tho Jefferson (1743-1824) Writes about Gardening

 

Thomas Jefferson by Tadeusz Andrzej Bonawentura Kosciuszko (1746 - 1817) 

1809 April 27.  (Jefferson to John Barnes).  "the total change of occupation from the house & writing table to constant emploiment in the garden & farm has added wonderfully to my happiness."

John Barnes (1730-1826) was a native of Norwich, England, where he was born in 1730. At the age of thirty, in about 1760, at the height of the French & Indian War, he came to America, settling first in New York. His occupation in New York is uncertain, but he may have been a merchant. By the time of the Revolution, he was sympathetic to the American cause. When the U.S. government convened in Philadelphia, Barnes moved there from New York. He became friends with Secretary of State Jefferson. According to the newspapers of the day, Barnes was among those who accompanied the heads of the departments when the federal government moved from Philadelphia to Washington. He took up residence in Georgetown. He “lived in princely style among the gentry of that period. Statesmen, dignified & influential, gathered around his board & ‘forgot the thorns of public controversy under the roses of private cheerfulness.’’ At some point beginning around 1800 when both he & Jefferson were in Washington Barnes began to act as a sort of commission merchant/purchasing agent/investment adviser for the President. 

Research & images & much more are directly available from the Monticello.org website. 

Tho Jefferson (1743-1824) Writes about Gardening

Thomas Jefferson by Tadeusz Andrzej Bonawentura Kosciuszko (1746 - 1817) 

1809 April 25.  (Jefferson to Etienne Lemaire).  "I am constantly in my garden or farm, as exclusively employed out of doors as I was within doors when at Washington, and I find myself infinitely happier in my new mode of life."

Étienne Lemaire (d. 1817) was Thomas Jefferson's second mâitre d'hôtel, or "steward," in the President's House. He was hired to replace Joseph Rapin late in the summer of 1801. Describing the ideal mâitre d'hôtel, Jefferson noted that "honesty & skill in making the dessert are indispen[sable] qualifications. that he should be good humored & of a discreet, steady disposition is also important." Lemaire was brought to Jefferson's attention by friends in Philadelphia, where Lemaire worked in the household of William Bingham. Transferring to Jefferson's employ, he would assume management of the domestic staff at the President's House, supervise the dinner service & dessert, handle household accounts, & conduct most of the marketing for groceries & other provisions.

Some of Lemaire's recipes have been preserved, along with his memorandum on the proper wine to serve with certain main dishes. A Monticello cookbook compiled by Jefferson's granddaughter Virginia Jefferson Randolph Trist credits Lemaire with recipes for Beef à la Mode, Bouilli, Breast of Mutton, & Pancakes. Jefferson had sent Lemaire's "reciepts" to his family at Monticello in 1803, noting that "the orthography will be puzzling & amusing; but the reciepts are valuable."

The Monticello overseer Edmund Bacon described Lemaire as "a very smart man, was well educated, & as much of a gentleman in his appearance as any man." Jefferson's granddaughter recalled him as "a portly well-mannered frenchman ... of whose honesty his master had a higher opinion than the world at large, & who I fancy made a small fortune in his employ. But he was a civil & a useful man & merited reward."

After he retired to Monticello in 1809, Jefferson wrote Lemaire a letter of appreciation, expressing "the sense of my attachment to you & satisfaction with your services. they were faithful, & skilful, & your whole conduct so marked with good humour, industry, sobriety & economy as never to have given me one moment’s dissatisfaction." In 1817, Jefferson heard from his former chef at the President's House that Lemaire drowned himself in the Schuylkill Rive. Jefferson responded to this news: "I sincerely lament the unfortunate fate of poor Le Maire."

Research & images & much more are directly available from the Monticello.org website. 

Tho Jefferson (1743-1824) Writes about Gardening

 

Thomas Jefferson by Tadeusz Andrzej Bonawentura Kosciuszko (1746 - 1817) 

1809 April 19.  (Jefferson to James Madison).  "Dinsmore & Neilson set out yesterday for Montpelier. if mrs Madison has any thing there which interests her in the gardening way, she cannot confide it better than to Nielson. he is a gardener by nature, & extremely attached to it."

James Madison (1751-1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, expansionist, philosopher, & Founding Father who served as the 4th president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. He is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for his pivotal role in drafting & promoting the Constitution of the United States & the United States Bill of Rights. He co-wrote The Federalist Papers, co-founded the Democratic-Republican Party, & served as the 5thUnited States Secretary of State from 1801 to 1809.

Research & images & much more are directly available from the Monticello.org website. 

Tho Jefferson (1743-1824) Writes about Gardening

 

Thomas Jefferson by Tadeusz Andrzej Bonawentura Kosciuszko (1746 - 1817) 

1800 January 27.  (Jefferson to Joseph Priestley).  "to all this I add that to read the Latin & Greek authors in their original is a sublime luxury; and I deem luxury in science to be at least as justifiable as in architecture, painting, gardening or the other arts."

Joseph Priestley ( 1733 –1804) was an English chemist, natural philosopher, separatist theologian, grammarian, multi-subject educator, & liberal political theorist who published over 150 works. The controversial nature of Priestley's publications, combined with his outspoken support of the French Revolution, aroused public & governmental suspicion; he was eventually forced to flee in 1791, first to London & then to the United States, after a mob burned down his Birmingham home & church. He spent his last ten years in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania.

Research & images & much more are directly available from the Monticello.org website. 

Tho Jefferson (1743-1824) Writes about Gardening

 

Thomas Jefferson by Tadeusz Andrzej Bonawentura Kosciuszko (1746 - 1817) 

1791 February 9.  (Jefferson to Martha Jefferson Randolph).  "I hope you are getting well, towards which great care of yourself is necessary: for however adviseable it is for those in health to expose themselves freely, it is not so for the sick. You will be out in time to begin your garden, and that will tempt you to be out a great deal, than which nothing will tend more to give you health and strength."

Martha "Patsy" Jefferson Randolph (1772-1836) was the eldest daughter of Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States, & his wife, Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson. She was born at Monticello, near Charlottesville, Virginia. Her mother died when she was 10 years old, when only two out of her five siblings were alive. By 1804, she was the lone surviving sibling. Martha was very close to her father in his old age. She was the only one of his children, with his wife Martha, to survive past the age of 25. Patsy had a close relationship with her father, who saw that she had a good education. She spoke four languages & was greatly influenced by the education she received, in a Paris convent school, with daughters of the French elite.

Research & images & much more are directly available from the Monticello.org website. 

Tho Jefferson's (1743-1824) Letters mentioning Gardening

 

Thomas Jefferson by Tadeusz Andrzej Bonawentura Kosciuszko (1746 - 1817) 

1786 May 4.  (Jefferson to John Page).  "The gardening in that country [England] is the article in which it surpasses all the earth. I mean their pleasure gardening. This indeed went far beyond my ideas."

John Page (1743–1808) of Rosewell in Gloucester County was a noted amateur astronomer & served in the Virginia legislature & as governor of the state.

1890 Advice on teaching Boys to Garden

The Christian Recorder, August 21, 1890, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Boys and Gardens

"By all means, let the boy have a garden, If it be only a bunch of sunflowers in a six-feet square city back yard, let him have something of his own to plant and watch the growing of.

"But if you live in the country, you can let him have a considerable plot of ground, where he can raise flowers, and also edible vegetables. Nothing will ever taste so good to him as his own lettuce and beets and radishes.

"Don’t imagine for a moment, however, that your boy, unless he be a genius, will know how to take care of these plants of his. No matter how much he loves them, he will require a good many weary hours of careful teaching and training before he is able to do efficiently even his small duty by his garden patch.

"The trouble is that boys love so many things. If they loved their garden only, or their lessons only, or ball-playing only, or stamp-collecting only; but it is with them as it is with the perplexed lover – “how happy could they be with either were t’other dear charmer away!” It is a good deal more trouble to see that the boy keeps his garden well than it would be to keep it yourself; but it is a good deal of trouble to bring up a boy right anyhow, and that is something that a mother might as well understand at the outset. Those who try to do it by easy means generally rue it with anguish of soul in the end.

“I never knew a boy who was fond of a garden,” said a wise man who had brought up many boys , “to go far astray. There seems to be something about working in the soil and loving its products that does the boys good morally as well as physically.”

And honest Jan Ridd says, “The more a man can fling his arms around Nature’s neck, the more he can lie upon her bosom like an infant, the more that man shall earn the trust of his fellow-men.” Again he says, “There is nothing better to take hot tempers out of us than to go gardening boldly in the spring of the year.” And every one who has tried this can testify that it is true.

"A certain little boy , who left a garden at home to take a trip with some friends, wrote home to his mother,” I am having a splendid time, but I wish every morning that I was sitting on my little green cricket in the backyard, watching my plants grow.” This little boy always thought that some time, if he watched closely enough, he should see a flower open, but beyond a few four o’clocks, he has never witnessed this ever-recurring but magically secret phenomenon.

"If possible, supply your own table with your boy’ s produce at ruling market rates, having it well understood beforehand how the money will be expended. Praise whenever you consistently can; offer prizes for the best fruits, flowers and vegetables, if you have several boys at work; and in every way treat the enterprise with consideration and respect. Many a boy who has put his best efforts into his garden loses heart when he hears it sneered at or made light of ” Your garden? Oh dear! I never thought of that! What does that amount to?”

"It cannot be too early impressed upon a boy that whatever he does should be done well. Therefore make his garden seem as important as you can without dwelling unduly upon it; and remember that the physical and moral effects of the garden are not all. The information that a boy gets from it concerning a variety of seed and soil may be invaluable to him later on.".

Women & Gardens - 19C Gardening Manuals from Seed & Plant Dealers entice Women to Garden

When Gardens Replaced Children
Justor Daily By: Livia Gershon May 4, 2018

"Historian Robin Veder explains that the way we associate female nurturing with gardens goes back to the way ideas about gender & work changed in the mid-19C.

"Think about gardening, or tending houseplants, & you most likely think of a woman—perhaps a woman who has plenty of leisure time & loves taking care of living things. Historian Robin Veder explains that the way we associate female nurturing with raising flowers goes back the way ideas about gender & work changed in the mid-19C...

"Gardening manuals of the 19C described flowers taking “the place of children in bereaved homes” or in families where adult children had moved out.  Wealthy households depended on skilled horticultural workers—either hired or enslaved—to care for their flowering plants. But middle-class homeowners were limited to their own amateur efforts. So professional horticulturists, who stood to benefit from new customers at their nurseries & greenhouses, began writing manuals, magazines, & columns.

"Before 1840 or so, Veder writes, most authors of gardening manuals assumed their readers were male. But from the 1850s through 1870s, there was a flurry of books about flower gardening & indoor floral decorations. Women’s magazines including Ladies Home Journal actually grew out of horticultural & agricultural publications’ efforts to reach a female audience.

"Gardening manuals written in this period described flowers taking “the place of children in bereaved homes” or in families where adult children had moved out. 

"Prolific California gardener Mrs. Annie C. Brown explained in Ladies Home Journal in 1887 that her only daughter was now grown “so all my spare time is given to my flowers. They are to me as children…” 

"Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote that a successful gardener treats her plants as children: “She loves them; she lives in them; she has in herself a plant-life & a plant-sympathy. She feels for them as if she herself were a plant...”

"In books & articles from this era, to buy a plant was to remove it from the cold world of market forces & transform it into an object of love...Veder writes that 19C gardening manuals drew on a long tradition of sentimental pastoralism—a tradition that “aestheticizes economically significant work by framing it as leisure.” Gardening, like parenting, clearly involves mental & physical labor, & both provide something of value to the household. But books & articles portrayed both activities as a natural extension of women’s being, rather than “work.”

To read about women's changing roles in the 2nd half of the 19th century. see:
Boorstin, Daniel. The Americans: The Democratic Experience. New York:Random House, 1973.
Clinton, Catherine. The Other Civil War: American Women in the Nineteenth Century. New York: Hill and Wang, 1984.
Cott, Nancy. A Heritage of Her Own: Toward a New Social History of Women. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1979.
Cott Nancy. History of Women in the United States, Part 6, Working the Land. New York: K. G. Saur, 1992.
Degler, Carl. At Odds: Women and the Family from Revolution to the Present. New York: Oxford University Press, 1980.
Green, Harvey. The Light of the Home: An Intimate View of the Lives of Women in Victorian America. New York: Pantheon Books, 1983.
Juster, Norton. So Sweet to Labor: Rural Women in America 1865-1895. New York: The Viking Press, 1979.
Kessler-Harris, Alice. Out to Work: A History of Wage Earning Women in the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982
Mintz, Stephen and Susan Kellogg. Domestic Revolutions: A Social History of American Family Life. New York: Free Press; London: Collier Macmillan, 1988.
Ryan, Mary P. Womanhood in America front he Colonial Times to the Present. New York: F. Watts, 1983.
Smith-Rosenberg, Caroll. Disorderly Conduct: Visions of Gender in Victorian America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.
Strasser, Susan. Never Done: A History of American Housework. New York Pantheon Books, 1982.
Welter, Barbara. Dimity Convictions : the American Woman in the Nineteenth Century. Athens : Ohio University Press, 1976.

Women's Work 1863 - US Women as Landscape Gardeners

Landscape Gardeners. 

"Mrs. R. often goes & looks at gardens, directs how to lay them out, & what to buy for them. She then orders the plants of others, & sells on commission, having them arranged according to her own taste, influenced by that of the purchaser. Her purchases are made of a German, living some distance from town, who can raise them cheaper than she could in the city. Her compensation, of course, varies greatly. 

"A landscape gardener writes : “ What a lady could do as landscape gardener at the West, I do not know. I am rather inclined to doubt her success at the East. It would require too much time & space to enter here into the details of what are required to constitute a landscape gardener: First, one must have a decided love for it, & a willingness to sacrifice much to the pleasure of the occupation. Nor can I say a great deal in favor of the profits. I have never been able to make a living by the profession, although I have often thought if I had gone to New York, or farther West, the case might have been different. In pages 381 & 382 of Country Life,' & in many other parts of the book, you will see what I consider essential to the making up & preparation of a landscape gardener, & better expressed than I can condense into a letter.”

"Mr. C., of Massachusetts, writes : “I have never known a lady to undertake the profession of landscape gardening; & much of the labor which I find it necessary to perform, would be impossible for a lady. Still, there is much in which female taste would find abundant field for exertion, if the labor could be so divided as to make it profitable. My first work  on any estate is to make an accurate topographical survey of the ground, &draw a plan of it in its natural state, & then proceed to make my designs for its arrangement; & when that is done, if required, I undertake the superintendence of the work at the ground. 

"A lady would have to employ a surveyor, in the first place, & would labor under many disadvantages in directing the operations upon grounds; &, to judge from my own experience, the business could not be made profitable under such circumstances. Loudon's 'Encyclopædia of Gardening' will give the best directions I know of for the necessary operations of designing & executing plans, & Downing's work, with Sargent's appendix, comprises enough suggestions, on matters of taste, for the use of any person who is possessed of innate natural taste, without which I would advise no one to attempt to be a landscape gardener.”

The Employments of Women: A Cyclopaedia of Woman's Work by Virginia Panny Published Walker, Wise & Company, 1863

To read about women's changing roles in the 2nd half of the 19th century. see:
Boorstin, Daniel. The Americans: The Democratic Experience. New York:Random House, 1973.
Clinton, Catherine. The Other Civil War: American Women in the Nineteenth Century. New York: Hill and Wang, 1984.
Cott, Nancy. A Heritage of Her Own: Toward a New Social History of Women. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1979.
Cott Nancy. History of Women in the United States, Part 6, Working the Land. New York: K. G. Saur, 1992.
Degler, Carl. At Odds: Women and the Family from Revolution to the Present. New York: Oxford University Press, 1980.
Green, Harvey. The Light of the Home: An Intimate View of the Lives of Women in Victorian America. New York: Pantheon Books, 1983.
Juster, Norton. So Sweet to Labor: Rural Women in America 1865-1895. New York: The Viking Press, 1979.
Kessler-Harris, Alice. Out to Work: A History of Wage Earning Women in the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982
Mintz, Stephen and Susan Kellogg. Domestic Revolutions: A Social History of American Family Life. New York: Free Press; London: Collier Macmillan, 1988.
Ryan, Mary P. Womanhood in America front he Colonial Times to the Present. New York: F. Watts, 1983.
Smith-Rosenberg, Caroll. Disorderly Conduct: Visions of Gender in Victorian America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.
Strasser, Susan. Never Done: A History of American Housework. New York Pantheon Books, 1982.
Welter, Barbara. Dimity Convictions : the American Woman in the Nineteenth Century. Athens : Ohio University Press, 1976.

History Blooms at Monticello - in April

All photos from Thomas Jefferson's Monticello..