Environmental Design Library
Beatrix Farrand: A Bibliography of Her Life & Work

About Farrand Quick Facts Bibliographies Farrand's Writings Farrand's Work

Farrand at UC Berkeley The Farrand Gift Books & Periodicals Drawings, Prints, & Documents Plant Specimens

Researching Farrand Finding Books Finding Articles Finding Unpublished Material Links

Beatrix Farrand is considered one of the most important 20th century American landscape architects. Her work encompasses more than 200 known private gardens, estates, and institutions, in the United States and elsewhere. Beatrix Farrand: A Bibliography of Her Life & Work is a selective bibliography of books, journal articles, and newspaper reports by and about Farrand. It updates Lamia Doumato's 1988 bibliography on Farrand; please refer to Doumato's work for items not repeated here, especially journal articles. While this bibliography is not a comprehensive list of everything written about Farrand, it does attempt comprehensive coverage of information about Farrand's contributions to the University of California, Berkeley. This guide also lists resources for readers interested in uncovering additional information about Farrand.

For additional assistance please consult The Library's online catalogs or the Environmental Design Library reference staff, 210 Wurster Hall.

UC Berkeley faculty, registered students, and staff who are off campus may use items marked UCB Only or UC Only by using The Library's off-campus access services.

Contents reviewed: 21 September 2009

About Farrand Quick Facts | Bibliographies | Farrand's Writings | Farrand's Work

Quick Facts   Beatrix Cadwalader Jones was born in 1872 into a family of socially prominent New Yorkers, who maintained a summer home called Reef Point in Bar Harbor, Maine. She had a close relationship with writer Edith Wharton, her paternal aunt. In the early 1890s she received private tutoring in landscape design from Charles Sprague Sargent, director of Harvard University's Arnold Arboretum in what is now the Jamaica Plains neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. After establishing her office in New York City in 1896, she rapidly achieved recognition in her self-styled profession as a landscape gardener.  In the 1898 publication Noted Women the World Over, she is described as "an authority on forestry, as well as a skilled landscape architect. She has received satisfactory recognition and due patronage, though she has not long practiced her profession." (p.49) The following year Farrand worked with Frederick Olmsted, Jr., Warren Manning, and others, to found the American Society of Landscape Architects.  By 1900, Jones was noted as an example of the 'gifts' women could bring to the practice of landscape architecture, in an article in the The American Architect and Building News; she also contributed a design for a formal garden to the 15th annual exhibition of the Architectural League of New York. In 1913 Jones married Max Farrand, and maintained offices in New Haven, Connecticut, New York City, and Bar Harbor. In 1927, the Farrands relocated to San Marino, California, where Max Farrand served as the director of the Huntington Library. Beatrix Farrand later lived at Reef Point, and moved to Garland Farm on Mt. Desert Island, Maine, in 1955, where she lived until her death in 1959.  Please consult the following items for additional factual information about Farrand's life and work.

Beatrix Cadwallader Jones Farrand. IN: The New Royal Horticultural Society Dictionary of Gardening.  Anthony Huxley, ed. Vol. 2. NY: Stockton Pr., 1992, pp.280-281.  Succinct biography.
EnvDesign SB450.95 D53 1992 Reference


Beatrix Farrand, IN: Wikipedia, a Web-based, free content encyclopedia project.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatrix_Farrand


Environmental Design Archives (UC Berkeley), Biography, IN: Beatrix Jones Farrand Collection, 1866-1959. Excellent brief biography from the online finding aid for the Collection.
http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=tf558004cz&chunk.id=bioghist-1.8.4&query=farrand%20beatrix&brand=oac


Laurie, Michael, Beatrix Farrand. Pacific Horticulture, 49:2 (Summer 1988), pp.47-53.  Includes color and black-and-white photographs of selected projects.
EnvDesign SB1 C27 Bound periodicals


-----. Beatrix Jones Farrand, 1872-1959: United States Landscape Architect. IN: Encyclopedia of Gardens: History and Design, Vol.1, Chicago Botanic Garden.  Candice A. Shoemaker, ed. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2001, pp.450-451. Includes a brief bibliography and chronology of selected projects.
EnvDesign SB465 E63 2001 Reference Desk


McPeck, Eleanor M., Beatrix Jones Farrand. IN: Pioneers of American Landscape Design, Charles A. Birnbaum, Robin Karson, eds.  NY: McGraw-Hill, 2000, pp.117-119.  Excellent biographical essay, including a brief bibliography. Illustrated.
EnvDesign SB469.9 P56 2000 Reference Desk


-----. Beatrix Jones Farrand 1872-1959. IN: Biographical dictionary of architects in Maine, 6:1 (1991). Portland, ME: Maine Citizens for Historic Preservation. Illustrated. Includes a list of Farrand's known commissions in Maine.
EnvDesign NA1 M3 Reference


Patterson, Robert W., Beatrix Cadwalader Jones, IN: Bliss, Mrs. Robert Woods, Beatrix Jones Farrand, 1872-1959: an appreciation of a great landscape gardener, [Washington?], DC: Mrs. Robert Woods Bliss, 1960, pp.1-7.
EnvDesign SB470 F25 B4 Rare


Tankard, Judith, Beatrix Farrand: private gardens, public landscapes, [Washington?], DC: Monacelli Pr., 2009.
EnvDesign on order




Bibliographies  Specialized bibliographies can help you find publications on your topic. Also look for bibliographies in books as well as in journal and encyclopedia articles. To find additional bibliographies, search the Current Melvyl® online catalog: subject = Landscape architecture--History--Bibliography or Landscape gardening--History--Bibliography.

Doumato, Lamia, Beatrix Jones Farrand, IN: Architecture and women: a bibliography documenting women architects, landscape architects, designers, architectural critics and writers, and women in related fields working in the United States.  NY: Garland Pub., 1988, pp.73-76.  Includes primary and secondary works.
EnvDesign NA2543 W65 A12 D692 1988 Reference & circ.




Farrand's Writings  Here is a selected chronological list of Farrand's published writings. Her personal and professional correspondence, and other unpublished writing, are held in the Environmental Design Archives, and other archival collections (see the Finding Unpublished Material section of this guide).

1893-1900

Book of gardening, IN: Beatrix Jones Farrand Collection, 1866-1959 [archives]  Farrand's garden journal of horticultural and gardening notes. 1893-1895.
CED Archives


Nature's landscape-gardening in Maine, Garden and forest, 6:289 (September 6, 1893), pp.378-379. Letter to the editor, published in the "Correspondence" column.
EnvDesign SB1 G2 Bound periodicals


Bridge over the Kent at Levens Hall, Garden and forest, 9:412 (January 15, 1896), p.22.
EnvDesign SB1 G2 Bound periodicals


The Garden in relation to the house, Garden and forest, 10:476 (April 7, 1897), pp.132-133.
EnvDesign SB1 G2 Bound periodicals


Woman landscape gardener, Leslie's Illustrated Weekly, 85 (November 4, 1897), p.295 ???
News/Micro NEWSFILM-1


City parks, Municipal affairs, a quarterly magazine, NY: Reform Club on City Affairs, 3 (1899), pp.687-690.
Main JS39 M3 In NRLF; available online via Google Book Search




1901-1910

Le Notre and his gardens, Scribner's magazine, 38 (July 1905), pp.43-55.
Main AP2 S335

The Garden as a picture, Scribner's magazine, 42:1 (July 1907), pp.2-11.
EnvDesign SB472 F35 Rare; Main AP2 S335


Laying out a suburban place, Country life in America, 17 (March 1910), pp.551-552.
Main S1 C75 In storage (NRLF)


Landscape gardening, IN: Vocations for the trained woman; opportunities other than teaching, Agnes Frances Perkins, ed., NY: Longmans, Green, 1910, pp.161-163.
In storage (NRLF); available online via Google Book Search




1911-1920

Wild flower protection, Bulletin of the Garden Club of America, 20 (May 1917), [pp.21-22].
In storage (NRLF)


The Debt of landscape art to a museum of trees, Architectural record, 44 (November 1918), pp.407-413. About the Arnold Arboretum. Illustrated with black and white photographs.
EnvDesign NA1 A7 Bound periodicals




1921-1930

Plant decoration of building walls, Landscape Architecture, 14:4 (July 1924), p.267.
EnvDesign SB469 L3 Bound periodicals




1931-1940

Landscape gardening at Princeton, Princeton Alumni Weekly, 31:33 (May 29, 1931), pp.819-831. Illustrated with photographs. At the time she wrote the article, Farrand was Consulting Landscape Gardener for Princeton.
In storage (NRLF)


The Library courtyard and its fountain, Yale University Library Gazette, 11 (1937), p.38.
In storage (NRLF)




1941-1950

Beatrix Farrand's Plant book for Dumbarton Oaks, Diane Kostial McGuire, ed. Washington: Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees for Harvard Univ., 1980. Originally written in 1941.
EnvDesign SB466 U7 D853; http://www.doaks.org/publications/doaks_online_publications/MCFPP.html


Dumbarton Oaks: an historical setting for the making of history,  Landscape architecture, 34 (July 1944), pp.131-135. Illustrated with black and white photographs.
EnvDesign SB469 L3 Bound periodicals


Reef Point Gardens bulletin, Bar Harbor, ME: The Max Farrand Memorial Fund. 1:1-14 (1946-55). Most issues contain one brief article, sometimes illustrated with plans or photographs. Farrand contributed to almost every issue.
EnvDesign SB466 U7R4 Rare

Reef Point Gardens: the start and the goal of a study in landscape gardening, Landscape Architecture, 37:1 (October 1946), pp.12-13.
EnvDesign SB469 L3 Bound periodicals


Contemplated landscape changes at the Arnold Arboretum, Arnoldia, 6:10 (November 1946), pp.45-48.
Biosci QK475 H283 Also in storage (NRLF)


The Azalea border, Arnoldia, 9:2 (April 1949), pp.6-7.
Biosci QK475 H283 Also in storage (NRLF)


Peters Hill, Arnoldia, 9:9 (October 1949), pp.38-43.
Biosci QK475 H283 Also in storage (NRLF)




1951-1955

Reef Point Gardens bulletin, Bar Harbor, ME: The Max Farrand Memorial Fund. 1:1-14 (1946-55). Most issues contain one brief article, sometimes illustrated with plans or photographs. Farrand contributed to almost every issue.
EnvDesign SB466 U7R4 Rare

-----.The Bulletins of Reef Point Gardens. Intro. by Paula Deitz. Bar Harbor, ME: Island Foundation; Sagaponack, NY: Dist. by Sagapress, 1997.
EnvDesign SB466 U7 R44 1997




Farrand's Work Project Lists | About Farrand's Work | Images

Project Lists

Balmori, Diana, et al., Beatrix Farrand's Commissions 1891-1949, IN: Beatrix Farrand's American landscapes: her gardens and campuses, Sagaponack, NY: Sagapress, 1985, Appendix, pp.197-202. Lists 170 projects, organized chronologically; includes undated commissions.
EnvDesign SB470 F37 B35 1985


Beatrix Farrand: a list of her work, made by Mrs. Farrand about 1950 , IN: Bliss, Mrs. Robert Woods, Beatrix Jones Farrand, 1872-1959: an appreciation of a great landscape gardener, [Washington?], DC: Mrs. Robert Woods Bliss, 1960, pp.49-51. Lists 60 projects, organized by client.
EnvDesign SB470 F25 B4 Rare


Designing the Maine landscape, by Theresa Mattor and Lucie Teegarden. [Camden, ME]: Down East Books; Maine Olmsted Alliance for Parks & Landscapes; distrib. by National Book Network. Includes a section on Farrand and her work; lists her projects in Maine, including some not listed in the Project Index.
EnvDesign F20 M35 2009


Project index (UCB, Environmental Design Archives) In spreadsheet format, lists and describes the 216 projects documented in the College of Environmental Design Archives.  Descriptions include project and/or client name, date(s) (the most recent 1950 for John D. Rockefeller in Seal Harbor, begun in 1926), location, project type, document type(s), collaborator, and photographer.
http://www.ced.berkeley.edu/cedarchives/pindex/farrand.xls




About Farrand's Work  Listed here are monographs published about Farrand and her work, and a very limited selection of journal articles. To identify additional monographs and articles, use the strategies in the Researching Farrand section of this guide.

Balmori, Diana, et al. Beatrix Farrand's American landscapes: her gardens and campuses. Sagaponack, NY: Sagapress, 1985.
EnvDesign SB470 F37 B35 1985


Bliss, Mildred (Mrs. Robert Woods), Beatrix Jones Farrand, 1872-1959: an appreciation of a great landscape gardener, [Washington?], DC: Mrs. Robert Woods Bliss, 1960. Mildred and Robert Bliss commissioned Farrand's designs for Dumbarton Oaks.
EnvDesign SB470 F25 B4 Rare


Brown, Jane, Beatrix: the gardening life of Beatrix Jones Farrand, 1872-1959.  NY: Viking, 1995.  
EnvDesign SB470 F37 B76 1995


Chasse, Patrick, The Last garden of Beatrix Farrand, Journal of the New England Garden History Society, 11 (Fall 2003), pp.35-42. Reprinted from: Journal of the Maine Olmsted Alliance for Parks & Landscapes (Spring 2003). Includes photographs and plans of Garland Farm, Mt. Desert Island, Maine.
EnvDesign SB1 N49 Bound periodicals


Cultural landscape report: Dumbarton Oaks Park, Rock Creek Park.  Washington, DC: U.S. Dept. of Interior, National Park Service, National Capital Region, Cultural Landscape Program, [2000- ] Includes extensive information about Farrand and her design for Dumbarton Oaks.
EnvDesign F203.5 D77 C85 2000 v. 1


Chasse, Patrick, The Last garden of Beatrix Farrand, Journal of the New England Garden History Society, 11 (Fall 2003), pp.35-42. Reprinted from: Journal of the Maine Olmsted Alliance for Parks & Landscapes (Spring 2003). Includes photographs and plans of Garland Farm, Mt. Desert Island, Maine.
EnvDesign SB1 N49 Bound periodicals


Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium on the History of Landscape Architecture, Beatrix Jones Farrand (1872-1959): fifty years of American landscape architecture, Diane Kostial McGuire and Lois Fern, eds. 8th Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium on the History of Landscape Architecture.  Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Trustees for Harvard Univ., 1982.
EnvDesign SB470 F37 D85 1980


Palmer, Donna, Beatrix Cadwalader Jones Farrand, IN: An overview of the trends, eras, and values of landscape architecture in America from 1910 to the present with an emphasis on the contributions of women to the profession. Masters thesis, Landscape Architecture, North Carolina State Univ., 1976, c1984, pp.37-40.
EnvDesign SB470.53 P3 1984


Phillips, Catherine, 'Connecticut motive': Beatrix Farrand and the Marsh Botanic Garden of Yale University 1922-1939, Studies in the History of Gardens & Designed Landscapes, 27:1 (Jan.-Mar. 2007), pp.1-30. Nicely illustrated with photographs and plans from a variety of archives.
EnvDesign SB451 J65 Bound periodicals


Roper, Lanning, Dumbarton Oaks--a great American garden, Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society, vol.84, 1959, pp.7, 10. Reprinted in: Beatrix Jones Farrand, 1872-1959: an appreciation of a great landscape gardener. [Washington?] DC: Mrs. Robert Woods Bliss, 1960. [EnvDesign SB470 F25 B4 Rare]
Bioscience SB4 R8


Salon, Marlene, Beatrix Farrand, landscape gardener: her life and her work. Masters thesis, Landscape Architecture, Univ. of California, Berkeley, 1976. Bibliography: leaves 110-114.
EnvDesign NA25.5 S175 noncirc. & in NRLF


Zaitzevsky, Cynthia, A Career in bud: Beatrix Jones Farrand's education and early gardens, Journal of the New England Garden History Society, 6 (Fall 1998), pp.14-31. Illustrated with photographs and plans. Extensive notes.
EnvDesign SB1 N49 Bound periodicals




Images  Additional images may be found in the archival collections listed elsewhere in this guide.  Photographs and drawings of Farrand's work turn up in secondary sources; see the Finding Books section of this guide for ideas on how to search the online catalogs. See also Image Sources for the Built Environment for links to print and web-based images.

American memory  The American Memory Historical Collections are multimedia collections of digitized documents, photographs, recorded sound, moving pictures, and text from the Library of Congress' Americana collections, including a rich archive of images and text on U.S. urban history.
http://rs6.loc.gov/amhome.html


Online archive of California.  A digital archive containing photographs, pictures, and manuscripts from archival collections throughout California.
http://www.oac.cdlib.org/


Shillaber, Caroline, Reef Point, 1948. 8 plates of pen-and-ink drawings. [Bar Harbor?, 1948]
EnvDesign NC905 S48 Rare

SPIRO: Slide and photograph image retrieval online., Architecture Visual Resources Library, UC Berkeley. The online image catalog to a portion of the AVRL's collection of over 200,000 35mm slides.  The collection is available to UCB faculty and graduate students.
http://www.mip.berkeley.edu/spiro/

Farrand at UC Berkeley The Farrand Gift | Books & Periodicals | Drawings, Prints, & Documents Plant Specimens | UC Berkeley Campus Collections

The Farrand Gift   Farrand bequeathed her large estate to the University of California, Berkeley, in 1955. Her gift included the Reef Point Gardens Library; her private and business papers and correspondence; her collection of plant specimens; prints and photographs; and, an endowment for landscape architecture library collections, as well as other endowments.

Beatrix Farrand gift of books and funds for fellowships in landscape architecture. IN: University of California (System). Office of the President. Records: Numerical bound folders, 1929-1958. 1955-57.

University Archives CU-5, Series 3, 216-ARCH


[Correspondence between Beatrix Farrand and H. Leland Vaughan concerning the donation of her collection to the University of California at Berkeley Landscape Department], IN: Beatrix Jones Farrand Collection, 1866-1959. Student Drawings Collection, (ARCH 1998-3). H. Leland Vaughan, professor of landscape architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1930 to 1969, and Chairman 1947 to 1969, pursuaded Farrand that her Reef Point Library comprised of rare books, historical documents, maps, prints, and plans would find an appreciative home in the Landscape Department.
Environmental Design Archives ARCH 1955-2


[Correspondence regarding Beatrix Farrand's gift of the Reef Point Gardens Herbarium to the Jepson Herbarium at the University of California, Berkeley]. 1955-1956.  Includes 12 letters from Farrand, Prof. Herbert L. Mason, and George A. Pettit, Assistant to the UC President. Originals in the archives of the Jepson Herbarium.
http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/main/archives/correspondence.html


Vaughan, H.Leland, Library gift to California collection of Mrs. Farrand, IN: Landscape architecture, (47) October 1956, pp.298+.
EnvDesign SB469 L3 Bound periodicals




Books & Periodicals  The 2,700 books and periodicals from Farrand's Reef Point Gardens Library are housed in the Environmental Design Library. There is no complete list of the titles from Farrand's library. In addition to using the partial Author list (see following), you may search the library's catalog, OskiCat for a more extensive list of Farrand's collection in the Environmental Design Library. Using the Quick Search, search for reef point as Keyword(s); limit the location to Environmental Design Library.

Beatrix Farrand Library Collection, Author list: Beatrix Farrand Library Collection.  [Bar Harbor, ME: B. Farrand, 1959?] "Morning room books. List No. 1" Lists 753 items, including books, photographs, and drawings.
EnvDesign SB470 F37 B43 1959a Reference & circulating; SB470 F37 B43 1959 Rare


The Reef Point Collection at the University of California, by Michael M. Laurie. [Washington, DC]: Trustees for Harvard University, 1982.
EnvDesign SB470.25 L38 Rare & circulating


Report on the collections of Beatrix Jones Farrand at the University of California, Berkeley with notes on her life and work, researched by Barbara M. Pitschel. [Berkeley, CA]: B. Pitschel, 1987.
EnvDesign SB470 F25 P57 1987 Reference




Drawings, Prints, & Documents  The unpublished (archival) materials from the Reef Point Gardens Library are housed in the Environmental Design Archives. Among these materials are Farrand's personal and professional papers, Reef Point papers, research records, and more than 150 prints, primarily 17th and 18th century engravings.  Note that the former name for the Archives, Documents Collection, is cited in earlier publications about Beatrix Farrand.

Beatrix Jones Farrand Collection, 1866-1959. 16 cartons, 22 boxes, 1 half box, 6 flat boxes, 5 card file boxes, 20 flat file drawers. See a detailed description of the collection in the online finding aid.



Plant Specimens

The Reef Point Herbarium is housed in the UC Berkeley Jepson Herbarium. The herbarium comprises approximately 2,000 specimens of plants grown in the Reef Point gardens, and is accompanied by planting plans.
http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/jeps/




UC Berkeley Campus Collections   These campus libraries and archives house unique collections pertaining to Beatrix Jones Farrand.

Visual Resources Center 492 Wurster Hall Note: UC Berkeley faculty & grad. students only. http://www.ced.berkeley.edu/vrc/ The Bancroft Library: University Archives Note: Noncir. only. No photocopying http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/collections/uarc.html Environmental Design Archives 280 Wurster Hall Note: By appointment only. Fees for non-UC researchers. http://www.ced.berkeley.edu/cedarchives/

Environmental Design Library 210 Wurster Hall http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/ENVI/ Jepson Herbarium Ground floor, Valley Life Sciences Building http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/jeps/