Past in Focus: Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden

Posted in Around the Garden, From the Library, Photography on February 2 2012, by Matt Newman

Not long ago we introduced you to a new Plant Talk series we’re calling “Past in Focus,” in which we unearth historical photographs from the LuEsther T. Mertz Library archives and attempt to recapture the scenes as they appear today. A century-old landscape undergoes any number of changes at the hands of time, weather, and ambition, leaving us drawn in by details large and small that remain untouched. You can look at these photographs and–even if only just–make out the origins of the design beneath the carefully-tended aesthetic.

In 1916, the tract surrounding the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden was a plane of graded soil following an idea on paper:

Today it’s the product of an evolved blueprint that subtly outlines the original geographic features:

What’s pulled out of the archive for next update is still in the air, though I’m curious to see how well our professional photographers can tackle the challenge of recreating what we see. (I’m not particularly worried–I can vouch for them being more than just “good” at what they do.)

Photographs courtesy of Paul Silverman and the LuEsther T. Mertz Library archives.