Each day this week we’ll be celebrating the past 125 years of The New York Botanical Garden with a different story from one of our many visitors, young and old—whether it’s an unforgettable day recently spent exploring our 250 acres or a treasured family memory that makes the Garden special. It all leads up to the Garden’s official anniversary this Thursday, April 28!
Each day this week we’ll be celebrating the past 125 years of The New York Botanical Garden with a different story from one of our visitors—whether it’s a perfect day recently spent exploring our 250 acres or a treasured family memory that makes the Garden special. It all leads up to our official anniversary on Thursday, April 28!
Each day this week we’ll be celebrating the past 125 years of The New York Botanical Garden with a different story from one of our visitors—whether it’s a perfect day recently spent exploring our 250 acres or a treasured family memory that makes the Garden special. It all leads up to our official anniversary on Thursday, April 28!
In celebration of Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, on the weekends of October 24 & 25 and October 31 & November 1, Bronx-based artist Lucrecia Novoa and the Mascaraviva puppeteers parade her giant skeleton and La Catrina puppets throughout the Garden. Inspired by both the traditional and modern representations of the skeletal character, Lucrecia’s puppets—made especially for this occasion—provide the perfect photo opportunity and interactive experience. Catch them wandering throughout the Garden from 12 to 4 p.m.!
But who is La Catrina? The referential image of death in Mexico, it is common to see La Catrina featured in Día de los Muertos celebrations, where death is treated with familiarity and hospitality instead of dread.
La Catrina was originally drawn as a satirical cartoon (1910–1913) by famous Mexican printmaker and illustrator Jose Guadalupe Posada. The etching was intended to make fun of Mexican elite who were adopting European fashion and attitudes. Named “La Calavera Garbancera,” the image was meant to represent the large gap between social classes, and was inspired by Mictecacihuatl, the Aztec goddess of death and Lady of Mictlan, the underworld.
Here is an image of Posado’s La Calavera Oaxaqueña, which is similar in style to the Catrina:
Here is a sneak peak at Lucrecia’s interpretation of Catrina:
Posada’s creation might have given La Catrina her form, but it was Diego Rivera, muralist, and husband of Frida Kahlo, who named her. Diego’s mural, “Sueño de una tarde dominical en la Alameda Centra (Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda Central)” (1946–1948), features an image of Catrina right in the middle of the artwork, next to Frida. Because of Diego’s popularity, La Catrina rose to fame, and is a now iconic representation of the Mexican willingness to embrace death- and to even laugh at it. After all, there is something a bit humorous, if also a tad creepy, about a skeleton dressed in opulent fashion. Images and more information on the mural can be found here.
We do hope you will come out to celebrate the lives of loved deceased ones, especially Frida Kahlo, as we prepare to say goodbye to the exhibition on November 1!
Stephen Sinon is Head of Information Services and Archives in the New York Botanical Garden’s LuEsther T. Mertz Library.
Sample of plans from the Lord & Burnham Co. collection
The Lord and Burnham Co. was the premier builder of glasshouses in 19th- and 20th-century America. The firm was a natural choice for the founders of The New York Botanical Garden to turn to as they commissioned the design and construction of the largest and finest conservatory in America, the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, which remains the centerpiece of the Garden today. Lord and Burnham constructed glasshouses for many well-known private clients, schools, parks, and botanical gardens across the country, but they never built anything larger than the Haupt Conservatory, which features a 90-foot central dome and one acre under glass.
The original plans and drawings for the Haupt Conservatory can be found in the Garden Archives along with architectural plans for 140,000 other clients which form part of the surviving business records of the Lord and Burnham Co.
Stephen Sinon is Head of Information Services and Archives in the New York Botanical Garden’s LuEsther T. Mertz Library.
The Stone Mill
It’s not every day that someone walks into your life to present you with a piece of history from your past, but that is exactly what happened here recently at The LuEsther T. Mertz Library. We had a visitor who rode the Garden tram and heard mention of the Lorillard family on the tram’s narrated tour. She recalled owning a jar with the name “Lorillard” written on it and wondered if there was any connection.
As it turned out, the jar in question happened to be filled with tobacco snuff which was milled at the Garden’s historic Stone Mill and apparently never opened. The gift of this jar was accompanied by several commemorative catalogs from the Lorillard Tobacco Company and a newspaper article dated December 31, 1893, discussing the award winners at the World’s Fair held in Chicago that year. Known as the World’s Columbian Exposition, the fair was held to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Christopher Columbus on the shores of the Americas.
The numerous Neoclassical stucco facades found at the fair, the first to feature electrical illumination, earned it the name “The White City” and had a profound influence on the urban beautification movement in America. The Mertz Library Building and The New York Botanical Garden itself grew out of this movement.
Each day this week we’ll be celebrating the past 125 years of The New York Botanical Garden with a different story from one of our many visitors, young and old—whether it’s an unforgettable day recently spent exploring our 250 acres or a treasured family memory that makes the Garden special. It all leads up to the Garden’s official anniversary this Thursday, April 28!
