Research Collections

As a result of efforts taken by Mai Arbegast and Leland Vaughan, in 1955 noted landscape architect and one of the founders of ASLA, Beatrix Jones Farrand donated her Reef Point Library to the Department. Developed at her home in Bar Harbor Maine, the gift included books, historical prints, and the work of landscape architects Gertude Jekyll and Mary Rutherfurd Jay as well as her own professional records. In addition to these enhancements to the historical and research environment for students and faculty in landscape architecture, Farrand left a sizeable financial gift to the department upon her death in 1959. Farrand’s gifts changed the department dramatically and elevated it to a position of true leadership in the development of the profession, and also began a tradition of collecting material related to landscape architecture, and landscape architects, to benefit the research of the students.

Farrand’s gift included both rare books and those used by a working designer. Her gift has supported the development of an exceptional collection of landscape books by the Environmental Design Library and the preservation of other landscape archives. Landscape architects whose records were acquired later include Douglas Baylis, Robert Royston/RHAA, Garrett Eckbo, Thomas Church, Lockwood deForest, Paul Thiene and Geraldine Knight Scott. More recently the collections of Mai Arbegast, Richard Vignolo, Clare Cooper Marcus, Karl Linn, Randy Hester and Marcia McNally, Casey Kawamoto, Jack Stafford, and Theodore Osmundson have been acquired by the Environmental Design Archives.