ABSTRACT

This chapter explores the garden as a place of creative and transformational practice for women in the early twentieth century in the United States. Focused on constellations of White women and Black women, the chapter discusses how the garden served women in both similar and distinct ways. For White women, the garden would serve as a portal to the profession of landscape architecture while for Black women the garden performed equally as a place of individual creativity and as a communal space. In both narratives, the role of collective action and cooperative practice are integral and suggest a more nuanced history of the history of gardens in the making of the American landscape.