America’s Eden: “The Genteel Landscape”

Newport, Rhode Island has been often referred to as “The Eden of America.” This richly illustrated lecture series celebrates the publication of  America’s Eden: Newport Landscapes Through the Ages (2022). Lectures will explore over three centuries of landscape design, literature, and art that have been created in this verdant place. With garden shovel and spade, pen, brush, paint, and camera, generations of gardeners, nursery owners, writers, and artists have literally and figuratively shaped the land. Among them were renowned figures such as landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted and his sons, writers Harriet Beecher Stowe and Henry James, the painter Childe Hassam, and pioneering photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston. The result of their work is an extraordinary heritage, a vision of  human-made Eden through the ages.

LECTURE II: “The Genteel Landscape”

In this lecture, Tschirch will immerse us in Newport’s rise as a fashionable seaside resort during the Victorian age, when the builders of summer cottages, nursery owners, and gardeners created an enclave of picturesque gardens while sight-seers and renowned painters and writers celebrated the city’s natural scenery and geological wonders.

Lecture will be followed by Q&A with John Tschirch, sale and book signing of America’s Eden: Newport Landscapes Through the Ages.

“Every place has a tale to tell.”

John Tschirch is an architectural historian, writer, teacher, Honorary Member of the Garden Club of America. His latest books include America’s Eden: Newport Landscapes through the Ages (2022) and Newport: The Artful City (2020), which received the Victorian Society of America Book Award in 2021. John received his M.A. (1986) in Architectural History and Historic Preservation from the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia. His thirty-year career in the preservation and study of historic landmarks and landscapes across the globe has led him on treks to French chateaux, English castles, Italian villas, Austrian palaces, Croatian fortresses, Argentinian mansions and the Gilded Age houses of America. Currently, he teaches the theory and history of design at Rhode Island School of Design, advises on historic preservation projects, and has entered the world of historical fiction writing, inspired by his travels, with the publication of Gods and Girls: Tales of Art, Seduction and Obsession (2019).

John’s work in preserving and interpreting historic places has been featured in the Magazine Antiques, Martha Stewart Living, The New York Times and Conde Nast Traveler and he has appeared on the A&E documentary series, America’s Castles. From 1986 to 2013, he served the Preservation Society of Newport County, first as Director of Education and later as Director of Museum Affairs and Architectural Historian, overseeing the curatorial, conservation, education and research activities at the organizations eleven historic house museums and gardens. He has published essays on history and socio-cultural issues for The Public Humanist (2018-19), “The New Thing at Newport: The Tiffany Glass Wall at Kingscote” in The Magazine Antiques (January 2013), the essay, “Newport Cottages” for The Encyclopedia of New England Culture (Yale University Press, 2005) and “Newport” in Parisian Palaces of La Belle Epoque (Paris 1992). He was inducted as an Honorary Member of the Garden Club of America in 2012 for his contributions to the research and restoration of historic landscapes. In recognition of his service to historic preservation, he received the 2013 Frederick C. Williamson Professional Leadership Award from the Rhode Island State Historic Preservation and Heritage Commission.

The preservation of heritage sites of international significance is of foremost interest to John. He has lectured widely in the U.S. and abroad on architecture, landscapes and historic cities, from the Attingham Conference in London to Yale University’s Mellon Center Seminar on 18^th Century French Design and the UNESCO sponsored conference on Architecture and Culture in Buenos Aires.

About America’s Eden: Newport Landscapes through the Ages

By John Tschirch. Published by D Giles Limited, 2022. 304 pages, hardcover. $45
Available for purchase and signing after the lecture.

In 1789, Jedidiah Morse described Newport and its environs as the “Eden of America” in the First Geography of the United States. America’s Eden: Newport Landscapes through the Ages builds on this legendary image of a centuries-old paradise, and establishes Newport as a cultural landscape of national significance.

The comprehensive history from European settlement to the present day is illustrated by a treasure trove of rare period maps, paintings and photographs by prominent artists, and drawings and sketches by leading designers. The book serves as a critical resource guide encompassing landscape architecture, fine art, tree and plant propagation, and the conservation of natural sites. A rich story of art, design and horticulture awaits readers among the gardens, gazebos and trees of Newport.

Image Credits:
Banner: Charles Blaskowitz. Detail of landscape and gardens from A Map of the Towne of Newport, 1777. Library of Congress
Thumbnail: Frances Benjamin Johnston. Rose Trellis, Armsea Hall. photo, ca. 1914. Library of Congress