MHS's Annual Olmstead Lecture: Beatrix Farrand's American Landscapes

This Maine Historical Society program was recorded on June 24, 2020. THis video features a screening of Beatrix Farrand’s American Landscapes, a documentary about pioneering landscape designer Beatrix Farrand that will transport you to beautiful Maine places and share an incredible Maine story and an informative discussion with Steve Bromage, Executive Director at Maine Historical Society; Anne Cleves Symmes, Educator at the Beatrix Farrand Garden Association; and Patrick Chasse, Landscape Architect and Historian.

Beatrix Farrand was one of the pioneering women of the late 19th and early 20th century. The film traces her love of nature back to childhood summers spent at Reef Point, her family estate in Bar Harbor, where she returned throughout her life. Her time here in Maine shaped a vision that emphasized the use of native plants and blending formal gardens with the surrounding wild landscape. Her iconic work combined artistic invention, classical references, and horticultural expertise. She became the sole woman signer of the founding charter of the American Society of Landscape Architects in 1898. Her revolutionary ideas and designs reveal an artist who helped create a distinctive American voice in landscape.