Helena Rutherfurd Ely: Difference between revisions
ColonelHenry (talk | contribs) No edit summary |
ColonelHenry (talk | contribs) |
||
| Line 3: | Line 3: | ||
==Biography== |
==Biography== |
||
[[File:Meadowburn Farm Garden 1.gif|thumb|right|"Arch over rose-walk, covered with Golden Honeysuckle and Clematis paniculata. September fifteenth" from ''A Woman's Hardy Garden'' (1903) Photo by C. F. Chandler.]] |
|||
Helena was the one of five children from the marriage of Charlotte Livingston (1825-1894) and John Rutherfurd (1810-1871), a coal and railroad industry executive, and president of the Board of Proprietors for East New Jersey and the [[New Jersey Historical Society]].<ref> |
Helena was the one of five children from the marriage of Charlotte Livingston (1825-1894) and John Rutherfurd (1810-1871), a coal and railroad industry executive, and president of the Board of Proprietors for East New Jersey and the [[New Jersey Historical Society]].<ref> |
||
Swords, Robert S. "Memoir of the Life and Character of John Rutherford, Late President of the New Jersey Historical Society," in ''Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society'', Second Series, 2:197-204.</ref><ref name="NJHSRutherfurdElyMSS">[http://www.jerseyhistory.org/findingaid.php?aid=0484 Archvies: Documents, Manuscripts, Maps, & Photographs - Manuscript Group 484, Rutherfurd-Ely Family]. New Jersey Historical Society, Newark, New Jersey. Retrieved 6 January 2013.</ref> |
Swords, Robert S. "Memoir of the Life and Character of John Rutherford, Late President of the New Jersey Historical Society," in ''Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society'', Second Series, 2:197-204.</ref><ref name="NJHSRutherfurdElyMSS">[http://www.jerseyhistory.org/findingaid.php?aid=0484 Archvies: Documents, Manuscripts, Maps, & Photographs - Manuscript Group 484, Rutherfurd-Ely Family]. New Jersey Historical Society, Newark, New Jersey. Retrieved 6 January 2013.</ref> |
||
Revision as of 23:43, 6 January 2013
Helena Rutherfurd Ely (1858-18 May 1920) was an author, amateur garderner and founding member of the Garden Club of America whose three books influenced American and British gardeners to avoid Victorian formal gardens in favour of plantings that embodied an "informal and sensual style."[1] She focused on planning her gardens around planting "hardy perennial plants found in the agricultural landscape"[2]
Biography
Helena was the one of five children from the marriage of Charlotte Livingston (1825-1894) and John Rutherfurd (1810-1871), a coal and railroad industry executive, and president of the Board of Proprietors for East New Jersey and the New Jersey Historical Society.[3][4]
On 17 June 1880, she married Alfred Ely II (1852-1914), son of Lucy Cooley and Alfred Brewster Ely, who was an attorney and partner in the New York City law firm Agar, Ely & Fulton.[4] They had two children, a son Alfred (III) (1884-1959) and daughter Helena (1881-1970).[4] While they resided in Manhattan, Helena and Alfred Ely owned a 350-acre country estate named Meadowburn Farm in Vernon Township, New Jersey. Meadowburn was purchased by Ely from the DeKay family,[5] a colonial family that had settled in this area in the 1720s and played a prominent role in the New Jersey-New York Border War. The Rutherfurd family owned large tracts throughout Sussex County and was descended from early colonial proprietors.
At Meadowburn, Ely created formal and cottage gardens which served as the basis for a series of three books on gardening in which she favoured perennials. Her first book, A Woman's Hardy Garden (1903) sold 40,000 copies and was reprinted 16 times before going out of print in 1930.[1][2] She received fan mail and queries from fellow gardeners twenty years after her death.[1]
After her husband's death, Helena married Benjamin T. Fairchild in 1916.[4]
Helena Rutherfurd Ely (Fairchild) died on 18 May 1920.[4] She was buried in Warwick Cemetery in Warwick, New York.[6]
On 9 August 1993, Meadowburn Farm was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Works
- 1903: A Woman's Hardy Garden
- 1905: Another Hardy Garden Book
- 1911: The Practical Flower Garden
See also
References
- ^ a b c Druse, Ken. ""Pioneering gardener's planting style lives on" The New York Times News Service. 11 July 2004.
- ^ a b The Cultural Landscape Foundation: Helena Rutherfurd Ely 1858-1920. Retrieved 6 January 2013.
- ^ Swords, Robert S. "Memoir of the Life and Character of John Rutherford, Late President of the New Jersey Historical Society," in Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society, Second Series, 2:197-204.
- ^ a b c d e Archvies: Documents, Manuscripts, Maps, & Photographs - Manuscript Group 484, Rutherfurd-Ely Family. New Jersey Historical Society, Newark, New Jersey. Retrieved 6 January 2013.
- ^ Deed from Henry B. DeKay to Alfred Ely, 1880, Manuscript Group 484 Rutherfurd-Ely Family, New Jersey Historical Society, Newark, New Jersey.
- ^ Dupont, Ron. Warwick Cemetery Sussex County Historical Society, Newton, New Jersey. Retrieved 6 January 2013.
