Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium on the History of Landscape Architecture

The Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium on the History of Landscape Architecture series volumes are based on papers presented at scholarly meetings sponsored by the Garden and Landscape Studies program at Dumbarton Oaks. These meetings provide a forum for the presentation of advanced research on garden history, landscape architecture, and urban landscapes; they support a deepened understanding of landscape as a field of knowledge and as a practice carried out by landscape architects, landscape artists, and gardeners.

Below are the in-print works in this collection. Sort by title, author, format, publication date, or price »

12.Cover: The Dutch Garden in the Seventeenth Century

The Dutch Garden in the Seventeenth Century

Hunt, John Dixon

A group of scholars, mostly Dutch, surveys what has been called the “golden age“ of Dutch garden design. Essays discuss the political context of William’s building and gardening activities at his palace; the development of a distinctively Dutch garden art during the 17th century; country house poetry; and specific estates and their gardens.

14.Cover: The Vernacular Garden

The Vernacular Garden

Hunt, John Dixon
Wolschke-Bulmahn, Joachim

Much has been written on the traditions of elite gardens but little attention has been directed to the gardens of more humble and popular cultures that reflect regional, localized, ethnic, personal, or folk creations. These articles reflect growing interest in a range of cultural artifacts that demonstrate how culture influences surroundings.

17.Cover: John Evelyn’s “Elysium Britannicum” and European Gardening

John Evelyn’s “Elysium Britannicum” and European Gardening

O'Malley, Therese
Wolschke-Bulmahn, Joachim

John Evelyn (1620–1706) was a pivotal figure in 17th-century intellectual life in England. The contributors approach him and his work from diverse disciplines: architectural and intellectual history and histories of science, agriculture, gardens, and literature. They present the “Elysium Britannicum” as a central document of late European humanism.

18.Cover: Nature and Ideology: Nature and Garden Design in the Twentieth Century

Nature and Ideology: Nature and Garden Design in the Twentieth Century

Wolschke-Bulmahn, Joachim

The essays in this volume explore the broad range of ideas about nature reflected in twentieth-century concepts of natural gardens and their ideological implications. They also investigate garden designers’ use of earlier ideas of natural gardens and their relationship to the rich model that nature offers.

19.Cover: Places of Commemoration: Search for Identity and Landscape Design

Places of Commemoration: Search for Identity and Landscape Design

Wolschke-Bulmahn, Joachim

Places of Commemoration examines commemorative sites of different character, including gardens, landscapes, memorials, cemeteries, and sites of former Nazi concentration camps, detailing the ideas behind the creation of memorials and monuments and the struggles over the narratives they present.

21.Cover: Perspectives on Garden Histories

Perspectives on Garden Histories

Conan, Michel

Garden history is a discipline of contested purposes. Perspectives on Garden Histories contributes to a self-critical examination of this emergent field of study, at the same time offering an overview of its main achievements in several domains—such as Italian and Mughal gardens—and of the new kinds of investigation to which they have led.

25.Cover: Baroque Garden Cultures: Emulation, Sublimation, Subversion

Baroque Garden Cultures: Emulation, Sublimation, Subversion

Conan, Michel

Baroque Garden Cultures proposes a new approach to the study of baroque gardens, examining the social reception of gardens as a means to understand garden culture in general and exploring baroque gardens as a feature of baroque cultures in particular.

27.Cover: Performance and Appropriation: Profane Rituals in Gardens and Landscapes

Performance and Appropriation: Profane Rituals in Gardens and Landscapes

Conan, Michel

Breaking with the idea that gardens are places of indulgence and escapism, these studies of ritualized practices reveal that gardens in Europe, Asia, the United States, and the Caribbean have in fact made significant contributions to cultural change.

28.Cover: Botanical Progress, Horticultural Innovations, and Cultural Changes

Botanical Progress, Horticultural Innovations, and Cultural Changes

Conan, Michel
Kress, W. John

This book highlights religious, artistic, political, and economic consequences of horticultural pursuits, exploring the roles of peasants, botanists, horticulturists, nurserymen, and gentlemen collectors in these developments, and offering a reflection on horticulture’s future in the context of environmental devastation and ecological uncertainty.

29.Cover: Contemporary Garden Aesthetics, Creations and Interpretations

Contemporary Garden Aesthetics, Creations and Interpretations

Conan, Michel

The present renewal of garden art demands a new approach to garden aesthetics. This book considers exceptional creations around the world and proposes new forms of garden experience using a variety of critical perspectives.

32.Cover: Clio in the Italian Garden: Twenty-First–Century Studies in Historical Methods and Theoretical Perspectives

Clio in the Italian Garden: Twenty-First–Century Studies in Historical Methods and Theoretical Perspectives

Beneš, Mirka
Lee, Michael G.

Italian gardens have received more attention from historians than perhaps any other garden tradition. This volume presents eight richly illustrated essays by established and emerging scholars that suggest striking new directions, both quantitative and methodological, for future research.

34.Cover: Designing Wildlife Habitats

Designing Wildlife Habitats

Beardsley, John

Whether threatened by habitat destruction or climate change, many wild animals have failed to thrive in the company of humans. The essays in Designing Wildlife Habitats explore how landscape architects and garden designers are drawing on the insights and practices of conservation ecology to create productive ecosystems and promote biodiversity.

35.Cover: Technology and the Garden

Technology and the Garden

Lee, Michael G.
Helphand, Kenneth I.

Technology and the Garden examines the role of technology in the shaping and visualization of landscapes. Essays discuss topics including the development of horticultural technologies; the construction of landscape through hydraulics, labor, and infrastructure; and the effect of emerging technologies on the experience of landscape.

36.Cover: Food and the City: Histories of Culture and Cultivation

Food and the City: Histories of Culture and Cultivation

Imbert, Dorothée

Food and the City explores the physical, social, and political relations between the production of food and urban settlements. Essays offer a variety of perspectives—from landscape and architectural history to geography—on the multiple scales and ideologies of productive landscapes across the globe from the sixteenth century to the present.

37.Cover: Cultural Landscape Heritage in Sub-Saharan Africa

Cultural Landscape Heritage in Sub-Saharan Africa

Beardsley, John

Cultural Landscape Heritage in Sub-Saharan Africa studies landscape spaces created by and for Africans themselves, from the precolonial era to the present. Contributors explore how these landscapes were understood in the colonial era and how they are being recuperated today for nation building, identity formation, and cultural affirmation.

38.Cover: Sound and Scent in the Garden

Sound and Scent in the Garden

Ruggles, D. Fairchild

Sound and Scent in the Garden explores the experiences of sound and smell as dimensions of garden design. The contributors explore the sensory experience of gardens as places and demonstrate a wide variety of approaches to apply to the study of sensory history.

39.Cover: River Cities, City Rivers

River Cities, City Rivers

Way, Thaïsa

Cities have been built alongside rivers throughout history—shaping the development of urban landscapes and altering ecologies. Yet we have rarely given these urban landscapes their due. River Cities, City Rivers explores how such histories have shaped the present and how they might inform our visions of the future.

40.Cover: Landscape and the Academy

Landscape and the Academy

Beardsley, John
Bluestone, Daniel

Universities are custodians of some of the most significant designed landscapes in the world. Landscape and the Academy complements the growing body of literature in architectural history, cultural geography, and education by examining the role of landscape in creating academic communities.

41.Cover: Landscapes of Preindustrial Urbanism

Landscapes of Preindustrial Urbanism

Farhat, Georges

The Industrial Revolution is seen as a turning point in the emergence of the metropolis. But, as Landscapes of Preindustrial Urbanism shows, features associated with contemporary urban landscapes can also be found in preindustrial contexts. A group of essays examine how clusters of agrarian communities evolved into the earliest cities.

42.Cover: Military Landscapes

Military Landscapes

Tchikine, Anatole
Davis, John Dean

Military Landscapes seeks to develop a nuanced definition of military landscapes under the framework of landscape theory. It moves beyond discussions of infrastructure and battlefields, shifting the focus instead to often overlooked factors, highlighting the historical character of militarized environments as inherently gendered and racialized.

43.Cover: Landscapes for Sport: Histories of Physical Exercise, Sport, and Health

Landscapes for Sport: Histories of Physical Exercise, Sport, and Health

Dümpelmann, Sonja

Landscapes for Sport explores the intersection of place, body cultures, and politics. With a focus on outdoor spaces designed and used for exercise and sports since the early modern period, this volume uncovers the relevance and meanings of the overlooked landscapes that often constitute significant areas of open space in and outside our cities.

44.Cover: Segregation and Resistance in the Landscapes of the Americas

Segregation and Resistance in the Landscapes of the Americas

Avila, Eric
Way, Thaïsa

Histories of racial segregation and its impacts have been the focus of urban research for over a century, and yet the role of space, place, and land in these narratives has been largely overlooked. With a focus on the Americas, the essays in this volume move across time and space to ask questions about place-making and community building.

45.Cover: Land Back: Relational Landscapes of Indigenous Resistance across the Americas

Land Back: Relational Landscapes of Indigenous Resistance across the Americas

Dorries, Heather
Daigle, Michelle

Land Back highlights the ways Indigenous peoples and anti-colonial co-resistors understand land relations for political resurgence and freedom across the Americas. Contributors place Indigenous practices of freedom within Indigenous laws, cosmologies, and diplomacies, while demonstrating how Indigeneity is shaped across colonial borders.

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