Nostalgic Publications

By  the 19th century, American industry expanded increasing urbanization and a creating a loud nostalgic call for how life used to be.  This longing for the “good old days” increased the interest in gardening.  Publications on gardening as as Jane Loudon ‘s Gardening for Ladies 1840 instructed women on gardening practices  specific to their gender. It includes revolutionary inventions like the women’s wheelbarrow (insert pdf page). Other published works that contributed to the feminization of gardening are The American Woman’s Home by Catherine Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe (1869), Gardening By Myself  by Anna Warner (1872), Rural Hours by Susan Fenimore Cooper (1887). Andrew Jackson Downing’s work at the magazine the Horticulturist along with the many publications he penned also shaped women’s relationship to gardening. All of these texts were written with the intention to shape the lifestyles of American women. Today’s natural association of women and nature is a reflection of this group of authors success.  (insert select pdfs of these texts)