Scope and Contents: Twenty four black and white photographs and 4 color photographs of the Dumbarton Oaks Garden, Ellipse.The plans for the Ellipse were the result of close collaboration between Beatrix Farrand and Mildred Bliss. The basic outline of the design first occurred to Mildred Bliss as a child, and she consulted on the original design and all subsequent changes. The Ellipse began as a loose oval hedge of tall, rumpled boxwoods about fifteen to twenty feet high. The hedge followed the slope...

Scope and Contents: 13 black and white photographs of the Dumbarton Oaks, 32nd Street facade, Washington, D.C. The 32nd Street walls and wood gates as well as the walls and iron gates of S Street were designed by Beatrix Farrand in the 1920s. Inscription tablets were placed on the wall along 32nd Street after the estate property was donated by Robert and Mildred Bliss to Harvard University in 1940.The 32nd Street facade is also known as 32nd Street border, 32nd Street drive, 32nd Street entrance,...

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30 black and white and 2 color photographs of aerial views of the Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C. estate. Includes 1 black and white photograph of a painting with an aerial view of the estate. This painting hangs above the fireplace in the Dumbarton Oaks Music Room.

Scope and Contents: 23 black and white photographs and 3 color photographs of the Dumbarton Oaks Garden, Arbor Terrace. One black and white photograph is of a print. First designed in the early 1920s as an herb garden by Beatrix Farrand, landscape gardener, with a fountain, arbor, and balcony, it was later re-designed as a terrace by Ruth Havey, landscape architect. Ruth Havey kept the fountain, arbor, and balcony features of the Beatrix Farrand design. Over the years it has been referred to as Arbor Terrace,...

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13 black and white photographs and 1 color photograph of the Dumbarton Oaks Garden, Beech Terrace, Washington, D.C. Beatrix Farrand, landscape gardener, designed the space around a large Beech tree in the 1920s and added iron furniture in the 1930s.

The Beech Terrace is also known as Terrace A.

Scope and Contents: The Bowling Green was first designed by Beatrix Farrand with inspiration gained from 18th-century Colonial period estate gardens, many of which featured sunken ornamental lawns. It is located between the Copse and the Director’s House and Terrace on the Dumbarton Oaks property. The division between the Copse and the Bowling Green is signaled by a significant drop in elevation; a stone retaining wall borders the Bowling Green on the south. The wall, topped with stone piers and swags of bronze...

Scope and Contents: Five black and white photographs and five color photographs of the Cherry Hill informal garden area in the Dumbarton Oaks Garden, Washington, D.C. This garden area is an example of one of the few plantings where Beatrix Farrand, landscape gardener, played with variations on a single type of bloom. On this remote hillside in the far northeastern corner of the property, she experimented with juxtaposing several varieties of cherry tree in one lush concentration. To add depth to the design,...

Scope and Contents: Three black and white photographs and two color photographs of Crabapple Hill, a garden area in the Dumbarton Oaks Garden, Washington, D.C.Crabapple Hill is one of a number of plantings Beatrix Farrand, landscape gardener, planned to feature a variety of similar blooms en masse. This hillside, located north of the swimming pool, is covered with crabapples and edged with low shrubs. The trees are planted in approximately four rows, in a triangular shape stretching down the slope....

Scope and Contents: Seven black and white photographs of exterior and interior views of the Director's House and Terrace. Before 1941, the building that anchored the southern side of the Service Court was the Garage. The second-floor residential rooms housed some of the Blisses’ male staff.After the Robert and Mildred Bliss gifted Dumbarton Oaks to Harvard University, architect Thomas T. Waterman converted the upstairs living areas into a single residence for John Thacher and his family. The...

Scope and Contents: Thirty-seven black and white photographs, 2 color photographs, and a collection of photographs with drawings and notes of the Dumbarton Oaks Park which refers to the 27-acre parcel of land that Robert and Mildred Bliss donated to the National Park Service in 1940. The acreage is now considered a part of Rock Creek Park.When it was part of the Bliss estate, the park belonged to Beatrix Farrand’s garden design. It served as a rustic counterpoint to the complex and formal garden...

Scope and Contents: Twenty black and white photographs and 5 color photographs of the Dumbarton Oaks Garden, East Lawn is an unbroken expanse of grass stretching from the entrance of the house southeast to the R Street wall.In her Plant Book for Dumbarton Oaks, Beatrix Farrand, landscape gardener called the East Lawn “one of the loveliest of the features of Dumbarton Oaks in its freedom from detail” (p. 20). To frame the open lawn, Farrand planned perimeter plantings chosen for their size and...

Scope and Contents: Photographs of the Dumbarton Oaks property taken between 1920 when Mildred and Robert Bliss bought the estate property and 1979 including and beyond when it was donated to Harvard University in 1940. The early photographs from approximately 1920-1949 are in black and white. Later photographs from approximately 1950-1979 are in color.Those that photographed the Dumbarton Oaks Garden included Stewart Bros. Photographer (Washington, D.C.); Ursula Pariser, Dumbarton Oaks staff...

Scope and Contents: One black and white photograph of the Lilac Circle. The garden area was designed by Beatrix Farrand, landscape gardener in the 1930s. The garden area sits at the furthest northeast corner of the gardens, between the Kitchen Gardens and the Trompe L’Oeil. It was redesigned and replanted several times over the years.The first plan called for lilacs to be planted in the circular bed, but the plants quickly failed due to the overwhelming shade in that corner of the garden. When the...

Scope and Contents: 34 black and white photographs of the Dumbarton Oaks, R Street facade, Washington, D.C. The brick walls, walkways, and initial wood entrance gates were designed by Beatrix Farrand, landscape gardener in the 1920s and early 1930s. In the 1950s, Ruth Havey replaced the wood gates with iron gates with gold gilding. The R Street facade has also been referred to by some of the architectural elements: Entrance gates, Gatehouse, Inner edges of East Lawn, Porter's lodge, R Street border, and R...

Scope and Contents: Seven black and white photographs of The Superintendent’s Cottage, sometimes called the Gardener’s Cottage at Dumbarton Oaks. It fronts S Street, Washington, D.C. located just west of the Service Court gates.In 1923, Mildred Bliss suggested to her architects that they build a duplex to house the butler and the head gardener, William Gray and his family. Following her suggestion, they planned the small gabled house to be a part of the Service Court Quadrangle. However, when the...

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Signed handwritten letter from Bessie J. Kibbey to Mildred Bliss thanks her for allowing her the pleasure of spending time in the Dumbarton Oaks Garden with her friend Mrs. Bishop and her husband.

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Signed handwritten letter by Josephine Poe January probably sent to Mildred Bliss following time spent at Dumbarton Oaks.

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Signed handwritten letter from Katharine McKiever, Acting Secretary of the Washington Unit of the Women's Overseas League writing on behalf of the organization, to Mildred Bliss thanks her for the garden party and the privilege of the garden experience, and for being such as gracious hostess.

Scope and Contents: Signed handwritten letter from Loulie Hooper Thoron to Mildred Bliss telling her she wandered the Dumbarton Oaks Garden going from "one beautiful terrace to another drinking in the taste and knowledge of the artist planner and artist owners who had put together such gardens for the delight of birds and men. She reports it was a divine hour of the day and one of Spring's loveliest moments. Loulie wishes that Uncle Henry [Adams] were here to see what Mildred Bliss and Beatrix Farrand have...

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Signed handwritten letter from Lucretia del Valle Grady to Mildred Bliss thanking her for a gracious Spring evening and delightful memory.

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Signed handwritten letter from Marcelle CaSargi or CaSargie to Mildred Bliss thanking her for letting hime see the Dumbarton Oaks Garden. He says the garden is a spot of beauty and poetry, such a carpet of beautiful beautiful flowers ... [and] a work of art.

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Signed handwritten letter from Mary Callaway Jones (Mrs. Frank F.) to Mildred Bliss tells her expresses her appreciation for sharing the Dumbarton Oaks Gardens, Washington, D.C. with her as a member of the Council of Colonial Dames.

Scope and Contents: Signed handwritten letter from [first name illegible] Clark Jackson (Mrs. Richard Fay Jackson) expressing appreciation for the beauty of the Dumbarton Oaks Garden, and she was hoping to be able to tell her in person. She mentions "So many of the luncheon guests at the Horticultural luncheon have said it [the garden] was all a 'bit of heaven' and they wished they might have told you in person." Quite possibly a group of persons as a member of a horticultural organization toured the garden or...

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Signed handwritten letter to Mildred Bliss thanking her for the hospitality, kindness, house, and garden tour. Unable to decipher the signature of the writer. The correspondent wants to send Mildred Lawrence of Arabia's translaton of "Forest Giant" for its philsophy and book on trees and hopes Mildred Bliss admires Lawrence (Shaw) as much as he/she does.

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Picture postcard with signed handwritten note from Francis Dvornik to Robert Woods Bliss and Mildred Bliss thanking them for a recent enjoyable conversation with them. He informs them he is in Canada at a French retreat house (photo on postcard is of Villa Saint-Martin, Maison de Retraites Fermees per hommes, 9451 boulevard Gouin ouest, Pierrafonds, Quebec) and said mass for them and the success for Dumbarton Oaks.