Episode 05: Mariana Griswold van Rensselaer
Mariana Alley Griswold was born on February 25, 1851, to a wealthy family in New York. Mariana was educated at home by private tutors. Her social status allowed her to make connections with prominent figures in America and aboard. Such relationships include working with Frederick Law Olmsted and H.H. Richardson. These connections and previous editorial works led her to be a writer for the Chicago World's Fair publication "Rand's, McNally & Co.'s Handbook of the World's Columbian Exposition." Some of her notable works include her criticism of the Boston Public Library, Madison Square Garden both designed by McKim, Mead, and White. she also wrote about topics related to architect-client relations, advocating for clients to seek guidance from an architect - no matter how small. "Educating people", she once remarked, "was one of the two things worth doing in the world"—and she succeeded. Her historical and critical writings on landscape architecture would educate generations of students, amateurs, educators, and practitioners.
Publications:
Art Out-of-Doors: Hints on Good Taste in Gardening. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1893; new and enlarged ed., New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1925.
Accents as Well as Broad Effects: Writings on Architecture, Landscape, and the Environment, 1876–1925. Edited by David Gebhard. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996.
Book of American Figure Painters. London: J. C. Nimmo, 1886.
Henry Hobson Richardson and His Works. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1888.
English Cathedrals: Canterbury, Peterborough, Durham, Salisbury, Lichfield, Lincoln, Ely, Wells, Winchester, Gloucester, York, London. New York: The Century Co., 1893.
History of the City of New York in the Seventeenth Century. 2 vols. New York: Macmillan, 1909.
Caryatid: Donna Sink
Donna Sink is a practicing architect at Rowland Design based in Indianapolis. Prior to working at Rowland, Donna was a self-employed Architect, working on small residential projects. She also was the campus architect at Indianapolis Museum of Art and she’s involved in the local arts and design community as past President and current member of the Indiana chapter of AIA, a board member at People for Urban Progress and a member of the Indianapolis Sign Ordinance Revision Task Force. In 2016, the Indianapolis Business Journal named her a “Women of Influence.”
References
Upton, D. (n.d.). Mariana Griswold Van Rensselaer. Retrieved August 25, 2020, from https://pioneeringwomen.bwaf.org/mariana-griswold-van-rensselaer
Images (in order):
Title image from: President and Fellows of Harvard College, Archives of Arnold Arboretum
Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer (Mariana Griswold), Art Out of Doors (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1893, 1903). Cover designed by Margaret Armstrong, a well-known botanical illustrator.
Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer (Mariana Griswold), title page of Henry Hobson Richardson and His Works, 1888. Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. Rand, McNally & Co.’s Handbook of the World’s Columbian Exposition. Vol. 1, Chicago, Illinois, Chicago, Rand, McNally & company, 1893.
Major, Judith. Mariana Griswold Van Rensselaer. Amsterdam-Netherlands, Netherlands, Amsterdam University Press, 2013.
Major, Judith K. “Mariana Griswold Van Rensselaer | The Cultural Landscape Foundation.” Tclf.Org, tclf.org/pioneer/mariana-van-rensselaer/biography-mariana-van-rensselaer. Accessed 26 May 2020.
