Charles Darling’s Photographs of Concord Gardens, 1920-1929
Vault B5, Unit 24
EXTENT: One container.
ORGANIZATION: One series, listed chronologically, then alphabetically within each year.
BIOGRAPHIES: Photographer Charles Darling is associated with the towns of Medford and Salem, Massachusetts. Darling was a photographer in the style of Wallace Nutting, concentrating primarily on antiquarian subjects. Mrs. Florence Taft Eaton, born in Uxbridge, Massachusetts in 1857, was the wife of William Lorenzo Eaton, a principal and superintendent of the Concord Public Schools. They had four sons and a daughter. Mrs. Eaton was a prolific writer in her later years, writing on both domestic and historical topics, including district schools, Thanksgiving in New England, Ephraim Bull’s Concord grape, and the “up-to-the-minute kitchen.” In 1928 she published a piece titled “Broader Horizons for Women.” Several of her articles are available in William Munroe Special Collections. Mrs. Eaton died in 1939.
SCOPE & CONTENT: The collection consists of twenty-nine photographs of various Concord gardens taken between 1920 and 1929 by photographer Charles Darling, at least in part to illustrate a series of articles by Florence Taft Eaton. Gardens include those of Mr. Stedman Buttrick, Mrs. Sherman Hoar, architect Harry Little and Mrs. Russell Robb.
SOURCE OF ACQUISITION: Source undiscovered.
PROCESSED BY: C. Manoli-Skocay, April 2014.
Container List
1920
Folder 1: Ralph Waldo Emerson House, Cambridge Turnpike, Concord. Mrs. Florence Taft Eaton in the garden, [ca. 1920].
1922
Folder 2: House of Mr. Charles Pepper, Elm Street, Concord. Taken the year following the great ice storm (1921), 1922.
1925
Folder 3: Mr. Charles S. Richardson garden, River Street, Concord. Vegetable garden, view looking across the river toward Wood Street, [ca. 1925].
1927
Folder 4: Mrs. Alfred Curtis garden, 1927.
Folder 5: Mr. Harry Little garden, “The Edge of the Wood” at Littleholme, 1927 (includes negative).
Folder 6: Old hemlocks, Assabet River (north branch), Concord, 1927.
Folder 7: Stone House garden, Lexington Road, Concord, 1927.
1927 & 1929
Folder 8: Mrs. Russell Robb garden, Monument Street, Concord. “Up to the Hill,”; Mrs. Robb’s garden (vertical orientation, with birch trees); Mrs. Robb’s garden, with manicured path between flower beds; Mrs. Robb’s garden, with manicured path, fence, shed, all 1927.
Folder 9: Mrs. Russell Robb garden, Monument Street, Concord. Informal hillside rock planting; hillside rock planting (two copies); the “garden path”; showing path (curved); showing path (manicured); showing house (two copies), all 1929.
Folder 10: The Wayside, Lexington Road, Concord. Side yard (west) and boulder leading to path, 1927.
Folder 11: The Wayside, Lexington Road, Concord. Stone steps leading to the ridge at the rear of the house, 1929.
1929
Folder 12: Mr. Stedman Buttrick garden, Monument Street, Concord. On the old Buttrick farm, Concord River in distance; showing Buttrick Mansion; 7 additional images showing plantings, paths, walls, gate, 1929.
Folder 13: Mrs. Charles F. Edgarton, Sr. garden, Main Street, Concord. Terrace garden, view overlooking river toward northwest and Nashawtuc Hill, 1929.
Folder 14: Mrs. Sherman Hoar garden at Battle Lawn, Liberty Street, Concord; conservatory at Battle Lawn, 1929.
c2014 Concord Free Public Library, Concord, Mass.
Not to be reproduced in any form without permission of the Curator of the William Munroe Special Collections, Concord Free Public Library.
Mounted 21st April, 2014. rcwh.