Curated aspects of Beatrix Farrand’s herbarium are on display as 1:1 full color reproductions in the restored barn at Garland Farm during Open Days, tours by appointment, and special events.
2020 Exhibit
Beatrix Farrand’s Masterpiece: Dumbarton Oaks
The 2020 Herbarium Exhibition celebrates the plants of Dumbarton Oaks. Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss bought the Dumbarton Oaks property in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington D.C. 100 years ago, in 1920. The property consisted of an old-fashioned house surrounded by 53 acres of rather neglected farm fields. The Blisses engaged Beatrix Farrand to design the landscape. Mrs. Bliss wanted to include aspects of French, Italian and English gardens, but she also wanted to create a landscape that would be original and unique. She collaborated closely with Farrand from 1921 to 1947 to transform the property into one of the most beautiful landscaped gardens in the country. Farrand designed more than one hundred private and public landscapes, and Dumbarton Oaks was widely regarded as her masterpiece.
2019 Exhibit
Beatrix Farrand (1872-1959) was greatly influenced by the five people represented in the 2019 herbarium exhibition. The exhibition explores their personal gardens, the ideas that inspired their gardens, and the plants they grew.
2018 Exhibit
Landscape designer Beatrix Farrand and botanist/artist Kate Furbish made significant contributions to their fields, and dedicated themselves to studying, and educating others, about Maine’s native plants. They worked in different ways, four different purposes, at different times, and under different circumstances, but each holds a seminal place in the history of women in Maine. This exhibition pairs 39 of Farrand’s herbarium vouchers with 39 of Furbish’s illustrations to explore how their work is related.
2017 Exhibit
The 2017 herbarium exhibition features a selection of three groupings of herbaria vouchers indicating plants that had been at Reef Point and have been or are at Asticou Azalea Garden and Garland Farm.
2016 Summer Exhibition of Beatrix Farrand’s Herbarium
The Contributions of Marion I. Spaulding
Exhibition is open for viewing on Open Days: Thursdays, July 7 – Sept 15, 1-5 pm
Also available for viewing on days of programs at Garland Farm; see schedule at: http://www.beatrixfarrandsociety.org/programs/
The 2016 herbarium exhibition features the work of Marion I. Spaulding, who worked at Reef Point Gardens from 1947 to 1950. During that time, she established the Herbarium, a collection of as many as 1200 sheets that verify much of what was planted at Reef Point. The 2016 exhibition provides evidence of Spaulding’s horticultural expertise and artistic skill.
The 2015 herbarium exhibition features trees and shrubs, the plants that form the structure of landscapes. Farrand used a wide variety of evergreen and deciduous woody plants, both native and exotic, in her landscape designs. This year’s exhibition displays woody plants found at Reef Point, Farrand’s family home in Bar Harbor. The specimens were collected in 1949-1954 by Marion Spaulding and K.A. Beckett.
2014- Summer Exhibition of The 2014 herbarium exhibition features members of Ericaceae, the Heath Family. Familiar native Heath Family members such as blueberries, cranberries and mountain laurels will be displayed side-by-side with nonnative relatives such as heaths, heathers and enkianthus. The plant specimens were collected in 1949-1954 from Reef Point, Beatrix Farrand’s summer home in Bar Harbor. Read more..
View the Exhibition Brochure
View the plant Exhibition Plant List
View samples of the Herbarium Specimens
The Satterlee garden, located on Great Head, was designed by Beatrix Farrand for Louisa Morgan Satterlee in 1917. The garden thrived until it was partially destroyed in the 1947 fire which consumed over 17,000 acres on Mount Desert Island.
Black and white photographs from the Van Heerden collection