Grace Tabor

Ina Grace Tabor (24 March 1874 – 15 October 1971)^[1] was an American landscape architect, designer, writer, and editor. She was one of the first women to identify herself professionally as a landscape architect.^[2] She is best known as the author on the subjects of landscape design and horticulture.^[3] She is the author of ten garden books, most of which were published between 1910 and 1921.^[4]

Grace Tabor
Born	(1874-03-24)March 24, 1874 Cuba, New York
Died	October 15, 1971(1971-10-15) (aged 97)
Resting place	Huntington, New York
Occupation	landscape architect, writer
Nationality	American
Subject	gardening
Years active	1905-1951
Notable works	The Landscape Gardening Book (1911), Come into the Garden (1921)

Personal life and education

Grace Tabor was born on 24 March 1874 in Cuba, New York. She studied at the Arts Students League and the New York School of Applied Design for Women both in New York.^[3] Tabor acquired her horticultural training at Harvard University's Arnold Arboretum.^[4] In 1905, Tabor began writing and drawing plans for such publications as The Garden Magazine and Country Life.^[3] She became associate editor of The Garden Magazine (later The American Home); Assistant to the Director, New York State School of Applied Agriculture on Long Island.^[5]

Tabor spent most of her adult life in the New York City area.^[2] Upon retiring, she moved to south, residing in various states.^[3]

Work

In 1914-1915 Tabor started to practice landscape architecture privately, principally around New York City.^[5] She preferred to design gardens for people of average income rather than for the wealthy. As a result, her gardens were not recorded in publications as extensively as more extravagant landscapes.^[3] Because of this professional background the National War Garden Commission sent her on a promotional lecture tour during World War I in the interest of food production in War Gardens. After World War I she was made chairman of the Agricultural Section of Miss Anne Morgan's Committee for devastated France and served in this capacity during the Committee's existence.^[5]

In 1920 Tabor wrote a book Come into the Garden where she talked about the overuse of evergreens, encouraging gardeners to not only deliberately design their spaces but also add something more than shrubs and evergreens, for example, daffordills and phlox flowers.^[6]

In 1923 Tabor as a landscape architect was asked by the Woman’s Home Companion magazine to establish a Garden Department in this magazine and to work part-time as its editor.^[5][7] She began a garden column for the magazine that ran until 1941. Through the Woman’s Home Companion, which was at the time among the most influential women’s magazines in the country, Tabor reached a wide audience.^[4] She contrasted the old and new styles of gardening with a graphic rendering of a landscape before and after renovations, labeling the “before” illustration as a “mistake in landscaping”.^[8] Writing for Woman’s Home Companion Gabor was considered the doyenne of a cluster of female advice-givers on the subject.^[9]

Tabor authored ten garden books, most of which were published between 1910 and 1921.^[3] Among her most important titles should be mentioned The Landscape Gardening Book (1911) and Come into the Garden (1921), both of which interpreted design principles for a general audience.^[4] In her book Old-Fashioned Gardening (1913) Tabor introduced readers to America’s garden heritage, reflecting the popularity of the Colonial Revival.^[4] She was the first to recognize that all old-fashioned gardens are not beautiful and suggested that “by reason of their antiquity we have accepted their beauty as a matter of course.”^[2] In 1951 Tabor published her last book Making a Garden of Perennials.^[2]

In 1932 Tabor proposed planting 10 million new trees in America to celebrate the bicentennial of George Washington’s birth.^[10]

She was also an editor of The National Plant, Flower & Fruit Guild Magazine.^[3] She also contributed significantly to the magazine House and Garden, writing a monthly garden column and in-depth advanced articles on gardening.^[11]

Publications

• 1911 – The landscape gardening book, wherein are set down the simple laws of beauty and utility which should guide the development of all grounds^[12]
• 1911 – The garden primer; a practical handbook on the elements of gardening for beginners^[13]
• 1912 – Making a garden to bloom this year^[14]
• 1912 – Making the grounds attractive with shrubs^[15]
• 1912 – Making the grounds attractive with shrubbery^[16]
• 1912 – Making a bulb garden^[17]
• 1913 – Old-Fashioned gardening; a history and a reconstruction^[18]
• 1913 – Suburban gardens^[19]
• 1916 – Wonderdays and wonderways through flowerland; a summer adventure of once upon a time^[20]
• 1921 – Come into the garden^[21]
• 1934 – Herbs in cooking^[22]
• 1951 – Making a garden of perennials^[23]

References

1. "IAWA Biographical Database". iawadb.lib.vt.edu. Retrieved 2020-01-17.
2. Birnbaum, Charles A.; Hughes, Mary V. (2005). Design with Culture: Claiming America's Landscape Heritage. University of Virginia Press. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-8139-2330-7.
3. "Grace Tabor | The Cultural Landscape Foundation". tclf.org. Retrieved 2020-01-17.
4. States (Project), Catalog of Landscape Records in the United; Initiative (Project), Historic Landscape (1993). Pioneers of American Landscape Design: An Annotated Bibliography. U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Cultural Resources. p. 119. ISBN 978-0-16-041974-4.
5. "[Letter to Xavier L. Pellicer]". ufdc.ufl.edu. Retrieved 2020-01-17.
6. "Every garden old is new again: Nostalgia plants for now". EP Henry. 2019-05-13. Retrieved 2020-01-17.
7. "Harvesting the Vegetables". The Iowa Homemaker. 9 (3): 14. 1929.
8. Foy, Jessica H.; Schlereth, Thomas J. (August 1994). American Home Life, 1880-1930: A Social History of Spaces and Services. Univ. of Tennessee Press. p. 201. ISBN 978-0-87049-855-8.
9. Bradley, Patricia (2005-12-07). Women and the Press: The Struggle for Equality. Northwestern University Press. p. 102. ISBN 978-0-8101-2313-7.
10. "Nightmare on Elm Streets". www.sactownmag.com. Retrieved 2020-01-17.
11. Clayton, Virginia Tuttle (2000). The Once & Future Gardener: Garden Writing from the Golden Age of Magazines, 1900-1940. David R. Godine Publisher. p. 29. ISBN 978-1-56792-102-1.
12. Tabor, Grace (1911). The landscape gardening book, wherein are set down the simple laws of beauty and utility which should guide the development of all grounds. New York: McBride, Winston & Company. OCLC 1837042.
13. Tabor, Grace (1911). The garden primer; a practical handbook on the elements of gardening for beginners. New York: McBride, Nast & Co. OCLC 3807532.
14. Tabor, Grace (1912). Making a garden to bloom this year. New York: McBride, Nast & Company. OCLC 368753.
15. Tabor, Grace (1912). Making the grounds attractive with shrubs. New York: McBride. OCLC 3189121.
16. Tabor, Grace (1913). Making the grounds attractive with shrubbery. New York: McBride, Nast. OCLC 681232247.
17. Tabor, Grace (1912). Making a bulb garden. New York: McBride, Nast & Company. OCLC 1838042.
18. Tabor, Grace (1913). Old-fashioned gardening; a history and a reconstruction. New York: McBride, Nast & Company. OCLC 2901759.
19. Tabor, Grace (1913). Suburban gardens. New York: Outing Publishing Company. OCLC 8912509.
20. Tabor, Grace (1916). Wonderdays and wonderways through flowerland; a summer adventure of once upon a time. New York: R.M. McBride & Company. OCLC 8145805.
21. Tabor, Grace (1921). Come into the garden. New York: The Macmillan Co. OCLC 2480351.
22. Tabor, Grace (1934). Herbs in cooking. New York City: Woman's Home Companion. OCLC 51102570.
23. Tabor, Grace (1951). Making a garden of perennials. New York: McBride. OCLC 1597679.

External links

• Grace Tabor on Findgrave