Windsor T. White estate. Chagrin Falls, Ohio. Photo by Carol Betsch.


English Garden, Stan Hywet Hall, F.A. Selberling estate, Akron, Ohio. Photo by Carol Betsch.


Rectangular pool, Holmdene, Edward Lowe estate, Grand Rapids, MI, 1921. Photo by Mattie Edwards Hewitt, c. 1923. RMC-Cornell University Library.


Windsor T. White Estate. Chagrin Falls, Ohio. Photo by Carol Betsch.


Rynwood, Samuel E. Salvage estate, Glen Head, NY. RMC-Cornell University Library.


Mary and Neltje Pruyn garden, 1920, East Hampton, NY (photo by Mattie Edwards Hewitt, c. 1923. RMC-Cornell University Library.


Walled garden, Old Farms, Alanson L. Daniels estate, Wenham, MA, 1913. Photo by Edith Hastings Tracy. RMC-Cornell University Library.


Garden, Girdle Ridge, William F. Fahnestock estate, Katonah, NY, c. 1912. Photo by Jessie Tarbox Beals. RMC-Cornell University Library.

The Gardens of Ellen Biddle Shipman
Judith B. Tankard

Sagapress/Abrams

$39.95

To order, email info@lalh.org

Winner of the American Horticultural Society Book Award

“Fascinating, historic, poignant.”
—The New York Times

“It is a handsome book, valuable not only to historians and garden designers, but also to every garden maker. The details and explanations offered by Tankard reveal much of the garden designer’s art.” —George Waters, Pacific Horticulture

BETWEEN 1914 AND 1950, Ellen Biddle Shipman (1869–1950) designed more than 650 gardens from Cornish, New Hampshire, to New Orleans. Her imaginative approach merged elements from the Colonial Revival and Arts and Crafts movements with a distinctive ability to create sensual, secluded landscapes. Despite the disadvantages of being a divorced mother of three, Shipman succeeded in establishing a thriving New York City practice. She was an advocate for women in the profession and trained several other successful designers in her all-female office.

In The Gardens of Ellen Biddle Shipman author Judith Tankard describes Shipman’s remarkable life and discusses fifty of her major works. Richly illustrated with plans and photographs, the book reveals Shipman’s ability to combine plants for dramatic impact and create spaces of the utmost intimacy.

An introduction by Leslie Rose Close discusses Shipman’s work in the context of other successful women in the profession. The afterword by John Franklin Miller describes the restoration of the Shipman garden at Stan Hywet Hall in Akron, Ohio. Appendixes include geographically arranged client lists.