No “Gross Offenses against Good Taste in Landscape Art”: The Pre-Professional Era in Garden and Forest

Abstract

Landscape architecture is a relatively young profession. Anecdotal evidence suggests it is not well understood by today’s general public. Although isolating causes for this would be a complex undertaking, contributing factors may emerge with increased understanding of the profession’s history. This paper examines the pre-professional era between 1850 and 1900, immediately prior to the formal landmarks of the profession’s establishment. Garden and Forest, a weekly magazine published near the end of this period, serves as a source for issues and for understanding how practitioners, advocates, and an interested public discussed them. Questions relating to the profession of landscape architecture include its focus, such as an appropriate name for the profession; its scope of work; its relation to other professions; and the value of its contributions to society. This study provides thematic analysis of the manifest content, followed by examination of latent content and frequency where appropriate. It also addresses three major areas of discourse regarding professionalism: identity; status and markets; and domain, service, and value. This study argues that the profession was substantially redefined by the end of the 1800s through the pursuit of new landscape types, projects of larger scale, and other changes in practice.