The Garden Club of America: One Hundred Years of a Growing Legacy

by William Seale

How women changed the American landscape from planting war victory gardens to saving the redwoods, beautifying the highway to creating horticultural standards.

In 1904, Elizabeth Price Martin founded the Garden Club of Philadelphia. In 1913, twelve garden clubs in the eastern and central United States signed an agreement to form the Garden Guild. The Garden Guild would later become the Garden Club of America (GCA), now celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2013. GCA is a volunteer nonprofit organization comprised of 200 member clubs and approximately 18,000 members throughout the country.

Comprised of all women, GCA has emerged as a national leader in the fields of horticulture, conservation, and civic improvement. As an example, in 1930, GCA was a key force in preserving the redwood forests of California, helping to create national awareness for the need to preserve these forests, along with contributing funds to purchase land on which they stood. The Garden Club of America Grove and the virgin forest tract of Canoe Creek contain some of the finest specimens of the redwood forests.

The Garden Club of America is a centennial celebration of strong women who nurtured the country, helped spread the good word of gardening, and continue to plant seeds of awareness.

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

William Seale was an American historian and author whose work focused on historical writing and the restoration of historic American buildings, notably state capitols. He attended Southwestern University in Texas and completed his Ph.D. at Duke University in North Carolina. An independent author since 1965, he wrote extensively on the White House and participated in the restoration of many state capitols. He was the founding editor of White House History Quarterly, the award-winning quarterly journal of the White House Historical Association, and author of The Imperial Season; The Tasteful Interlude: American Interiors Through the Camera’s Eye; Recreating the Historic House Interior; The Virginia Governor’s Mansion; Temples of Democracy; The State Capitols of the USA, and many others. With the Association, he provided commentary for At Home in the President’s Neighborhood: A Photographic Tour and authored numerous books including: The President’s House: A History; The White House Garden; The White House: The History of an American Idea; An Artist Visits the White House Past; The Night They Burned the White House: The Story of Tom Freeman’s Painting, the 23rd edition of The White House: An Historic Guide; Blair House: The President’s Guest House; A White House of Stone: Building America’s First Ideal in Architecture; and the forthcoming title Life on Lafayette Park.