415 
PARK AND CEME-TE-RY 
IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATIONS 
CONDUCTED BY 
MRS, FRANCES COPLEY SEAVEY. 
WOMEN AS LANDSCAPE GARDENERS, 
IN THE HARDEN AT LOWTHORPE. 
One hears numerous inquiries about landscape gar-- 
dening as a profession for women, and as a large share 
of improvement work involves a knowledge of this 
art-science, and as an equally large share of imiirove- 
ment work devolves upon women, it does not seem in- 
appropriate to devote our space this month to a con- 
sideration of women's opportunities for securing the 
necessary training for this profession. 
There are at present a few women practicing the 
art, at least one of whom has an international reputa- 
tion, Miss Fanny R. Wilkinson, London, Eng., who 
received her first training at the Cry.stal Palace, where 
she had difficulty in gaining admission, as the classes 
were at first intended for men only, but, as she says, 
“I persevered and they finally consented to take me. 
Later, I studied under the late iNIr. Edward Milner, 
the well-known landscape gardener, and his son, who 
were both most kind and patient. I worked very 
hard, hut enjoyed the life exceedingly and when I 
had finished my course 1 settled here (London) to 
commence on my own account, and have been most 
successful in getting work.” iMiss Wilkinson has 
been established at 6 Gower street some eight years 
and sometimes has one or more young women with 
known, the first American woman to take a regular 
course of study in conscious preparation for the pro- 
fessional practice of landscape gardening. Miss Jones, 
1 am tohl. “acquired her training by studying (by spe- 
cial arrangement ) at the Arnold Arboretum, Jamaica 
Plain, Mass., under Prof. Chas. S. Sargent, studving 
tloricultnre at the same time at the Bussey Institute 
near by, and by taking a course in the nec- 
essary principles of architecture and 
draughting from a private tutor, under the 
supervision of Prof. Ware, of the Depart- 
ment of Architecture at Columbia College, 
New York City.” Although this occurred 
“not so very long ago,” as my correspond- 
ent puts it, it was before any course in land- 
scape gardening was open to women in this 
country, the first of which was offered at 
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
in 1900 in connection with its architectural 
course. The students work in the Arnold 
Arboretum, outside of the city, as well as 
at the institute in Boston. 
More recently, a course in landscape gar- 
dening has been opened to women at the 
Horticultural School at Brier Cliff IManor, 
N. Y., and a school of horticulture and 
landscape gardening exclusively for women 
was ojiened this year, on Sept. 15, at Low- 
thorpe, Groton, Mass., by Mrs. Edward Gilchrist Low 
with the following faculty : Miss Louise Klein iMiller, 
Director and Instructor of Economic Entomology, Or- 
nithology and Geology; Miss Gertrude Sanderson, Li- 
the HOUSE AT LOWTHORPE, GROTON, MASS. 
her as students, who, after two or three years, are 
fitted to try work independently. 
Miss Beatrix Jones, of Bar Plarbor, iMe., whose 
work is said to be of the first order, is, so far as is 
I 
