Smithsonian’s Archives of American Gardens wins Award

Arcady (Knapp Estate), Santa Barbara, California, c. 1930 Hand-colored glass lantern slide Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, Garden Club of America Collection

Newswise reports that The Archives of American Gardens (AAG) which is part of part of the Smithsonian Gardens, has ben awarded the 2012 American Public Gardens Association Award for Program Excellence. This annual award recognizes exemplary public garden programming that has been a pioneer in a discipline related to public horticultural institutions.

The AAG is a wonderful resource for garden historians while simultaneously preserving America’s garden heritage.  Founded in 1987 the archive now holds in excess 100,000 images (of which more than 30,000 have been digitized and are available on-line) and supplemental files documenting 7,000 gardens from the late 19th century to today.

Barbara Faust, director of the AAG comments “The wide diversity of gardens documented in the Archives makes it an exceptional source of information for researchers,” adding that  “Gardens documented in the AAG contribute to a significant sampling of garden history for people today and in the future.”