Arboriculture & Urban Forestry 48(6): November 2022 (Jonnes 2016). Urban greening and urban forestry are also closely related to botany (“the scientific study of plants and plant-like organisms”)(Shipunov 2021); horticulture (“the science and art of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, or ornamental plants”)(Relf 1992); and forestry (“the profession dealing with under- standing, managing, and conserving forests”)(Helms 2002). Today there are clear distinctions between these disciplines, but during Harrison’s time, scholar- ship across these fields was more fluid (Stichweh 2008). During the Progressive Era of the early 20th cen- tury in the USA, women made significant contribu- tions to greening their cities (Merchant 1984). Women played important roles as horticulturalists, street tree planters, activists, and professionals in botany and the nursery trade (Roman et al. 2018). This stemmed, in part, from Linnean botany being a popular and fash- ionable science in the early 19th century. Botany attracted more women compared to other fields of science (Lightman 2007). Additionally, botany was considered a “feminine science” (Shteir 1997): floral subjects were considered by many Victorians to be “naturally” acceptable for women (Tucker 2006). By the late 19th century, the association of women with flowers had become so profuse that botany had become known as the “feminine science par excellence” (Schiebinger 1993). The study of botany, interest in flora, and gardening as a hobby were seen as an exten- sion of women’s domestic sphere (Morin 2008), or even referred to as an “outdoor branch of household management” (Madsen and Furlong 1994). The study of plants, rather than the study of insects, was regarded as an “innocent pursuit for women as it did not involve cruelty” (Wulf 2009). Botany was seen as delicate and elegant, as described in a Gentleman’s Magazine article that stated, “nurture of exotics not only being an elegant home amusement, but because of there being much delicate work, essential to the welfare of plants that is more dexterously performed by the pli- ant fingers of women, than by the clumsy paws of men” (Shteir 1996). During the same time period, forestry and wilderness were gendered masculine. As environmental histo- rian William Cronon has observed, “In the wilderness, a man could be a real man, the rugged individual he was meant to be before civilization sapped his energy and threatened his masculinity” (Cronon 1996). Other scholars have described the historical wilderness 335 movement in the USA as idealizing “the physically fit, masculine, and white body” (Ray and Sibara 2017). Wilderness was a place for men to escape civilization and restore their masculinity, while for women, urban greening was part of their “domestic” work, reinforcing gendered divisions (Dümpelmann 2019). Women, like Harrison, pushed the boundaries of what was deemed appropriate feminine work at the time; however, women’s involvement in urban greening projects was considered an appropriate means of being socially involved in their cities. Dating back to the mid-19th century, women have been concerned with and cared for domestic architec- ture, health reforms, and environmental hygiene (Adams 1996; Flanagan 2002; Kiechle 2017). Prior to the Civil War and in line with miasma theory, women worked to protect household air quality and olfaction from disease through cultivating fragrant smells from recipes, making potpourri, and planting flower beds (Kiechle 2017). Stemming from women’s actions toward improving environmental hygiene within the domestic sphere during the 19th century, in the 20th century, this idea was extended onto city streets as addendums to household domestic spaces, as demon- strated by Dümpelmann (2019). In New York City, for example, sanitation engineer George Waring con- sidered women’s involvement in street tree planting to be “naturally out of the habit of good housekeep- ing,” and the early feminist Mary Ritter Beard stated that, “Arboriculture for decorative purposes has always been an interest of [women] in their own home plots and now they have extended it to the dec- oration of their municipal homes” (Dümpelmann 2019). The term “municipal housekeeping” was uti- lized to describe women’s work in civic improve- ment. While male professionals built boulevards and civic monuments, female volunteers “built the places of everyday life, the neighborhood institutions with- out which a city is not a city,” demonstrating the role of gender in the creation of an urban landscape (Spain 2001). Women’s roles in city beautification allowed them to push the boundaries of what they could do in their civic life while participating in activities that were still considered appropriate for their gender. Most of the women involved in early urban greening, botany, horticulture, and forestry were members of the upper class, where philanthropic or charitable pursuits were common, and “tree planting and protec- tion held a special appeal” (Dümpelmann 2019). The ©2022 International Society of Arboriculture
November 2022
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