Arboriculture & Urban Forestry 48(6): November 2022 this garden. Harrison had offered $5,000 to pay for restoration efforts, specifically the lily pond; how- ever, her offer was refused by city officials (Philadel- phia Public Ledger 1922). Although it is unclear why the city refused Harrison’s offer, what is unmistak- able is that women like Harrison were crucial to the revitalization of this historic garden. Remembrances After Ellen Harrison’s Death In October 1922, at the age of 76, Harrison contracted influenza while at the New Jersey seashore, and, upon returning to her summer home in suburban Philadel- phia, she passed away. Her death came as a shock to the women of the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, who wrote in commemoration, “It is hard to associate death with Mrs. Harrison: she was remarkable for her buoyant spirits; and her habit of always looking at the bright side of things made her a delightful compan- ion” (Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association of the Union 1923). Shortly after Harrison’s death, a University of Pennsylvania alumni magazine published an article entitled “The University’s Friend.” The author wrote, “By the death of Mrs. Charles Custis Harrison the University has lost a devoted friend. One of the tangi- ble evidences of her ministration during the Provost- ship of her distinguished husband was the appearance of the grounds. Many of the trees and shrubs which we now admire were planted by Mrs. Harrison’s direction” (The Alumni Register 1922). Harrison’s death and this alumni magazine article came only a year after the Garden Magazine article which over- looked Harrison (Harshberger 1921), making Harsh- berger’s omission all the more glaring. While some of Harrison’s contemporaries acknowl- edged her contributions, her work seems to have been largely forgotten shortly thereafter. Charles Harrison was celebrated for the “metamorphosis” of the uni- versity, having “transformed campus and the delights of college life,” even though the university campus under his provostship was the result of his partnership with Ellen (Thomas and Brownlee 2000). Harrison’s role in landscape design pushed the boundaries of what women could accomplish while still partaking in pursuits that were considered gender appropriate. While Harrison’s story is one example linked primar- ily to a college campus, her role demonstrates how crucial women were to early urban greening and urban forestry. DISCUSSION Harrison and her contemporaries played substantial roles in advocating for, engaging with, and initiating greening projects in their cities, especially tree plant- ing. Often, as with the case of Harrison and her female contemporaries in Philadelphia, these women were contributing their time, finances, input, and skill to landscape planting projects, but they were not finan- cially compensated for their time and expertise. In the time that Harrison was active on campus, the head gardener and other landscape employees were men, and they were paid. Although the men were perform- ing the physical labor of planting, Harrison was not paid for her landscaping guidance, supervision, or advocacy. Quite the opposite, in fact: Harrison per- sonally funded these projects and raised additional funds on top of her contributions of time and skills. Philadelphia’s CPA and FPC were mainly made up of elite businessmen and other wealthy men who used their political power to create the park system Philadelphians enjoy today (Armstrong 2012). Simi- lar to the male social circles at the CPA and FPC, tightly knit social circles of high-society women in Philadelphia yielded greater influence in urban green- ing and nascent tree planting movements than has generally been recognized. Perhaps since these women were not formally paid, their stories have been over- looked in history due to their position in society and the economy, while their male contemporaries were both recognized and compensated. Historian Daphne Spain articulated the invisibility of women’s unpaid labor in urban improvement projects between the Civil War and World War I: “Since traditional histo- ries focus on the transformation of the formal econ- omy and the polity, both of which were largely closed to nineteenth-century women, it is not surprising that the unpaid, informal work of women failed to enter the written record” (Spain 2001). Harrison was part of a larger constellation of women in urban greening around the turn of the 20th century. Furthermore, Harrison’s role as the provost’s wife makes her story distinctive, as she also fulfilled repre- sentational duties which sometimes, but not always, overlapped with her self-selected roles in urban greening. There is little research on the roles of uni- versity presidents’ or provosts’ wives historically. Traditionally, in the early 20th century, the role of the nation’s First Lady involved acting as an organizer of societal events and publicly supporting worthy causes ©2022 International Society of Arboriculture 341
November 2022
| Title Name |
Pages |
Delete |
Url |
| Empty |
Search Text Block
Page #page_num
#doc_title
Hi $receivername|$receiveremail,
$sendername|$senderemail wrote these comments for you:
$message
$sendername|$senderemail would like for you to view the following digital edition.
Please click on the page below to be directed to the digital edition:
$thumbnail$pagenum
$link$pagenum
Your form submission was a success. You will be contacted by Washington Gas with follow-up information regarding your request.
This process might take longer please wait
