Biennial Conference on Restoring Southern Gardens and Landscapes Comes to a Close
We regret to report that changing times and shifting museum objectives have resulted in the decision to no longer offer this conference. It was from this Winston-Salem-based event that in 1982 the Southern Garden History Society (SGHS) came into being, and we view its end with sorrow. The conference was one of the pillars of our educational mission and objectives, and we will miss working with our co-sponsors, including Old Salem Museums & Gardens and Reynolda House Museum of American Art.
Upcoming issues of our journal, Magnolia, will examine some of the Restoring Southern Gardens and Landscapes (RSGL) programs, beginning in 1979. The SGHS website also offers visitors a look at three of the proceedings that were published after the conferences.
1995 – The Influence of Women on the Southern Landscape
1997 – Breaking Ground: Examining the Vision and Practice of Historic Landscape Restoration
2001 – Cultivating History: Exploring Horticultural Practices of the Southern Gardener
Below you will find information on the final RSGL conference, held in 2019, along with a link to a remarkable World War II film on the Tuskegee Airmen, showing the work of landscape architect David Augustus Williston. Also, each RSGL conference is listed beginning in 1979. Click on the date to see a program for that year and topic, each of which reviews speakers, topics, and activities covered during that conference.
The 22nd Biennial Conference on Southern Gardens & Landscapes, sponsored by Old Salem Museums & Gardens, Southern Garden History Society, and Wake Forest University Department of History, was held September 26-28, 2019, in Winston-Salem, NC. In Saturday’s session, Dreck Spurlock Wilson, ASLA, NOMA, presented “Closer than Botanists to Landscape Architects: George Washington Carver and David Augustus Williston.”
Due to time constraints, Mr. Wilson was unable to conclude his presentation with the documentary video “Wings for This Man.” “Wings for This Man” was filmed in 1941 by the U.S. Air Force and narrated by Des Moines, Iowa sportscaster Ronald Reagan. It is the only film record of landscape architect David Augustus Williston’s (1868-1962) landscape design and civil engineering of the Tuskegee Airfield (1941) where the legendary “Tuskegee Airmen” trained.
Please click on the image of the film to view:
Previous Conferences:
2017 – Gardening in a Golden Age: Southern Gardens & Landscapes of the Early 20th Century and the Challenges to Their Preservation
2015 – Learning from the Past/Planting for the Future
2013 – Feeding the American South: Heritage Gardening & Farming
2011 – A New World: Naturalists and Artists in the American South
2009 – Returning to Our Roots: Planting and Replanting the Historic Southern Garden
2007 – Lost Landscapes, Preserved Prospects: Confronting Natural & Human Threats to the Historic Southern Landscape
2005 – Unearthing the Past, Planting the Future: Issues and Challenges in Southern Landscape Restoration
2003 – A Genius & His Legacy: Frederick Law Olmsted in the South
2001 – Cultivating History: Exploring Horticultural Practices of the Southern Gardener
1999 – Plans and Plants of the Southern Landscape
1997 – Breaking Ground: Examining the Vision and Practice of Historic Landscape Restoration
1995 – The Influence of Women on the Southern Landscape
1993 – Many People, Many Cultures: The Shaping of the Southern Landscape
1991 – The Southern Vernacular Landscape
1989 – Gardening for Pleasure in the South
1987 – Restoring Southern Gardens and Landscapes
1985 – 400 Years of Southern Gardens and Landscapes
1983 – Restoring Southern Gardens and Landscapes
1982 – Restoring Southern Gardens and Landscapes
1980 – Restoring Southern Gardens and Landscapes
1979 – Restoring Southern Gardens and Landscapes: A Conference for the States of the Upper South