Blue Garden: Recapturing an Iconic Newport Landscape

“The landscape historian Arleyn A. Levee, combines past owners’ biographies with an analysis of plant life and chronicles of tragic phases. Frederick Law Olmsted’s firm created the original botanical splendors out of what Ms. Levee describes as “windswept jagged moors layered with enormous rocky extrusions.”–Eve M. Kahn, The New York Times“Profusely illustrated throughout, The Blue Garden: Recapturing an Iconic Newport Landscape is an inherently fascinating, impressively informative, and exceptionally well written, organized and presented study, making it especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, college, and university library Gardening & Horticultural Studies collections.”–Midwest Book Review

Arleyn A. Levee is a historian and preservation consultant specializing in research concerning the Olmsted firm. She received a Bachelor of Arts from Wellesley College, Master of Arts in Teaching from Harvard University, and a Certificate from the Radcliffe Seminars Program in Landscape Design. SARAH VANCE is Director of the Blue Garden, and was part of the design team that developed the rehabilitation plan for the garden and supervised its construction. She works with a dedicated group of gardeners to ensure the design intent of the garden’s plan and to maintain it as an accessible and sustainable landscape. Sarah received a Master in Landscape Architecture with Distinction from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. MILLICENT HARVEY visited the Blue Garden for several consecutive days in mid-summer 2015 to photograph the garden and its surrounding landscape. Her goal was to place the restoration of the garden within its historical context. Millicent studied at the Art Institute of Boston, and taught at the New England School of Photography. MARIANNE LEE works from Newport and was asked to visit the Blue Garden weekly to photograph details of the plants as they matured and bloomed. Marianne’s images are an intimate essay on the ethereal beauty of each plant and flower’s life.