Garden Club Women

“Garden clubs, Baker reveals, have left an indelible imprint, bequeathing a rich legacy of care for the planet. A lively, well-researched history of forgotten women.” —?Kirkus
“What a glorious treasure Meredith Henne Baker has given readers! Garden Club Women is a surprising and propulsive read about the women who built and sustained community activism through their gardens. It turns out that these brilliant women weren’t just growing botanical wonders, they were changing the world one attitude at a time. My mom was a 40 plus year veteran of the Dogwood Garden Club, the membership united women in community, to bring change to a world in desperate need of it. A must read.” —Adriana Trigiani, bestselling author of The View from Lake Como
“The gardening club women in this rich and lively history are no shrinking violets: they are hardy, bold, and politically astute civic activists willing to use their trowels as political instruments. At a time when women had little political power and few opportunities for leadership roles, gardening clubs cultivated local and national organizers and provided a platform forambitious environmental and conservation campaigns. Meredith Baker digs deep in the archives to offer a rich bouquet of fascinating and determined women who used their love of natural beauty to shape national policy.” —Elaine Weiss, author of Spell Freedom and The Woman’s Hour
“This is a book for anyone who’s ever been a garden club woman, loved a garden club woman, or even rolled her eyes at a garden club woman. Meredith Henne Baker, who’s not just an adept historian but a magnificent writer, gives us a clear-eyed history of twentieth century American garden clubs, with an emphasis on the community activism and conservation work these women have done behind the scenes for over a century. You don’t have to have a green thumb to give this book two enthusiastic thumbs up.” —Rachel Beanland, author of Florence Adler Swims Forever and The House Is on Fire
“Garden Club Women has more twists and turns than a well-tended trellis – laced together by a series of mini-biographies of visionary womenwho took on the bullies of business and politics of their day. From the courage of Silent Spring author Rachel Carson to “The Women Doers” of Lady Bird Johnson, Meredith Baker skillfully draws profiles in courage from all walks of life – Black and White, rich and poor. These mostly-unsung heroes wielded their own garden clubs to knock down billboards, nourish natural resources and protect America’s ‘verdant wonderland’ from poisonous chemicals. With so much of their visionary work under attack today, this is a timely reminder of the power of strong women seeding grassroots activism, giving new meaning to ‘Flower Power!’” —Chip Jones, author of The Organ Thieves
“Meredith Henne Baker makes the garden club thrillingly consequential. In Garden Club Women, she reveals a hidden force in American life: women who turned gardens into civic power and beautification into reform. From suffrage to conservation to Rachel Carson’s fight against pesticides, Baker restores these women to the history they helped make.” —Laurie Gwen Shapiro, author of The Aviator and the Showman

Meredith Henne Baker is a 2021 Virginia Humanities Fellow and holds a graduate degree in American History from the College of William and Mary. She is an educator and the author of The Richmond Theater Fire: Early America’s First Great Disaster (Louisiana State University Press), which won the 2012 Jules and Frances F. Landry Award and the Phi Alpha Theta Best First Book Award in the field of history. She lives in Virginia.

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