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The Downing Urn in the Enid A. Haupt
Garden |
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 The
Downing Urn in the Enid A. Haupt Garden of the Smithsonian Institution
is the only surviving memorial to Andrew Jackson Downing, a seminal
figure in the history of horticulture and landscape architecture.
As we approach the 150th anniversary of Downing’s death, now
is an appropriate time to celebrate Jackson's work.
The Urn in the Enid A. Haupt Garden
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 Table
of Contents
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About
Andrew Jackson Downing
Andrew Jackson Downing1
was born in Newburgh, New York on October 31, 1815. He was
considered a bright, even a precocious child. His father had
been a wheelwright, who had started a nursery around 1810.
Samuel Downing’s death in 1823, left A. J.’s elder brother Charles
in charge of the family business, where he was joined by A. J. in
1831, who had abandoned formal education at the age of sixteen.
As early as 1832, A. J. and Charles began to publish articles and
notes in various horticultural journals of the day.
In 1841 (at the age of 26), A. J. published
a solo work: A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape
Gardening Adapted to North America; with a View to the Improvement
of Country Residences. This text was the first true
attempt to develop an American aesthetic of landscape gardening.
As with all first approximations, much remains unclear about Downing’s
intentions and underlying theory; however, it cannot be denied
that the work was well received during his lifetime both here
and in Europe and remained an influential work for many years.
While many people would be content to rest on their laurels,
Downing continued to produce a prodigious amount of work.
His Treatise went through multiple editions.  He
edited the Horticulturist, a journal of “Rural Art and
Rural Taste,” as well as writing a book of cottage
and villa plans. He founded the American Pomological Society,
served as its first president and completed a book on the fruit
trees of America.
Throughout his writings, Downing was finding
a new way for himself. While undeniably influenced by European,
especially English, writers, he recognized that America should
not and could not slavishly emulate European gardening styles.
First, Americans should be making use of American material, hence
his on-going interest in any and all native American species.
Second, America, at least nominally, was not aristocratic, and
should celebrate it republicanism, hence his designs for middle
class and a few lower class cottages and gardens. He also
specifically realized that his country was young and still
rapidly expanding and that horticulture could serve as a way to
attach the white settlers to their new home. Finally, he
recognized two important developments in horticulture: the rise
of scientific inquiries and the development of a class of professional
landscape designers/gardeners: artisans, not artists. These developments
often left Downing between the Devil and the deep blue sea in
maintaining a consistent perspective, both in his writings and
his commissions. For example, these two quotes both refer
to Downing, but present two different sets of expectations:
"Like his books better than himself. He is a Yankee not
thoroughbred. Landscape gardening with him is a profession
& not a liberal taste, and he talks with a professional
air. I dislike ‘bread-studies’ & artizanship, &
the smell of the shop destroys my pleasure in any subject however
interesting in itself." – From the diary of Sidney George Fisher,
a Philadelphia gentleman.
"To readers like us, educated between the plow-handles, it
would be pleasant to have the various extracts in French, Spanish,
Latin and Italian, rendered into English, the only language
which, having once learned, we have not become somewhat rusty
in." – Part of a review of Downing’s A Treatise,
second edition, in the Cultivator.
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Downing's Plans
for the Mall |
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 The
culmination of all that Downing had been working towards was encapsulated
in his plans for the Mall in Washington, D.C. In L’Enfant’s
original plan, the L-shaped area extending from the residence of
the President to the Capitol was to be a grand avenue. However,
since L'Enfant's plan, little landscaping had been done and a large
Norman castle (the Smithsonian Institution) had been constructed
between the two classically inspired end points. The first
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Joseph Henry, among others,
had noticed the odd vista this juxtaposition presented and thought
a new approach to the plantings might help lessen the incongruity.
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 Downing,
recognized as a leader in the field, was invited by President
Millard Fillmore to “give a general plan of the improvement to
be made.” Downing accepted and after touring the site in
1850, he spent three months drafting his solution, which he presented
to the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution on February 27,
1851. 
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- The Marble Arch-a large marble arch at the end of Pennsylvania
Avenue would have served as the principal entrance to the Mall,
while a large set of gates at the Capital end would serve as
a counter point
- The President’s Park or Parade-located behind the
Executive Mansion, an open area for military reviews or festivals
- Monument Park-centered around the still incomplete
Washington Monument, this area would be filled with American
trees.
- Evergreen Garden-a museum of every species of evergreen
that would grow in Washington, D.C. to provide some color to
the capitol, during the bleak winter and early spring months.
- Smithsonian Park or Pleasure Grounds-trees and evergreens
carefully placed to highlight the castle.
- Fountain Park-an artificial lake and fountains would
tie into the landscaping around the greenhouses of the U.S.
Botanic Gardens.
The Suspension Bridge-connecting the Parade to the rest
of the mall would have been a suspension bridge across the Tiber
Canal.
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 On
July 28, 1852, Downing, his wife, her mother, brother and sister
decided to take a trip on a large river boat plying between Albany
and New York. Unbeknownst to the passengers, their ship, the
Henry Clay, was in a race with a competing line’s boat, the
Armenia. As the ships raced down the Hudson, the Henry
Clay apparently overheated its boiler and caught fire.
While a perhaps apocryphal story has Downing staying on board to
throw deck chairs to people who had jumped in the river, there is
no doubt that he and his mother-in-law were among the over fifty
people killed, though his wife and her siblings did survive.
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 The
shock and grief at Downing’s death were immediate and he was mourned
as a irreplaceable national asset. Shortly after his death, a
subscription was taken by the American Pomological Society to
erect a memorial to Downing. A memorial urn was a natural choice
for Victorians. Calvert Vaux designed it and it was sculpted from
marble by Robert E. Launitz. The placement of the Urn was a matter
of some debate. One group preferred a location along the Hudson
River, which was so obviously Downing’s love, while another group
proposed a location amidst the new national park, which Downing
had designed. However, since Downing's plans for the National
Mall were never carried out, he has faded from popular consciousness,
and few people are aware of the presence of his urn in the Enid
A. Haupt garden, let alone its significance.
As early as 1856, the editors of Downing’s Horticulturist published
a editorial lamenting the “neglected state” of the monument in
the Smithsonian grounds, a sentiment which was restated in 1940,
when the editors of Landscape Architecture reprinted the Horticulturist
editorial.
 In
1972, the Smithsonian Institution undertook to restore the Urn,
which was badly deteriorated after over a century in the open
air. The handles were repaired and various surface elements
of the Urn recreated by a local artist. Also, three sides
of the pedestal were recut and the Urn was given a covering of
silicone. However, the remaining original marble surface
was crumbling and nothing was available to stop the deterioration.
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Survival of
Downing's Work |
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Gardens are ephemeral. Therefore,
it is not surprising, though perhaps unfortunate, that little
of Downing’s work remains to us today. In addition
to a few houses, the landscape at Springside is the only historically
substantiated Downing design, which has survived in some form,
though one can certainly see his influence in Central Park.
Springside
Springside, located in Poughkeepsie, New York, was a residence
of Matthew Vassar. He had commissioned A.J. Downing to design
the grounds in 1850. Planted with more than a thousand forest
trees, Downing’s design was praised as a “realization of a painter’s
dream.” In addition to the modern restoration work
(see Toole 1989), Vassar commissioned a series of paintings of
Springside, shortly after Downing’s death. These provide
a beautiful visual testimony of Downing’s ideas.
Central Park
A more fitting memorial to Downing, perhaps, is Central
Park in New York City, which while he never directly worked on
it, the final product was heavily influenced by his ideas.
When the legislators of New York had appropriated money to acquire
63 acres bordering the East River, Downing objected. “He
insisted that a larger, central park was in order, and called
for the acquisition of a tract of about 500 acres in the middle
of the city. 'five hundred acres,’ he asserted, is the smallest
area that should be reserved for the future wants of such a city,
now, while it may be obtained.’” (Cantor 1968:335). After
Downing’s death, the design of Central park was undertaken by
Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted, friends and colleagues
of Downing.
Downing Park, Newburgh, NY
Another project designed by Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert
Vaux, this park was dedicated in 1897 in honor of Downing’s commitment
to public parks. A walk through its winding landscape, perhaps
is the most fitting memorial to Downing.
Footnotes:
1. Downing usually signed himself simply as A.J. Downing, perhaps
in a desire to play down any connection to his namesake, since
Downing had married a relative of John Quincy Adams
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The following words are inscribed
on the faces of the pedestal, though three of the faces are nearly
illegible.
The taste of an individual,
as well as that of a nation, will be in direct proportion to
the
profound sensibility
with which he perceives the beautiful in natural scenery.
Open wide, therefore,
the doors of your libraries and picture galleries
all ye true republicans!
Build halls where knowledge shall be freely diffused among
men,
and not shut up within the narrow walls of
narrower institutions.
Plant spacious parks in your cities,
and unclose their gates as wide as the gates of morning to
the
whole people
- Downing’s Rural Essays
‘Weep no more’
For Lycidus your sorrow is not dead,
Sunk through he be beneath the wat’ry floor,
So sinks the day-star in the ocean bed,
and yet, anon, repairs his drooping head,
And tricks his beams and with new spangled ore
Flames in the forehead of the morning sky
So Lycidus sunk low, but mounted high
Through the dear might of Him that walked the waves
I wake, I rise,
I climb the hill from end to end
Of all the landscape underneath
I find no place that does not breathe
Some gracious memory of my friend.
‘Tis held that sorrow makes us wise,
Yet how much wisdom sleeps with thee,
Which not alone had guided me,
But served the seasons that may rise.
And doubtless unto thee is given,
A life that bears immortal fruit,
In such great offices as suit
The full grown energies of Heaven.
And love will last as pure and whole
As when he loved me here in time,
And at the spiritual prime
Re-awaken with the dawning soul.
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?
1991 Here’s to You, A.J. Historic Preservation 43:11 (November/December).
Cantor, Jay E.
1968 The Museum in the Park. Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin
26(8):333-340.
Conron, John
1987 The American Dream Houses of Andrew Jackson Downing.
Canadian Review of American Studies 18(1):9-40.
Darby, Wendy Joy
1992 A Reading of Edward Lange’s Landscapes: Text and Context.
Long Island Historical Journal 4(2):185-199.
Howett, Catherine M.
1980 Barnsley Gardens: The Facts behind the Fables. Georgia
Historical Quarterly 64(2):172-189.
1982 Frank Lloyd Wright & American Residential Landscaping.
Landscape 26(1):33-40.
Longsreth, Richard, (ed.)
1991 The Mall in Washington: 1791-1991. Studies in the History
of Art, no. 30. National Gallery of art, University
Press of New England, Hanover.
Major, Judith
1986 The Downing Letters. Landscape Architect 76:50-57
(January/February)
1997 To live in the New World: A. J. Downing and American Landscape
Gardening. MIT Press, Cambridge.
Miller, Ross L.
1976 The Landscaper’s Utopia versus the city: a Mismatch. New
England Quarterly 49(2):179-193.
O’ Malley, Theresa
1991 A Public Museum of Trees: Mid-Nineteenth Century Plans
for the Mall. Studies in the History of Art 30:60-76
Reps, John W.
1967 Downing and the Washington Mall. Landscape
16: 6-11 (Spring 1967).
Schuyler, David
1991 Belated Honor to a Prophet: Newburgh’s Downing Park. Landscape
31(1):10-17.
1996 Apostle of Taste: Andrew Jackson Downing, 1815-1852.
Tatum, George B.
1973 The Emergence of an American School of Landscape Design.
Historic Preservation 25(2):34-41.
Tatum, George B. and Elisabeth Macdougal (eds.)
1989 Prophet with Honor: The Career of Andrew Jackson Downing:1815-1852.
The Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library
and Collection, Washington, D.C.
Toole, Robert M.
1989 Springside: A.J. Downing’s Only Extant Garden. Journal
of Garden History 9 (1):20-39.
Washburn, Wilcomb E.
1967 Vision of Life for the Mall. AIA Journal 47:52-59.
Web Pages:
http://pss.uvm.edu/ppp/articles/landscpr.htm
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