The Archives of American Gardens (AAG) currently documents over 5,000 gardens throughout the United States. Images in the collection, which show views from colonial times to the present, include such features as garden furniture and ornamentation, fountains, sculptures, fences and gates, parterres, and garden structures to name a few. The design styles represented range from large Italianate estates to herb and rose gardens, cottage and patio gardens, and urban parks.

Shumway Garden, Lake Forest, IL.
Photographer unknown. c.1930s.

The core of the Archives is a collection of nearly 3,000 hand-colored glass lantern slides dating from the 1920s and 1930s along with approximately 37,000 35mm slides of gardens that date from colonial times to the present. These images were donated to the Smithsonian in 1992 by the Garden Club of America (GCA). This organization helps support the AAG with ongoing research and development activities. Through its national network, GCA members continue to expand the collection by photographing and documenting contemporary gardens. 

Ca Sole, Cincinnatti, OH.
Photographer unknown. c.1930s. 

Other collections in the Archives include photographs, plans, and files documenting the work of landscape architects Thomas Warren Sears, Perry Wheeler, and Robert M. Fletcher; author, publisher, and horticulturist Dr. J. Horace McFarland; the Lewis and Valentine Nursery of Long Island, New York; Katharine Lane Weems's Massachusetts estate, "The Chimneys"; historic postcard views collected by Richard Marchand; and the Horticulture Services Division's own gardens, artifacts and activities. 

Although the bulk of the Archives consists of 35mm and glass lantern slides, photographs, negatives stereographs, and postcards, it also includes architectural drawings, plans, and business papers. A wide range of written documentation for each garden in the Archives is available. Garden files may include correspondence, journal articles, brochures, drawings, maps, pamphlets, bibliographic citations, and information forms completed by researchers.