COLLECTIONS

Mary Rutherfurd Jay (1872-1953)

The Jay collection documents her career as a landscape architect, her lectures on gardens, and her involvement in the profession. Lecture notes, lantern slides and scrapbooks of images of gardens around the world, and architectural drawings form the bulk of the collection.

Finding Aid

Mary Rutherfurd Jay studied architecture at MIT and at Harvard’s Bussey Institute. She considered herself a garden architect, opening her practice in New York in 1908. Most of her projects were in New York, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Following her world-wide garden tour of 1912, she regularly presented illustrated lectures to numerous garden clubs for the next 30 years. She authored The Garden Handbook, published in 1931, and lectured extensively on international gardens.The Jay collection documents her career as a landscape architect, her lectures on gardens, and her involvement in the profession. Lecture notes, lantern slides and scrapbooks of images of gardens around the world, and architectural drawings form the bulk of the collection. Jay’s project records consist of architectural drawings and photographs. The collection also contains horticultural plant cards.