"A Century of Women on Topsoil"
By Sally Rubenstone '73

An admission office tour guide is shepherding a small group of visitors across the Smith campus. Her first stop is outside the Lyman Plant House. "Some people think that what you see here is the Botanic Garden," she explains, gesturing toward a flower-festooned fence and the lily-padded pond beyond. "But, at Smith, our entire campus was designed as a botanic garden 100 years ago." A prospective student yawns. Her mother, an alumna, turns to her and whispers, "I heard that back when I came here." "Which," replies the daughter, smiling slyly, "was 100 years ago, too."

Field of Dreams

President Seelye's vision dates from the earliest days of Smith, when he imagined the marriage of art and nature in grounds that were not only aesthetically pleasing but also scientifically ordered-an apt environment in which the liberal arts could flourish. In 1890, under his guidance, the college engaged a landscape firm led by Frederick Law Olmsted, renowned for the design of New York City's Central Park. Olmsted's plans called for more than a thousand diverse trees, herbs and plants. These bore labels that proclaimed their names and native regions.

In 1895, with a gift from Northampton's Lyman family, a range of glasshouses was begun by another noted firm, Lord & Burnham. As the college grew, other additions included an Alpine-style rock garden-one of the first in America-and a "systematics" garden, organized by family groupings. An herbarium housed a reference collection of mounted plant specimens. Graceful lindens, oaks and sugar maples lined campus lanes.

Common Ground

Jennifer "Vern" Long '95 came to Smith planning to major in government. Instead, she is now a Ph.D. candidate in plant breeding at Cornell. "I took a horticulture course my first semester at Smith and within three weeks I went from being an ardent political scientist to being a botanist," she recounts. "At one point, I was learning trees, running all over campus looking for different specimens. As I was running home, I met an upperclass woman, and she said, 'You're not supposed to be excited about trees; you're supposed to be excited about boys.' So this was my realization: that I really was excited about trees. There was something here, and I should work with it."

Today, despite the ravages of time and change, Seelye's dream is realized. Smith, like few other colleges, boasts a campus rivaling the world's great gardens. More than 125 acres are home to nearly 5,000 types of plants. Each of the 12 greenhouses in the Lyman complex shelters exotic denizens of a different climatic zone. Dedicated staff share expertise with students and faculty-and with any panicked owner of an ailing ficus or philodendron. Chrysanthemum and bulb shows draw busloads of visitors in autumn and spring.

Above all, the campus serves as a living laboratory. Horticulturalists and biologists, artists, writers and even those pursuing less closely connected disciplines are drawn to the extraordinary resources and uncommon beauty. "At first I found myself studying in the gardens," reflects Vern Long, "but soon I was studying the gardens themselves."



Sue McGlew '83, acting director of the Botanic Garden, uses a handy model for the centennial T-shirts designed by Susan Goodman '81. Photo by Jim Gipe.

Over the past century, the botanic splendor of Smith has inspired an epiphany in some, like Long; for others it provided pleasant memories of tagged trees and fragrant mornings. Yet, observe Susan Komroff Cohen '62 and Paula Deitz '59, founding co-chairs of the Friends of the Botanic Garden, disparate Smith alumnae have been drawn together by appreciation of their alma mater's unique setting. "One of my strongest recollections of Smith," says Cohen, "is of walking under majestic trees en route from Cutter House to the library. I think we all have a sense of some piece of the Smith landscape as having been important to us."

Cohen, a landscape architect, and Deitz, co-editor of The Hudson Review and a freelance journalist whose articles on gardening and landscape architecture appear often in The New York Times, have teamed up with Susan Podmayer McGlew '83, the Botanic Garden's curator and acting director, to spearhead a variety of centennial ventures. Officially, explains McGlew, the festivities mark the 100 years since the Plant House itself was constructed; the gardens around it are several years older.

Thus, a centerpiece symposium, "The Glasshouse," which recognized how conservatory technology revolutionized plant cultivation and study, was held at Smith in October. The event also showcased the beautiful college glasshouses-classic examples of Victorian balloon-style design. Among many noted guest speakers were Professor Sir Ghillean Prance, director of Kew's Royal Botanic Gardens (with which Smith has enjoyed a long relationship); Vincent Scully, a distinguished art historian from Yale; and The New Yorker garden columnist Jamaica Kincaid.

Other campus anniversary activities include lectures by well-known horticulturists, flower-arranging workshops for students and a panel discussion featuring alumnae plant scientists and landscape architects. A commemorative booklet, Celebrating a Century: The Botanic Garden of Smith College, by Gates Professor of Biological Sciences C. John Burk, offers a detailed history, with botanical illustrations by Pamela See '73.

Foreign Soil

An oak tree to honor Smith is being planted in the garden of the ambassador's home in London. Alumnae in attendance are asked to toss dirt in the hole that surrounds the sapling's roots. The first volunteer is the oldest guest, who must lean her cane against a wheelbarrow to free her hands for the task. Beside her are current students. Together, old and young sprinkle soil in the opening, and it mingles at the base of the new tree.

Far beyond Northampton, too, the celebration resounds. The energetic Cohen and Deitz spurred alumnae groups from Albany to Australia to organize centennial garden parties and related events. One of the first took place in a Tokyo teahouse last April. "A Garden Party Grand Tour" in June included stops at private gardens in Venice and at ambassadors' residences in Paris and London. There were more than 70 gatherings in all. "These parties were especially meaningful," notes Deitz, "because each had an intellectual focus that added to the beauty of the occasion."

"The enthusiasm shown through these events," adds Cohen, "was a way of expressing not only fondness for the college but also appreciation for President Seelye's original vision, for an academic life spent in a garden setting."

The Next Hundred Years

A hundred years have passed, yet Botanic Garden staff and supporters are looking ahead. Richard Munson, director since 1984, recently stepped down. As a search for a successor is completed, Susan McGlew is at the helm. McGlew, like Munson before her, emphasizes outreach-from hosting curious local schoolchildren to maintaining the venerable seed exchange, through which Smith shares holdings with collections worldwide.

Research and teaching, too, must remain high priorities, says McGlew. However, the biggest challenge will be guiding the Seelye-Olmsted vision into the 21st century. "How do we make the campus still function like an arboretum?" she asks, noting, "As new buildings are constructed, climate and traffic patterns change." In response, the college has engaged landscape architects Shavaun Towers '71 and Cornelia Hahn Oberlander '44 to design a master plan that will help chart a course for the near future. Included will be the Mary Maples Dunn Garden, which will honor the former president and her interest in the Smith grounds.

Also forward-looking, the Friends of the Botanic Garden has thrived under the spirited direction of Deitz and Cohen. The pair are quick to admit that their own goals include establishing a landscape architecture program at Smith-reviving a tradition of several decades ago. The main mission of the Friends, however, is to support and promote the botanic collections and facilities. The group has already made an impact, in part by sponsoring first-rate symposia and underwriting student internships. It is an aim Paula Deitz embraces. "Smith is sitting on one of its great underpublicized resources," she insists. "I want our Botanic Garden to take its rightful place in the world."