The science and art of plants and gardens in the development of an American landscape aesthetic (1620-1850).

摘要

This study explores an important aspect of the cultural developments that led to the Romantic view of nature in America: the changing perception of the natural world emerging from a synthesis of scientific thought, practical concerns, and aesthetic attitudes. Successive stages can be traced in diaries, descriptive and promotional literature by early visitors and colonists, the history and publications of the scientific societies, comments on civic improvements and private grounds, farming and gardening treatises, agricultural and horticultural periodicals, and the literary and artistic productions of the early national period.;An interdisciplinary study of this type must draw upon a vast range of material. Wherever possible I have investigated primary documents, many of them in their original publication, some available in studies by other scholars.;The first three chapters are principally concerned with the international scientific interest in the natural world and the formulation of aesthetic theories that provided the basis for the 19th century American romantic point of view. The remainder of the study concentrates on developments in and near the major urban centers of the northeastern United States where after the American war for independence there were concerted efforts at scientific investigation, improvements in rural living, and the definition of a national culture.