This edition of Studies in the History of Gardens & Designed Landscapes and its focus on the origins of landscape architecture raise timely and fundamental questions of disciplinary and professional identity for the field. While the various etymologies of the term 'landscape' have rightly preoccupied the field for decades, the formulation of 'landscape architecture' as a professional identity has received less critical attention in recent years.Questions of professional nomenclature concerned proponents of the so-called 'new art' since its inception in the nineteenth century. Longstanding debates over the formulation reveal a tension between the disciplinary identity and the scope of work for the landscape architect. Founders of the new field included a diverse array of positions—from those embodying a tradition of landscape gardening and rural improvement through those advocating for landscape as an architectural and urban art. Many Americanproponents of the field held a strong cultural affinity for English practices of landscape gardening. In contrast, Continental practices of urban improvement allied with landscape promised a very different scope of work for the new professional. Complicating matters further was the desire by many for a distinct singular identity, not easily confused with any of the existing professional and artistic categories.
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