State’s historic gardens subject of March lecture at Georgia Archives

The authors of a book on the state’s historic gardens will be the featured speakers at a March 8 Lunch and Learn lecture at the Georgia Archives.

Co-authors Staci Catron and Mary Ann Eaddy will discuss “Seeking Eden, A Collection of Georgia’s Historic Gardens.” Catron is director of the Cherokee Garden Library at the Atlanta History Center, and Eaddy is a historian and historic preservationist. The book’s excellent photographs are by James R. Lockhart, who has many other works to his credit. The free lecture will be at noon. Bring your own lunch.

Published by the University of Georgia Press in 2018, the book is the culmination of years of work by the authors, and would be a beautiful addition to anyone’s collection. The authors selected 30 Georgia gardens from all over the state that were first featured in the 1933 “Garden History of Georgia” (recently reprinted by UGA Press). They also used a recent statewide survey of Georgia’s historic gardens and landscapes. Then they visited each site, interviewed current owners and researched the sites. The appendix includes a status report on all gardens featured in the 1933 volume. The book is fully documented, has an excellent bibliography and a full-name index. Available from the UGA Press (ugapress.com) and area bookstores, it won a Georgia Historical Records Advisory Council Award in 2018. For further information on the lecture, go to GeorgiaArchives.org, or call 678-364-3710. You might also want to check out atlantahistorycenter.com, then “research” for the Cherokee Garden Library. A free exhibit about the book runs through May 31 at the Atlanta History Center’s McElreath Hall.