The Blue Hill Public Library is sponsoring a talk on women landscape architects through history with local author Val Libby on Tuesday, March 25 at 6:30PM.  

What unique contributions did women practitioners make to American landscape architecture? Designing Women will explore the challenges American women faced to enter the field of landscape architecture & create their designs. Beatrix Farrand led the way in the late 1800s, successful despite the prejudice of a male-dominated profession. Others followed as schools and colleges opened to young women and they proved their talent. Val Libby will take us through the careers of several famous designers, as well as less familiar names such as Marian C. Coffin and Annette Hoyt Flanders.

Val Libby is the award-winning author of The Northwest Gardens of Lord and Schryver (2021). She retired as Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture & Horticulture at Temple University. In 2004 she served as the Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Landscape History to Portugal. She has authored numerous articles on landscape preservation and women’s history.

This program is free and open to all, and will be held in the library's Howard Room. For more information, please contact Assistant Director Kayleigh Thomas at kayleigh.thomas@bhpl.net or call the library at 374-5515.