Celia’s Garden

This slide and the next two show a selection of Childe Hassam illustrations for Thaxter’s An Island Garden (1894).

In An Island Garden, Thaxter refers to her garden as a cutting garden of old-fashioned flowers. She placed arrangements in bottles and vases throughout her home and the hotel.

“Ever since I could remember anything, flowers have been like dear friends to me, comforters, inspirers, powers to uplift and to cheer. A lonely child, living on the lighthouse island ten miles away from the mainland, every blade of grass that sprang out of the ground, every humblest weed, was precious in my sight, and I began a little garden when not more than five years old. From this, year after year, the larger one, which has given so much pleasure to so many people, has grown.” Celia Thaxter (Preface, An Island Garden)