Landscape Architecture Resources: Biographical Information

In addition to titles listed here, go to Biographical Sources for a list of links to full-text biographical sources on the web.

To search for books about landscape architects as a group, in the library catalogs, the following Library of Congress subject headings may be useful.

Modify these searches with the addition of descriptive terms (subheadings). The following subheadings may be especially useful:

Remember to search for a landscape architect's firm name as well as his/her personal name. For example, search for both the personal name eckbo garrett and the corporate name garrett eckbo associates.

• American landscape architecture: designers and places. William H. Tishler, ed., Washington, DC: Preservation Pr., 1989.
• Breaking ground: portraits of ten garden designers.  Page Dickey. NY: Artisan, 1997. Biographies of 10 contemporary American and European gardeners: Benech, Cox, Chasse, Idoux, Lutsko, Martino, McCabe, Oudolf, Pearson, and Power.
• British gardeners: a biographical dictionary. Miles Hadfield, Robert Harling, Leonie Highton, London: Zwemmer: Conde Nast, 1980.
• California landscape architecture & gardens (UC Berkeley, Library) A bibliographic research guide to California landscape architecture in the UC Berkeley libraries and on the web. Includes biographical sources for California landscape architects.
• Createurs de jardins et de paysages en France de la renaissance au XXI siecle. Michel Racine, ed. Arles: Actes Sud; Versailles: Ecole nationale superieure du paysage, 2001-. French landscape architects and designers. Well-illustrated. Includes brief bibliographies.
• Dictionary of gardening. Royal Horticultural Society. Anthony Huxley, ed. 4 vols. NY: Stockton Pr., 1992. Primarily an encyclopedia of plants. However, includes 173 brief biographies of landscape architects and gardeners (e.g., Roberto Burle-Marx, Thomas Church, Beatrix Farrand, and Hermann Puckler-Muskau).
• Dictionary of today's landscape designers. Pierluigi Nicolin, Francesco Repishti, eds. London: Thames & Hudson, 2003. For 86 international contemporary landscape architects and designers, engineers, artists, and more, provides a biographical note, a list of works and related bibliography, and color photographs of significant designs.
• Down-to-earth women: those who care for the soil. Dawn Macleod, Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1982. British focus.
• Eminent gardeners: some people of influence and their gardens, 1880-1980.  Jane Brown, London: Viking, 1990. British focus.
• Encyclopedia of gardens: history and design. Chicago Botanic Garden. Candice A. Shoemaker, ed. 3 vols. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2001. Substantive signed articles are illustrated; each includes a brief bibliography. Includes biographies of significant landscape designers, with chronologies of selected projects.
• Garden makers: the great tradition of garden design from 1600 to the present day. George Plumptre, NY: Random House, 1993.
• Gardeners, gurus & grubs: the stories of garden inventors & innovations. George Drower. Stroud: Sutton, 2001.
• Grune Biographien: biographisches Handbuch zur Landschaftsarchitektur des 20. Jahrhunderts in Deutschland. Gert Groning. Berlin: Patzer, 1997. Includes more than 2700 19th and 20th century German landscape architects and designers. Brief listings include works, publications, competitions, etc.
• Influential gardeners: the designers who shaped 20th-century garden style.  Andrew Wilson. NY: Clarkson Potter/Publisher, 2002. Includes illustrated biographies of 57 international landscape architects and designers. No bibliography.
• Invisible gardens: the search for modernism in the American landscape. Peter Walker and Melanie Simo, Cambridge, MA: MIT Pr., 1994. Includes biographies of 20th century landscape architects and bibliography.
• Landscape architecture: an illustrated history in timelines, site plans, and biography. William A. Mann, NY: John Wiley, 1993. Chapter 6 contains biographical sketches of 300 designers.
• 19th century horticulturists and plant raisers. Thomas A. Brown. Petaluma, CA: The Author, 1998.
• The Oxford companion to the garden. Patrick Taylor, ed. NY: Oxford Univ. Pr., 2006. A one-volume encyclopedia of short authoritative articles on notable gardens, landscape designers, garden features, etc. New ed. of the classic The Oxford companion to gardens. Selectively illustrated. Bibliography: pp.531-538.
• Pioneers of American landscape design. Charles A. Birnbaum, Robin Karson, eds. NY: McGraw-Hill, 2000. Contains excellent biographical essays about 160 American landscape architects and designers. Each essay includes a brief bibliography. Illustrated.
• Profiles in landscape architecture. Washington, D.C.: American Society of Landscape Architects, 1992.
• The School in a garden: foundations and founders of landscape architecture. Gordon T. Millichap, J. Gordon Millichap. Chicago: PNB Publishers, 2000.
• Shaping the American landscape: new profiles from the pioneers of American landscape design project. Charles A. Birnbaum, Stephanie S. Foell, eds. Charlottesville: Univ. of Virginia Pr., 2009. Contains excellent biographical essays about 160 American landscape architects and designers and their work. Each essay includes a brief bibliography. Illustrated.
• The Triumph of Flora: women and the American landscape. Deborah Nevins. IN: Magazine antiques, vol.127:4 (1985) pp.904-922.
• Women and the land: a biographical survey of women who have contributed to the development of landscape architecture in the United States....Catherine R. Brown, Baltimore, MD: Built Environment Studies, Morgan State Univ., 1979.
• Women in the ASLA: a descriptive analysis.  Valorie Hennigan and Jot D. Carpenter. IN: Landscape Journal, vol.17:1 (1998), pp.70-84. Analyses women's membership and leadership in the American Society of Landscape Architects. Includes bibliography.
• The World of landscape architects. Francisco Asensio Cerver, Barcelona: [Arco Editorial Board], 1995.

Obituaries frequently include synopses of an individual's professional life and contributions and often appear in newspapers.

Archival finding aids. Guides or finding aids to archival collections related to individual people usually include useful and succinct biographies of those individuals. Many finding aids can be located via the following web-based archives as well as through the library catalogs:

Biographies may be found in journal and newspaper articles; note that newspaper articles on contemporary projects can be useful sources of biographical information. In addition to the indexes listed here, some newspapers are available full text on the web; information regarding archives of older issues is sometimes available at these sites.

See also the Indexes and Abstracts section of this guide.