Brooklyn Heights Garden Club Collection
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Abstract
Documents, photographs, ephemera, clippings and scrapbooks documenting the history of the Brooklyn Heights Garden Club.
Historical Note
The Brooklyn Heights Garden Club was founded in 1940 by Mrs. Thomas Sturgis, who also served as the club's first president. The club was founded to "bring added beauty to Brooklyn Heights by the creation and cultivation of gardens, plantings and window boxes." Over time, the club organized and sponsored a number of events and programs in the neighborhood and beyond. These include flower shows, plantings for the Brooklyn Heights Association house tour, trips to gardens around New York State, speaker events, flower arranging workshops, and the annual Christmas tree lighting at the Montague Street entrance to the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. The club has also participated in the Federated Garden Clubs of New York State (second district) and advocated for other related organizations in Brooklyn such as the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and Prospect Park. Traditionally, club meetings are held at members' homes, which fosters a sense of community among the membership. The club is still active as of 2021.
Arrangement
Materials are grouped in four series by type. In some cases, materials are grouped according to which member collected them and donated them to this collection. The Christmas tree scrapbooks and membership directories are arranged chronologically and the materials from other organizations are arranged alphabetically.
Scope and Contents
This collection includes documents, photographs, ephemera, clippings and scrapbooks dating from the club's founding in 1940 to 2017. Scrapbooks make up a significant portion of the collection and are especially rich in materials from the 1950s and 1960s. Photographs and ephemera make up smaller portions of the collection but there are some significant materials of each type, including flower show ribbons and candid photos of members at events. Between foldered documents and clippings and those found in the scrapbooks, the club's membership and activities over the years are well-documented in this collection.
Subjects
Conditions Governing Access
Open to researchers without restriction.
Conditions Governing Use
While many items at the Center for Brooklyn History are unrestricted, we do not own reproduction rights to all materials. Be aware of the several kinds of rights that might apply: copyright, licensing and trademarks. The researcher assumes all responsibility for copyright questions.
Preferred Citation
Identification of item/descriptive title, date (if known); Brooklyn Heights Garden Club Collection, BCMS.0082; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of the Brooklyn Heights Garden Club, 2019.
About this Guide
Processing Information
The three Christmas tree lighting scrapbooks created by Pauline Herd were in composition notebooks and in very poor condition. These scrapbooks were disassembled in order to best preserve the materials they contained. The archivist created preservation photocopies of news clippings where possible but retained original material such as photographs, ephemera, and correspondence.
The two larger scrapbooks were retained intact with some minor repairs to the binding of Scrapbook 1.
