Group Of Engravings By Robert Swan Sturtevant, With Photographs Of His Groton House In Stages Of Enlargement, And "Yankee" Magazine April 1950 In Which His House Was Featured As The First "House For Sale" Listing

Groton: Yankee / Robert S. Sturtevant / Helen L. Coolidge, 1933. 1st Edition . Soft cover. Very Good. Yankee Magazine, 1950, Featuring As Its First "House For Sale" The House Of Robert Swan Sturtevant; Also With Seven Different Loose Engravings, Some Duplicate, For A Total Of 11 Engravings, 2 Designs Showing His House In Groton And Two Showing His House And Landscaping In Nashville, Some Used As Christmas Postcards; Also Four Small Original Photographs Showing His House In Groton In Various Stages Of Completion ( The House Was Featured Again In The September / October 2010 Issue Of Yankee). Robert Sturtevant (1892-1955) Was An American Landscape Architect And Iris Breeder. He Taught For Many Years At The Lowthorpe School Of Landscape Architecture, And He Helped To Found The American Iris Society. He Was The Only Child Of Noted Agronomist Edward Lewis Sturtevant, The First Director Of The New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, And His Second Wife, Hattie (Mann) Sturtevant. Sturtevant Was Especially Close To His Much Older Half-Sister Grace, Who Would Become A Noted Iris Breeder. In 1901, They Co-Purchased An Estate In Massachusetts, Wellesley Gardens, Which Grace Made The Center Of Her Iris-Breeding Operations And Where She Educated Her Half-Brother In Horticulture. Sturtevant Graduated From Harvard College With An A.B. In 1912 And Went On To Get A Master's Degree In Landscape Architecture From Harvard In 1916. Between 1916 And 1918, He Worked As A Landscape Architect For The Firm Of Frederick Law Olmsted. After His Discharge From The U S Army In 1919, He Became An Instructor At The Lowthorpe School Of Landscape Architecture, An All-Women's School And The First Of Its Kind In The Country. In 1927, He Became The School's Director.Although He Only Headed The School For A Few Years, He Remained On The Faculty For 25 Years. When The American Iris Society Was Founded In 1920, Sturtevant Became Its First Secretary And Drafted The Society's Constitution. He Also Served As The First Editor Of The American Iris Society Bulletin, A Position He Held For 14 Years. He Edited The Ais's First Book, The Iris: An Ideal Hardy Perennial (1947). Sturtevant Was A Member Of Both The Royal Horticultural Society Of Great Britain And The American Horticultural Society. Sturtevant'S 115-Year-Old Home In Groton Was A Patched-Together Place, A Series Of Carriage And Wagon Sheds That Years Ago Had Been Turned Into "A Dwelling With Rooms Blithely Located At Five Different Levels," The Yankee Wrote. Handmade Doors Adorned The Place. There Was An Artist'S Studio, A Large "Summer" Room, And, Under Sturtevant'S Hand, A Beautifully Landscaped Yard. Sturtevant Moved To Nashville, Tennessee, In 1933 And Joined A Landscape Architecture Firm.In 1935, He Created A Landscape Design For Orton Plantation In Brunswick County, North Carolina, Not All Of Which Was Implemented And Only Some Of Which Survives Today. In 1946, He Developed Landscaping For Thirty Acres Of The Lloyd-Howe House Estate, An Area Southeast Of The Main House Known As The Clarendon Gardens.