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Elizabeth Barlow Rogers papers

Call Number

MS 3206

Date

1906-2020 (bulk 1960s-2010s), inclusive

Creator

Rogers, Elizabeth Barlow, 1936-

Extent

19.32 Linear feet in 14 record cartons, 1 legal manuscript box, 1 flat box, and 1 medium-oversized flat file.
16.5 Gigabytes in 707 digital files, including 36 audiovisual files that total approximately 8 hours in duration.

Language of Materials

The documents in the collection are in English, with only a very few exceptions.

Abstract

This collection documents the life and work of Elizabeth Barlow Rogers, a landscape architect and parks advocate. Rogers published several monographs on New York environmental history and landscape design, as well as multiple articles on urban renewal and history. She was appointed Central Park Administrator by Mayor Ed Koch in 1979 and was a founding member and president of the Central Park Conservancy in 1980; she retired from both positions in 1995. Her papers illustrate the breadth of her career and public life as well as the physical, economic, and social changes that New York underwent since the 1970s. Materials include manuscripts, published materials, photos and audiovisual material, and correspondence.

Biographical / Historical

Elizabeth Barlow Rogers (born 1936) is a prominent architectural and landscape historian, conservationist, and urban advocate. She is a former administrator of Central Park (1979-1995) and is a lifetime trustee of the Central Park Conservancy (CPC), which she helped establish in 1980. She also founded the Central Park Taskforce in 1975. Rogers served as the President of the CPC from 1980-1995. The goals of the Central Park Conservancy include revitalizing the physical infrastructure of the park, reorienting its goals and management, and expanding the role of the park in New York City civic life. The CPC is a public-private partnership which brings private philanthropic funds into the service of maintaining and providing a public good or service; it was one of the first forms of public-private partnership established by then-Mayor Ed Koch in 1980. Since then, public-private partnerships like the CPC have been replicated throughout New York City.

Rogers was selected for the dual role of Central Park Administrator and CPC President due to her history of advocacy and passion for civic engagement. Further, she was an accomplished writer and expert on parks, landscape design, and New York environmental history. Her publishing career includes titles such as The Forests and Wetlands of New York City (New York: Little, Brown, 1971), for which she won a John Burroughs Medal, Frederick Law Olmsted's New York (New York: Whitney Museum/Praeger, 1972), The Central Park Book (Central Park Task Force, 1977), Rebuilding Central Park: A Management and Restoration Plan (MIT Press, 1987), and her self-described magnum opus Landscape Design: A Cultural and Architectural History (New York: Abrams, 2001). All of her book projects in the collection are surrounded by contextual research, manuscripts in various stages, feedback from experts in the field, and correspondence with publishers and advocates. Her expertise on New York and Central Park is contextualized in a wider philosophical and historical framework of space and place and the relationship between humans and their built environments; this theme undergirds her civic and professional work as well as her personal papers.

Rogers also taught courses on landscape design and history at several institutions in New York. Her teaching materials are similarly robust and help illustrate her academic achievements as well as her passion for sharing landscape history beyond the park. Her teaching materials are geographically diverse, demonstrating her wide range of knowledge. She collaborated with multiple parks officials and scholars within the United States and abroad in Europe and Asia. She has continued to advocate for landscape studies; her Foundation of Landscape Studies was integrated into the University of Virginia's Landscape Studies Initiative in 2017.

In her early life, Rogers wrote poetry and speculative historical fiction based on her enjoyment of the New York environment and her interest in New York history. She attended Wellesley College and maintains a close relationship with the institution; she assisted the College in developing plans for the renewal of their campus grounds and has received awards and recognition as an outstanding alumna. She received her Masters degree from Yale University in city planning in 1964 and moved permanently to New York City shortly after. Her social circle includes other members of New York civil society. She maintained close ties with public figures and has been celebrated by numerous organizations for her contributions to New York City.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged into the following series and subseries:

Series I. Written Works and Materials, 1962-2020

Subseries I.A Drafts and Research, 1962-2020

Subseries I.B Press and Reviews, 1969-2018

Series II. Professional Papers and Central Park Conservancy Records, 1962-2019

Subseries II.A Official Publications, 1973-2015

Subseries II.B Publicity and Correspondence, 1971-2019

Subseries II.C Advocacy, 1962-2019

Subseries II.D Graphic Materials and Audiovisual Materials, 1968-2011

Series III. Teaching Materials and Lectures, 1964-2007

Series IV. Awards and Memorabilia, 1906-2017

Scope and Contents

This collection includes a wide array of oversized, photographic, audiovisual, and ephemeral material. The bulk of the papers are Rogers' manuscripts and writing materials, both published and unpublished. Her monographs such as Landscape Design: A Cultural and Architectural History (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2001) and The Forests and Wetlands of New York City (New York: Little, Brown, 1971) appear in finished form, surrounded by drafts, research, and correspondence that sketch the writing process from start to finish. The related correspondence, publicity, and press present a full picture of her writing career and research achievements.

Rogers' personal life is not well documented in the collection. She was born in San Antonio, Texas to C. L. and Elizabeth Browning. Her husband, Theodore C. Rogers, and her children appear in photographs at special events. There are some written materials from her two brothers and parents, especially related to her early work as a research aide to New York State Senator, Whitney North Seymour Jr.

The collection also houses important documents, photographs, and publications around Rogers' career in the NYC Parks Department and her founding of the Central Park Conservancy (CPC). Materials include reports, outreach, and correspondence with collaborators in city government, New York society, and the global parks administration community. Her public life is well documented through speeches, photographs, correspondence, press, and awards. Many notable civic and artistic individuals appear in Rogers' photographs and correspondence including Robert Moses, Ed Koch, George H.W. Bush, Yoko Ono, and Brooke Astor. She was part of civic movements across New York City that responded to the fiscal crisis of the 1970s and the ensuing revitalization and urban renewal efforts of public-private partnerships.

Another key aspect of the collection is Rogers' teaching materials, which often have a global focus that expands the research scope of the collection to outside New York. Rogers taught courses on landscape design and architecture, garden history, and New York environmental history at institutions such as Columbia University, the Cooper Union, Bard Graduate Center, and the New York Botanical Garden. She also established programs of study in Landscape Studies at Bard Graduate Center and founded the Center for Landscape Studies. In addition to coursework, lecture notes, and planning materials, there is a notable spread of clippings and periodicals that mention Rogers or her institutional affiliations.

Many items in the collection have been labeled by the donor prior to gifting the material to N-YHS. There are multiple instances where Rogers has annotated documents and objects with notes that describe their context or relevance to her life and work. These have always been preserved with the material and are also reflected in the arrangement and description of the collection.

There are also 3 CDs, 5 DVDs, and 9 VHS tapes across the collection that hold documentaries, interviews, and recordings from Rogers' events and speeches. Finally, there are oversized materials that include architectural designs and blueprints for Central Park projects, large photographs, and printed ephemera.

Access Restrictions

Materials are stored offsite and advance notice is required for use. For more information on making arrangements to consult them, please visit www.nyhistory.org/library/visit.

Use Restrictions

Taking images of documents from the library collections for reference purposes by using hand-held cameras and in accordance with the library's photography guidelines is encouraged. As an alternative, patrons may request up to 20 images per day from staff. Application to use images from this collection for publication should be made in writing to: Department of Rights and Reproductions, The New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024-5194, rightsandrepro@nyhistory.org. Phone: (212) 873-3400 ext. 282.

Copyrights and other proprietary rights may subsist in individuals and entities other than the New-York Historical Society, in which case the patron is responsible for securing permission from those parties. For fuller information about rights and reproductions from N-YHS visit: https://www.nyhistory.org/about/rights-reproductions

Preferred Citation

The collection should be cited as: Elizabeth Barlow Rogers Papers, MS 3206, New-York Historical Society.

Location of Materials

Materials are stored offsite and advance notice is required for use. For more information on making arrangements to consult them, please visit www.nyhistory.org/library/visit.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Elizabeth Barlow Rogers in 2008 and 2021.

Collection processed by

Lia Warner

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-09-05 11:15:58 -0400.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: Finding aid written in English

Processing Information

The collection was processed by New York University archival intern Lia Warner in 2022. Digital files were processed by Lia Warner and Margo Padilla in 2022. Digital files were delivered by the donor on 5 DVDs and 3 CDs. The discs were imaged using QQBoxx Pro and the resulting files were transferred to storage with TeraCopy. A virus scan using ClamWin and Malwarebytes was performed with no results. Video files were transcoded from ISO to MP4 using HandBrake. Handwritten or printed titles on CDs have been transcribed as titles of digital folders but individual file names and the file arrangement have not been altered.

Repository

New-York Historical Society
New-York Historical Society
170 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024