Downing, Andrew Jackson–(1815-1852)–Newburg,
New York–Downing and his brother Charles Downing operated the Downing Nursery
at Newburg, New York. They specialized mostly in fruits. Their
father was a nurseryman as well. Andrew Jackson was America’s
most influential landscape gardener of the period. In 1841 he published
his Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening when
he was twenty-six years old. It was the first, and still one of the
best American books on the subject, and has had a greater influence on
American horticulture than any other similar volume. His book Cottage
Residences also appeared in 1841, and in 1845, with his brother Charles,
he published simultaneously in London and New York the book Fruits and
Fruit Trees of America. In 1846, he became an editor of The
Horticulturist. In 1850 he visited the great estates of England,
and saw for the first time the landscape gardening of Europe. In
1851 he was chosen to lay out the grounds of the Capitol, the Smithsonian
Institution and the White House, in Washington, D. C., but he died
before the project could be completed. He died by drowning on July
28, 1852 when the steamer, Henry Clay, caught fire on its voyage to New
York City. He was the first great American practitioner of what was
known as the English or natural school of landscape gardening. He
gave inspiration to Frederick Law Olmsted, the next great genius in American
landscape gardening.
Sources: Plants; Woodburn2;
Bailey; PHS2;
CHSJ-Apr. 1966; HG;
Elliott; VanRav