Arts & Culture
Book Reviews: May 2017
The latest from Johns Hopkins University Press and Jill Jonnes.
Evergreen: The Garrett Family, Collectors and Connoisseurs
(Johns Hopkins University Press)
From its beginnings as a symbol of Baltimore’s gilded age to its golden years as a crown jewel of The Johns Hopkins University campus, Evergreen has remained an icon of Baltimore’s history. This book takes us inside the home of the Garrett family, which is now a museum and library. (If you don’t recognize the name, know that Mary Elizabeth Garrett was a guiding force behind funding Hopkins’ graduate medical school and insisting that women be included—in 1892, no less.) Its sumptuous pages give us a glimpse of Evergreen’s splendid architectural detail and the family’s impressive 20th-century art collection, including the likes of Degas and Picasso. You can see the magnificence yourself when Hopkins hosts a launch party May 21.
Urban Forests
Jill Jonnes (Viking)
Even for those of us who live in cities, it likely doesn’t take long to think of a tree we’ve loved for its shade, accessible branches, or beauty. That’s thanks to dozens of scientists, politicians, and activists who worked for hundreds of years to ensure that each of us had access to species that were pretty to look at, but also hearty enough to withstand urbanization and the pollution and development that come with it. Jonnes—a local writer and founder of the Baltimore Tree Trust—chronicles the urban forestry movement, and how it reflects our history, with well-researched depth and detail.