Garden Legacy Book Release Celebration

The HNOC celebrates the release of Garden Legacy, which captures three centuries of garden design in New Orleans in one sumptuously produced work, at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, April 12, at The Historic New Orleans Collection (533 Royal Street).

Authors Mary Louise Mossy Christovich and Roulhac Bunkley Toledano will be on hand to discuss the book and sign copies from 6 until 8 p.m.

Garden Legacy chronicles the changing tastes and styles of exterior domestic spaces in New Orleans, paying particular attention to the Crescent City’s legacy of French-American landscape design. The author’s research draws from the stunning visuals and fascinating data found in the New Orleans Notarial Archive’s collection of 19th-century plan books, as well as period maps and prints from THNOC and other North American and European institutions. It also includes details discovered in memoirs written by early Louisiana settlers and naturalists.

A foreword by S. Frederick Starr, noted preservationist and owner of the city’s only surviving antebellum riverfront plantation house, places the book and its authors within a vital line of New Orleans’ preservation efforts.

The book, which retails for $49.95, will be available for purchase at the event through THNOC’s museum store, The Shop at The Collection.