Louise Klein Miller
A white woman with curly white hair in a bouffant style
Louise Klein Miller, from a 1924 publication
BornAugust 7, 1854
near Dayton, Ohio, U.S.
DiedOctober 24, 1943 (age 89)
Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
Occupation(s)Landscape architect, educator, gardens advocate
Signature

Louise Klein Miller (August 7, 1854 – October 24, 1943[1]) was an American landscape architect, educator, and curator of school gardens for the Cleveland public school system.

Early life and education

Miller was born on a farm near Dayton, Ohio and raised in Miamisburg, Ohio,[2][3] the daughter of William Miller and Ann Cline Miller. After teaching for years in Dayton, she graduated from Cook County Normal School in 1893.[4] Influenced by Francis Wayland Parker and Wilbur S. Jackman,[3] she pursued further studies as one of the first women students of the Cornell University State College of Forestry.[5][6]

Career

Miller taught school in Dayton as a young woman. She taught at the Lowthorpe School of Horticulture and Landscape Gardening for Women in Massachusetts, and designed the Lowthorpe Garden. In 1904, she became head of the Cleveland Board of Education's Department of School Gardens.[7] The program founded eight elementary school gardens and home gardens for students.[8] While there, she designed a memorial garden to commemorate the 172 victims of a school fire in Collinwood, Ohio in 1910.[9][10]

After she retired from the Cleveland schools in 1938,[11] she was in charge of the grounds at the Blossom Hill School for Girls in Brecksville, Ohio.[5][12] She lectured on her work to community groups,[13][14] and wrote several books.[15]

Miller was vice-president of the National Plant, Flower and Fruit Guild,[16] and of the School Gardening Association of America.[2] She was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.[6] She was awarded life membership in the National Council of State Garden Clubs.[12]

Publications

  • Course in Nature Study for Detroit Schools (1896)[17]
  • Children’s Gardens for School and Home: A Manual for Cooperative Gardening (1904)[18]
  • "School Gardens" (1909)[13]
  • "A Garden that is a Memorial Forever" (1927)[10]
  • As I See It (1940)[15]

Personal life and legacy

Miller died in October 1943, at the age of 89, in Cleveland,[5][19] a few weeks after speaking at the annual meeting of the Garden Club of Ohio.[20] "She not only taught the art of raising flowers and vegetables, she helped people to overcome their quandaries," recalled an acquaintance in 1953.[21] More a century after she designed it, the Collinwood School Fire Memorial Garden remains as a monument, though it was much reduced in size when it was redesigned in the 1990s.[22][23] She is recognized as a leader in the American school gardens movement of the Progressive Era.[24]

References

  1. ↑ Birth and death date from New General Catalog of Old Books and Authors. Death date confirmed in Cornell Alumni News for November 15, 1943. Birth year confirmed in Woman's Who's Who of America (1914).
  2. 1 2 Logan, Mrs. John A. The Part Taken by Women in American History (Perry-Nalle Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1912): 716-717.
  3. 1 2 Martin, Mabel Brown (1914-05-31). "Dayton Women Whom Have Made Good; Miss Louise Klein Miller, Curator of School Gardens, Author". Dayton Daily News. p. 4. Retrieved 2023-08-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ↑ Woman's Who's who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada, 1914-1915. American commonwealth Company. 1914. p. 564.
  5. 1 2 3 "Louise Klein Miller". The Cultural Landscape Foundation. Retrieved 2023-08-19.
  6. 1 2 Conover, Charlotte Reeve (1940-06-30). "Mrs. Conover's Corner: Builder of Gardens; Cleveland is Grateful for Louise Klein Miller, A Former Daytonian". Dayton Daily News. p. 17. Retrieved 2023-08-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ↑ "Unusual People". The Selma Times-Journal. 1924-03-17. p. 4. Retrieved 2023-08-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ↑ "SCHOOL GARDENS | Encyclopedia of Cleveland History | Case Western Reserve University". case.edu. 2021-07-22. Retrieved 2024-01-13.
  9. ↑ "Community Gardening". Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. 2021-09-10. Retrieved 2023-08-19.
  10. 1 2 Miller, Louise Klein (July 1927). "A Garden that is a Memorial Forever". Your Garden. 1 (3): 85, 105.
  11. ↑ "Botanist, 84, Changes Jobs but Won't Retire". Republican and Herald. 1938-08-13. p. 4. Retrieved 2023-08-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. 1 2 "Elderly Cleveland Woman Tells Garden Board of Her Activity; Speaks to Group at Skowhegan Cottage". Kennebec Journal. 1940-07-13. p. 9. Retrieved 2023-08-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. 1 2 Miller, Louise Klein (1909). "School Gardens". Annual Report of the Horticultural Societies of Ontario. 4 (44): 46–52.
  14. ↑ "Praises Beauty of Quaker City; Louise Klein Miller Says She Brings Coals to New Castle". The Richmond Item. 1909-03-20. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-08-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. 1 2 "Former Teacher Here Writes Book". The Dayton Herald. 1941-04-11. p. 18. Retrieved 2023-08-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ↑ "Flowers for Rich and Poor". The New York Times. April 28, 2011. p. 10 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
  17. ↑ Miller, Louise Klein. Course in nature study, for Detroit schools. Detroit: John Bornman & Son.
  18. ↑ Miller, Louise Klein (1904). Children's Gardens for School and Home; A Manual of Cooperative Gardening. New York: D. Appleton.
  19. ↑ "Necrology". Cornell Alumni News. 46 (10): 184. November 15, 1943.
  20. ↑ "Garden Club Reelects Trio". The Akron Beacon Journal. 1943-09-23. p. 16. Retrieved 2023-08-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. ↑ McCune, Charles (1953-01-24). "Great Teacher's Creed--Vibrate Truth and Beauty". The Buffalo News. p. 15. Retrieved 2023-08-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  22. ↑ Daley, Mary Louise. "The Collinwood School Fire Memorial Garden - Does Anybody Care?". The Collinwood Observer. Retrieved 2023-08-19.
  23. ↑ In Loving Remembrance: The Collinwood School Fire of 1908 (Cleveland Public Library, 2008).
  24. ↑ Kohlstedt, Sally Gregory (February 2008). "'A Better Crop of Boys and Girls': The School Gardening Movement, 1890–1920". History of Education Quarterly. 48 (1): 58–93. doi:10.1111/j.1748-5959.2008.00126.x. ISSN 0018-2680.
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