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Patrick Chassé landscape architecture collection

 Collection
Identifier: Coll. 4180

Scope and Content note

Photographs, slides, documents, correspondence, printed material, drawings, artwork, and books. Besides Patrick’s life and work, there are original documents (early 20th century mostly) related to Beatrix Farrand, Edith Wharton, and the Rockefellers.

Dates

  • Creation: 1903 - 2022
  • Creation: Majority of material found within 1980 - 2010

Creator

Access

Unrestricted

Copyright

Access to collections at Maine Historical Society is not an authorization to publish. Rights and reproduction requests may be submitted in writing to the MHS Image Services Coordinator or Research & Administrative Librarian, subject to format.

Biographical note

Patrick Chassé was a landscape architect, educator, ecologist, writer, and landscape historian. Born in Caribou, Maine, in 1947, Patrick had a B.S. in biology from the University of Maine at Orono, a Master of Education in environmental education and botany from the University of Maine, and a Master of Landscape Architecture degree from Harvard Graduate School of Design. He also studied glassblowing and precious metal fabrication at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts.

Patrick was the principal at Landscape Design Associates (LDA) of Bar Harbor, Maine, and Cambridge, Massachusetts ("Maine Designer Craftsman" was the name of his business prior to LDA). Patrick began designing landscapes and gardens professionally in 1980 and became a registered landscape architect in 1990. While many of his projects were on Mount Desert Island, his work can be found throughout Maine, New England (Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont), and in the states of Florida, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Missouri. Outside of the United States, Patrick had projects in the Bahamas, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, where he taught for two years. He also taught landscape design (specifically Japanese and Chinese landscape history) at Harvard University, where he received his master's degree, and was the first Curator of Landscape at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (2004-2009). See Box 1, Folder 1 for more biographical information.

Patrick specialized in the restoration and preservation of historic landscapes, including gardens designed by Beatrix Farrand, an American landscape gardener and landscape architect who designed many gardens on Mount Desert Island.

Patrick Chassé died in 2025.

Biographical information about each project can be found in the Slides series. If projects occurred without slides, biographical information can be found in the Project files series. Some of the biographical information can be found in each series, so it is advisable to look both places.

Select drawings can be found on Maine Memory Network.

Extent

73 Linear Feet (+ 3 flat boxes, 41 volumes, 193 commissions (drawings), and 24,000-plus slides (in 126 small slide boxes in 21 boxes))

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Arrangement

Series:

  • 1. Photographs/slides
    • 1.1 Landscape Design Associates (LDA)
    • 1.2 Non-LDA
  • 2. Archives
    • 2.1 Patrick Chassé – about, by, including LDA business records, publications by and about Patrick Chassé, lectures, teaching
    • 2.2 Landscape Design Associates (LDA) – larger projects (1 box or more)
    • 2.3 Landscape Design Associates (LDA) – small projects (less than a box)
    • 2.4 Beatrix Farrand
    • 2.5 Oversized flat boxes
  • 3. Books
  • 4. Drawings

Container list

  • Container list for Series 2: Archives
  • Subseries 2.1: Patrick Chassé – about, by, including LDA business records, publications by and about Patrick Chassé
  • Box 1: Personal/career, ca. 1947-2020
  • Box 2: Personal/career - Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
  • Box 3: Personal/career – miscellaneous
  • Box 4: Business – Landscape Design Associates
  • Box 5: Business – Landscape Design Associates – Legal, financial, misc.
  • Box 6: Business – Landscape Design Associates - Personnel, B-L
  • Box 7: Business – Landscape Design Associates - Personnel, M-W, etc.
  • Box 8: Professional affiliations, A-M
  • Box 9: Professional affiliations, M-R
  • Box 10: Professional affiliations, R-W, etc.
  • Box 11: Research topics
  • Box 12: Writings of Patrick: Oxford University Press
  • Box 13: Writings of Patrick: Horticulture magazine, etc.
  • Box 14: Writings of Patrick: Magazine articles by and about Patrick and related gardens, A-H
  • Box 15: Writings of Patrick: Magazine articles by and about Patrick and related gardens, H-T; garden writers/authors, etc.
  • Box 16: Writings of Patrick: Books that Patrick wrote/participated in (see also Books in the Book series)
  • Box 17: Lectures, symposiums, tours, etc., 1987-1993
  • Box 18: Lectures, symposiums, tours, etc., 1994-1996
  • Box 19: Lectures, symposiums, tours, etc., 1996-1998
  • Box 20: Lectures, symposiums, tours, etc., 1999-2000
  • Box 21: Lectures, symposiums, tours, etc., 2001-2002
  • Box 22: Lectures, symposiums, tours, etc., 2003-2005
  • Box 23: Lectures, symposiums, tours, etc., 2005 (cont.)
  • Box 24: Lectures, symposiums, tours, etc., 2006-2007, 2009
  • Box 25: Lectures, symposiums, tours, etc., 2010-2014, Miscellaneous
  • Box 26: Teaching – Radcliffe
  • Box 27: Teaching – Radcliffe (cont.)
  • Box 28: Teaching – Harvard
  • Box 29: Teaching – Harvard, College of the Atlantic
  • Box 30: Teaching – College of the Atlantic, and general education
  • Subseries 2.2: Landscape Design Associates (LDA) – larger projects (1 box or more)
  • Box 31: Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden (AARG) - Rockefeller family and Beatrix Farrand
  • Box 32: AARG - Rockefeller biographical information and correspondence
  • Box 33: AARG - Rockefeller original files (Eyrie invoices and receipts), Kykuit, plant lists
  • Box 34: AARG – Patrick’s project files, including proposal, correspondence, design documents
  • Box 35: AARG - Project files, including plant lists
  • Box 36: AARG – Project files, including plant labels
  • Box 37: AARG - Plant lists
  • Box 38: AARG – Plant lists
  • Box 39: AARG - Field notes (notebooks)
  • Box 40: AARG – Guidebook
  • Box 41: AARG – Guidebook (cont.)
  • Box 42: Asticou Azalea Garden
  • Box 43: Boyer
  • Box 44: Butler – General, Northeast Harbor I, Northeast Harbor II
  • Box 45: Butler – Northeast Harbor III, Frenchboro – Butler Capital Corporation Conference Center/Salt Ponds
  • Box 46: Butler – Adirondacks
  • Box 47: Chimneys
  • Box 48: Chimneys (cont.)
  • Box 49: Chimneys (cont.)
  • Box 50: Chimneys (cont.)
  • Box 51: Chimneys (cont.)
  • Box 52: Chimneys (cont.)
  • Box 53: Chimneys (cont.)
  • Box 54: Clark
  • Box 55: College of the Atlantic (Farrand Garden)
  • Box 56: Frank
  • Box 57: Frank (cont.)
  • Box 58: Green
  • Box 59: Gund
  • Box 60: Hodder
  • Box 61: Institute for Advanced Study (IAS)
  • Box 62: IAS (cont.)
  • Box 63: IAS (cont.)
  • Box 64: IAS (cont.)
  • Box 65: IAS (cont.)
  • Box 66: Köprülü
  • Box 67: Köprülü (cont.)
  • Box 68: Lash – Northeast Harbor
  • Box 69: Lash – Northeast Harbor (cont.)
  • Box 70: Lash – Greenwich, CT
  • Box 71: Lash – Greenwich, CT (cont.)
  • Box 72: Lewis
  • Box 73: Lewis (cont.)
  • Box 74: Louis
  • Box 75: Louis (cont.)
  • Box 76: Malone
  • Box 77: Marshall/Fishkin
  • Box 78: Marshall/Fishkin (cont.)
  • Box 79: Merrin
  • Box 80: Merrin (cont.)
  • Box 81: Millard
  • Box 82: Moore
  • Box 83: Mount, The
  • Box 84: Mount, The (cont.)
  • Box 85: New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) – General history and plans, Rodney White Garden
  • Box 86: NYBG – Montgomery Conifer
  • Box 87: NYBG – Patrick’s involvement on committees, consulting, etc., 1979-1993
  • Box 88: NYBG - Patrick’s involvement on committees, consulting, etc., 1994-2014
  • Box 89: NYBG – Printed material
  • Box 90: NYBG – Printed material (cont.)
  • Box 91: Peters
  • Box 92: Pierce
  • Box 93: Robinson – Watermark (Northeast Harbor)
  • Box 94: Robinson – Watermark and Treetop (Cornwall, CT)
  • Box 95: Rockefeller, David and Diana
  • Box 96: Rockefeller, Richard
  • Box 97: Skylands
  • Box 98: Skylands (cont.)
  • Box 99: Skylands (cont.)
  • Box 100: Stewart
  • Box 101: Stewart (cont.)
  • Box 102: Stewart (cont.)
  • Box 103: Stewart (cont.)
  • Box 104: Thorndike
  • Box 105: Thorndike (cont.)
  • Box 106: Thorndike (cont.)
  • Box 107: Thuya Gardens
  • Box 108: Titus-Fagen
  • Box 109: Tureen – Falmouth Foreside
  • Box 110: Tureen – Maine Casino
  • Box 111: Wallace
  • Box 112: White/Levy
  • Box 113: White/Levy (cont.)
  • Box 114: White/Levy (cont.)
  • Box 115: White/Levy (cont.)
  • Box 116: White/Levy (cont.)
  • Box 117: White/Levy (cont.)
  • Box 118: White/Levy (cont.)
  • Subseries 2.3: Landscape Design Associates (LDA) – small projects (less than a box)
  • Box 119: A-B (Adams – Becton)
  • Box 120: B (Bel Geddes - Blundin)
  • Box 121: B - C (Brooks Academy - Clark)
  • Box 122: C (Clements - Collier)
  • Box 123: C (Colloredo-Mansfield - Cox)
  • Box 124: C-D (Cushman - Dupree)
  • Box 125: D-F (Dwight - Franchetti)
  • Box 126: F - G (Fredericks – Garrison Golf Club)
  • Box 127: G (Gilbert - Gray)
  • Box 128: G-H (Gregory – Heller)
  • Box 129: H-J (Hermann - Jensen)
  • Box 130: J-K (Johnson - Kryvicky)
  • Box 131: L (Lamont - Lindsay)
  • Box 132: L-M (Liquidnet - Monroe)
  • Box 133: N (Nannau - Novogrod)
  • Box 134: O-Q (O-Neill – Quesada)
  • Box 135: R-S (Rales – Steele)
  • Box 136: S-U (Stanek – Utsch)
  • Box 137: U-W (Utsch, cont. – Ward)
  • Box 138: W (Weisgall - Williams)
  • Box 139: W (Williams – Wilson)
  • Box 140: W-Z (Wilson – Zukerman)
  • Box 141: Z (Zukerman, cont.)
  • Subseries 2.4: Beatrix Farrand
  • Box 142: Beatrix Farrand/Milliken collection
  • Box 143: Beatrix Farrand/Milliken collection (cont.)
  • Box 144: Beatrix Farrand - Patrick Chassé’s work on
  • Box 145: Beatrix Farrand (cont.) - Patrick Chassé’s work on, etc.
  • Box 146: Beatrix Farrand (cont.) – Dumbarton Oaks
  • Box 147: Beatrix Farrand (cont.) – research paper, British influences (including Jekyll), etc.
  • Box 148: Publications about Beatrix Farrand in Maine and Garland Farm
  • Box 149: Lectures by Patrick about Beatrix Farrand, ca. 1984-2005
  • Box 150: Lectures by Patrick about Beatrix Farrand, 2004-2012; exhibit 2002
  • Box 151: Beatrix Farrand Society and Garland Farm
  • Subseries 2.5: Oversized/flat boxes
  • Box 152: 2 volumes of “Reef Point Gardens” scrapbooks (“Newspaper clippings”), compiled by A. G. M. (Agnes G. Milliken)
  • Box 153: Oversized documents and printed material, loose in box
  • Box 154: Printed and manuscript material, in folders (also one oversized photograph)
  • Oversized file folder of items that are too big to fit into flat boxes
  • Flat File 39-B-6: Chassé professional materials, including plan detail graphics, tree identification resources (trees of New York City; palm trees), and Chassé drawings from a 1983 graduate school project depicting Villa Lante in Italy (located with the Chassé drawings in flat files).

Provenance

Gift of Patrick Chassé (acc. no. 2021.112).

In museum

Linens related to Beatrix Farrand. They have the initials “BJ” (her maiden name was Beatrix Jones). She gave them to Agnes Milliken who gave them to Chasse.

Processing note

Slides. Many of the slides were in sleeves in notebooks – the slides were removed and put into slide boxes. Some of the LDA slides were alphabetical in one notebook; other projects had their own notebooks. They are now in alphabetical order. The dates reflect the date of the slide, not necessarily the project. See Patrick Chassé's master list for Landscape Design Associates clients.

Project files and manuscript records. Staples still need to be removed. Post-it notes need to be possibly photocopied and discarded. Some of the plans were unfolded and stored in oversized folders in the drawings series. There is some duplication which will take a little more time to determine. Original order was generally maintained, when possible, especially in the smaller projects. In the larger projects some rearrangement was made for better access for the researcher. Some of the materials were transferred from the donor to the archivist in bits and pieces so some minimal arranging had to be done to add to existing records. Within some of the files minor rearrangement was done, when possible, but more could be done (especially with correspondence). Some of the materials would be better in legal sized folders but they came in letter sized folders, so for now we will keep them in those sized folders. There is more that could be done, but given the volume of the collection, each folder is at least described with minimal preservation.

Project files are generally arranged by client's last name, although there are exceptions, such as "Chimneys" and "Skylands" (in keeping with Patrick Chassé's filing system).

Related Names

Subjects

Finding Aid & Administrative Information

Title
Guide to the Patrick Chassé landscape architecture collection
Status
Completed
Author
Nancy Noble, Archivist, Maine Historical Society (slides, archives, and books), and Tiffany Link and Jordis Rosberg (drawings), January 2021-August 2022
Date
September 2025
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Repository Details

Part of the Maine Historical Society Repository

https://www.mainehistory.org
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