Bremer Whidden Pond (June 23, 1884 – September 2, 1959) was an American

landscape architect A landscape architect is a person who is educated in the field of landscape architecture. The practice of landscape architecture includes: site analysis, site inventory, site planning, land planning, planting design, grading, storm water manageme ...

and professor at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

. He was deeply involved with two early graduate programs in landscape architecture for women: the Cambridge School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture and the

Lowthorpe School of Landscape Architecture The Lowthorpe School of Landscape Architecture is the shorthand name for a school that was founded in Groton, Massachusetts in 1901 for women to be trained in landscape architecture and horticulture. Under its original name of Lowthorpe School ...

Early life

Bremer Whidden Pond was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on June 23, 1884, and got his bachelor's degree from

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...

in 1906. He received his master's degree in landscape architecture from Harvard that same year. He went on to serve as secretary to the famous landscape architect

Frederick Law Olmsted Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822August 28, 1903) was an American landscape architect, journalist, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the USA. Olmsted was famous for co-d ...

Career

Bremer joined Harvard's School of Landscape Architecture in 1914 and remained at Harvard until his retirement in 1950. He eventually became the Charles Eliot Professor of Landscape Architecture and the chairman of the Department of Landscape Architecture in what became the

Harvard Graduate School of Design The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) is the graduate school of design at Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It offers master's and doctoral programs in architecture, landscape architecture, urba ...

. In 1915, Harvard architecture instructor

Henry Atherton Frost Henry Atherton Frost, (February 8, 1883 – May 26, 1952) was an American architect and instructor at Harvard University. He was largely responsible for inaugurating and overseeing an early graduate program in architecture and landscape architec ...

inaugurated an informal program of tutoring women in architecture since they could not be admitted to Harvard's male-only graduate program. Within a year, Frost had four women students and had brought Pond on board. Word about the informal program spread, and by the 1916–17 academic year, the college was advertising the experimental program and its curriculum as the Cambridge School of Architectural and Landscape Design (later to be renamed the Cambridge School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture). Among the women to complete the school's three-year program were landscape architects Rose Greely and

Alice Recknagel Ireys Alice Recknagel Ireys (April 24, 1911 – December 12, 2000) was an American landscape architect whose notable clients included the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the New York Botanical Garden, the Clark Botanic Garden, the Abigail Adams Smith Museum, a ...

. Pond also served for a time as director of the Lowthorpe School of Landscape Architecture, another institution formed to give women access to higher education in landscape architecture. In 1915, Pond opened his own office in Boston, and a few years later he went into partnership with Frost. Pond was secretary of the

American Society of Landscape Architects The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) is a professional association for landscape architects in the United States. The ASLA's mission is to advance landscape architecture through advocacy, communication, education, and fellowshi ...

from 1922 to 1936. He also served as secretary of the Cambridge Historical Society, was a director of the Massachusetts Forest and Park Association, and helped to organize the Hubbard Educational Trust. He was a coeditor of ''The Transactions of the American Society of Landscape Architects, 1909-1921'', and he edited Eleanor von Erdberg's 1936 book ''Chinese Influence on European Garden Structures''. Pond died on September 2, 1959, in

Hanover, New Hampshire Hanover is a town located along the Connecticut River in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population was 11,870. The town is home to the Ivy League university Dartmouth College, the U.S. Army Corps of ...

Publications

*''Outline History of Landscape Architecture (fine Arts 1f.)''. School of Landscape Architecture, Harvard University, 1933.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pond, Bremer Whidden 1884 births 1959 deaths American landscape architects Harvard University faculty Harvard Graduate School of Design alumni Dartmouth College alumni