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Three pamphlets about how to plant, gardening for pleasure and how to start a herb garden laying on blank sheets of paper.

Insight

Georgia O'Keeffe

Georgia O’Keeffe at Home

October 23, 2023

To celebrate American Archives Month 2023, which occurs every October, we are featuring aspects of the newly processed collections from the Michael S. Engl Family Foundation Library and Archive. This year, we are spotlighting the Georgia O’Keeffe Papers, to celebrate the completion of processing the collections and the publication of the finding aid after many years and several archivists!

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Georgia O’Keeffe maintained two homes in Northern New Mexico: her summer home at Ghost Ranch, and her Home & Studio in Abiquiú. While both homes are owned by the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, only the Abiquiú Home and Studio is open for public tours.

O’Keeffe’s homes reveal her commitment to design and the aesthetics of her surroundings. She made her home distinctly modern, with abundant natural light, updated amenities, and midcentury furniture. O’Keeffe kept manuals and brochures from appliances and tools she used, including her Chemex carafes, McIntosh radio, and Barwa chairs.

A close-up photograph of an illustration of two people standing on either side of a Chemex with instructions on how much coffee to use.
Hand-written instruction on the left and a owner's manual on the right for how to use a McIntosh Stereo Power Amplifier MC 240.
An open pamphlet on how to use a Chemex to made coffee or tea with photos in black and white.
A typed letter addressed to Miss O'Keeffe regarding a Barwa chair. On the side are nine small squares made of different colored fabrics encased in a plastic envelope.
Clockwise from top left: Illustrated Chemex Instructions, Mcintosh Manual, Letter Concerning Barwa Chair, Chemex Users Manual.

Georgia O’Keeffe was also an avid gardener. When she purchased her Abiquiú home in 1945, she hired Maria Chabot to manage the restoration and rebuilding of the property to take place between 1946 and 1949, while O’Keeffe was in New York settling Alfred Stieglitz’s estate. Chabot planned to line the perimeter of the garden with tamarisks, willows, and various fruit trees. The center of the garden was leveled for planting vegetables and flowers (corn, radishes, roses, irises, poppies, and hollyhocks). By the time O’Keeffe made Abiquiú her permanent home in 1949, the garden supplied almost all the fruits and vegetables for her two homes. In the summer, she harvested the plants and enjoyed the fresh produce at her Ghost Ranch home. To prepare for the winter months spent in Abiquiú, she dried, canned, and preserved the garden’s herbs, fruits, and vegetables. O’Keeffe’s Abiquiú garden remains much as it was during her lifetime. Staff and interns who live in Abiquiú and the surrounding communities plant and care for the garden every summer and distribute the produce locally and to nearby food banks.

The materials related to the Abiquiú garden in the Georgia O’Keeffe Papers include these seed catalogs, instructional manuals, irrigation techniques, and a “Victory Garden Handbook”.

Photograph of inner page of a seed catalog with details about different veggies and photograph of carrots and cabbages. The top left corner of the page is folder inward.
Photograph of the page of a catalog with details about different seeds. The top right corner of the page is folded inward.
A gardener's handbook on insects and diseases with a black and white circular image of a garden at the center and the figure of two people on the side.
A photograph of a diagram on the different components and pieces of a snake skeleton.
Two pages of Jung Quality Seed catalog with colorful images of different produce and flowers and details about the prices of seeds.
Three pamphlets on irrigation and watering trees laying in an open folder.
Two handwritten pages of notes and lists on the varieties of vegetables with a types page on gardening.
Three pamphlets and instruction manuals on assembly and use of a Barwa chair.
Clockwise from top left: Seed Catalog – Flowers, Snake Skeleton Diagram, Watering Manuals, Barwa Chair Manual, Handwritten Notes on Seeds, Jung Quality Seeds Catalog, A Victory Gardener’s Handbook on Insects and Diseases, Seed Catalog – Vegetables.

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The Michael S. Engl Family Foundation Library and Archive serves the public by collecting, providing access to, and preserving information about Georgia O’Keeffe and her contemporaries, related regional histories, and Modernism. The Research Collections and Services team is available to answer questions, share resources, and help with your research projects; you can contact the Library & Archive here.

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