Smith College in Northampton, MA was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted in 1892, and by 1894 a small greenhouse was already in place and an active botanical garden underway in the women’s college. Situated above a duck pond and playing fields across the small Mill River, the windows are steamy in the dead of winter as tropical plants drip with condensation inside. Each spring, the bulb show brings visitors from across New England to enjoy the early proof of the oncoming season.
When I asked the staff at the Plant House if I could photograph a tour of their collection, since the pubic is welcome inside with their cameras, they welcomed me, provided staff didn’t need to be in it. Because each panorama is a collection of dozens of images I take from a single point with my tripod, it’s easy to shoot around people. So, even though these spaces look empty in my tour, I was often sharing each glasshouse with several other visitors.
Smith College isn’t far from where I live, so I was able to photograph this quickly and easily in the spring of 2019. It came in handy during the pandemic when the space became off-limits to the public, but people still hungered to be inside. You can learn more about the Lyman Plant House at Smith College here.
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