Bower

History

In eighteenth- and nineteenth-century landscape-design vocabulary, the term bower was closely related to arbor. The two features held several common characteristics: the use of intertwined trees and other vegetation, the creation of shaded areas, and their siting at the end of walks. Further refinement of this definition is complicated by the lack of explicit descriptive language in related accounts. William Faux’s 1819 description of Nathaniel Russell’s garden in Charleston, in which he simply notes bowers of flowering and fruit trees, or C. M. Hovey’s brief reference, in 1840, to a shady bower at James Arnold’s estate in New Bedford, Mass., each represents this problem. In addition, a bower had similar functions to an arbor, such as serving as an outdoor living or dining space.

Nonetheless, some writers made distinctions between bowers and arbors (see Arbor). Noah Webster, for example, in 1828 specified that a bower had a centralized plan—round or square—whereas an arbor was long in plan and arched in cross-section. Rev. Manasseh Cutler’s mention in 1787 of encircled bowers preceded this distinction. It should be noted, however, that this rule was not always followed. For example, A. J. Downing labeled many structures as arbors that were either round or square in form, and Fortescue Cuming, in 1810, described a “long frame bowery.” James E. Teschemacher’s 1835 definition of an arbor as an “artificial bower” indicated that for him the distinction was to be made between the man-made arbor and the natural bower.

In general, three different types of bowers can be identified. The first was composed of planted vegetation manipulated into a covered shelter, as described in 1755 by Samuel Johnson. An example of this type is a Shaker illustration of 1854 of a bower constructed of intertwined trees and used as a dining setting [Fig. 1].1 A bower described in the Virginia Argus (1799) as suitable “for the accommodation of company” may have been similar in form and size to this Shaker bower.

The second type was a built structure over which vegetation was trained. William Byrd II’s 1728 description of a habitation of a“Marooner” is an early instance of a bower being defined as a constructed shelter. Teschemacher gives a detailed account (1835) of the construction of a nineteenth-century bower, one in which iron arches were covered with climbing vines. In 1806, Bernard M’Mahon specified that bowers were “light ornamental buildings” suitable for terminating garden walks [Fig. 2] or complementing open grassy areas in the garden. William Dickinson Martin, in 1809, referred to a “neatly built” bower and William Bailey Lang in 1845 noted a rustic bower that had a shingle roof, with a corner post of rough cedar, “to which that hardy-plant, the Virginia creeper, has been trained.” A. J. Downing also advised in 1848 that such bowers could be “easily and economically constructed,” an idea for rustic buildings that was shared by M’Mahon (1806).

An important difference, however, marks M’Mahon’s and Downing’s references to constructed bowers. M’Mahon argued that such features were appropriate for “spacious pleasure grounds,” while Downing limited their use to more “humble and simple cottage grounds, the rural walks of the ferme ornée, and the modest garden of the suburban amateur.” Downing’s sentiments reflect the increasing attention paid to style and decorum by nineteenth-century treatise writers and suggest that bowers were associated with the rustic-style gardens that doubled as both aesthetic and utilitarian spaces. Such distinctions were not without precedent: In 1804 Thomas Jefferson commented that bowers were more suitable for a kitchen garden than for pleasure grounds.

The third type of bower, a naturally occurring and seemingly unmanipulated collection of trees and shrubs creating a shady enclave or space, is well documented in both descriptions and images of American gardens. For example, Lewis Miller’s mid-nineteenth century poem about “bowery shade” is illustrated with an image of two girls nestled underneath the curving branches of a small tree, which constitutes such a bower [Fig. 3]. The “Elysian Bower” at Springland, near Bristol, Pa., illustrated in an 1808 view, exemplifies the application of this term to a secluded gathering of shade trees [Fig. 4].

As a final note, one of Noah Webster’s definitions for bower was for “a country seat; a cottage.” To date, no example of this use of bower has been found. This absence confirms the observation that although treatise writers and lexicographers set forth specific definitions of bower, observers of the American landscape tended to use the term to mean simply a specific natural or artificially constructed shady space occurring either in a garden or landscape.

-- Anne L. Helmreich