Elizabeth Jane Bullard

Bullard was born on January 11, 1847, to Oliver Crosby Bullard and Sarah Jane Hartwell in Sutton, Massachusetts, and was their eldest daughter. Her father, Oliver was the youngest of ten children. His sister Eunice was married to Reverend Henry Ward Beecher, the well-known nineteenth-century minister and abolitionist. It is through this connection that Elizabeth knew Henry Ward Beecher's sisters, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Catherine Esther Beecher, two of the most influential women writers and reformers of their day. now known as the Beecher-McFadden Estate, and used it as a vacation home. These 36 acres of Hudson River valley farmland provided a living laboratory for Elizabeth, where she pursued her interests in horticulture as she assisted her father in managing the farm and learned agronomy, cultivation practices, and project management, which were essential in her later career as a landscape architect. == Early work with Oliver Crosby Bullard ==

Prospect Park, Brooklyn, New York and Olmsted When Oliver joined the newly formed United States Sanitary Commission, he established a long relationship with the Commission's executive secretary Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr., the "father" of landscape architecture. Beardsley Park, Connecticut By the early 1880s, Oliver Bullard was spending the majority of his time supervising park work for the Olmsted firm in Bridgeport, Connecticut. In Beardsley Park, one of the premier examples of Frederick Law Olmsted's designs in Connecticut, Elizabeth's father was brought in to assist by planting trees he had raised himself in neat rows and matched pairs. Throughout this phase, Elizabeth was Bullard's "unofficial collaborator". Superintendent, Bridgeport City Parks Because of his work at Beardsley Park, Bridgeport appointed Oliver as Superintendent of Parks in 1884. During this time, Bridgeport became famous as a "Park City" - a modern community with two Olmsted-designed parks within the city environs. The Bullards moved into the city as Elizabeth's father assumed his new position in 1885. During this period, Elizabeth had begun to take on design projects for owners of large homes and neighboring properties in Bridgeport. Despite Olmsted's endorsement, Elizabeth declined the position, citing the prejudices and political challenges a woman might have faced as a practicing professional. == Professional career ==

Although she declined the job of Bridgeport Park Superintendent, Bullard was busy in her professional work completing her father's projects. In one of her letters to an acquaintance, she anticipated "to continue his life work of landscape gardening. I have happily been proceeding to the satisfaction of my patrons, who are to be sure, my friends, and perhaps a little bit partial". In doing so, Bullard must have maintained a regional or national network of projects and clients in completing her father's projects. == First elected member of the ASLA ==

The eleven founding members of the American Society of Landscape Architects met in Boston on December 23, 1899, and selected Bullard as the first "new fellow" or twelfth member of the ASLA; she was the second woman to be elected to this position. ==Death==

Bullard died on August 14, 1916, in her home at Barnum's Marina mansion, with views of Seaside Park. She was laid to rest two days later in Mountain Grove Cemetery alongside her parents. In her obituaries, she is remembered as "the well-known landscape artist" with "many friends in the city who will grieve her." The Bridgeport Evening Post observed that "many of the gardens in this city are the result of her efforts, she having been a landscape architect of no mean ability." ==Legacy==

As a critical person in the history of landscape architecture, and a role model for other women in the first half of the twentieth century, Elizabeth Bullard, has been a forgotten figure in the history of landscape architecture. As a result, her contributions to the profession were overlooked in favor of other pioneering female landscape architects like of Beatrix Farrand and Marian Coffin. In fact, in one of the notes by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., he observed that Miss Bullard "was a capable but very modest and self-deprecating practitioner". In January 2020, the Connecticut Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects established the "Elizabeth Bullard Award" to recognize the achievements of female landscape architects in Connecticut and advance the goal of gender equity in the profession. ==References==