History

The Hammond Museum In designing this garden, Natalie Hays Hammond borrowed the basic principles and ideas of the Stroll Garden incorporating indigenous plantings with popular and rare Japanese and Chinese specimens, as exposure to wind and severe winters would permit. "As people often travel to escape routine problems and obligations, or to escape themselves, so should they find peace in an unhurried journey through a stroll garden." "To please the eye. there are the textures of stone scrolled with the delicate designs of lichen, the patterns of tree trunks and clusters of foliage, the play of light and shadow," the varying shades of green as well as the seasonal colors of great beauty. "To please the ear, there are the songs of native birds, the hum of insects the chorale of frogs... the occasional splash of carp in the lake, "the crunch of pebbles underfoot, the whisper of wind through the pines. "To please the sense of scent, there are dry pine needles in the sun, the fragrance of flowering shrubs, a breeze through mimosa or the pungency of loam after a night rain." "How much time do we grant for the refreshment of the spirit? Must every thought be measured by its attainment; must every phase of life be walled by a conclusion, or may we not think to the exquisite borderline of wonder, wherein we relax that we are infinitely small within the scheme of things, and find our immortality through the appreciation of the light and shadow of a single hour, through the iridescence of a spider's web." Natalie Hays Hammond was born in Lakewood, New Jersey, January 6, 1904. Her father, John Hays Hammond of San Francisco, California, was a mining engineer, diplomat, and philanthropist and, with Cecil Rhodes, discovered and developed the long-lost King Solomon's Mines in South Africa. Miss Hammond's mother, Natalie Harris, was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi. One brother, John Hays Hammond, Jr., and inventor, founded the Hammond Museum and Castle in Glouchester, Massachusetts. Miss Hammond was a miniaturist, a Broadway set and costume designer, an author and an artist in needlepoint. Japanese Gardens Japan is a country of great beauty with mountains, lakes, forest, islands, rivers, waterfalls and seashores. From the earliest times the Japanese people have revered the beauties of their natural surroundings. Their gardens are recreations of natural scenes where defective features of nature were eliminated and fair features alone were selected and woven into a canvas according to the designer's idea of beauty. Originating in Korea and China, Sixth Century Japanese gardens were landscape gardens which adorned palaces and mansions of the nobility, as well as temples and shrines. Thirteenth and Fourteenth Century Buddhist priests of the Zen sect created more reposeful and substantial gardens of stones, water and evergreens which changed little throughout the four seasons. Sixteenth Century gardens were notable for their color and vigor with huge stones, plants and bold outlines. Interwoven with the extravagant life of the age there was the cult of elegant simplicity forming a striking contrast. This was exemplified by the tea ceremony professed by masters who had their votaires among the Samurai class. Attached to the tea house, where these ceremonies were held, there was a garden conspicuous for its austere simplicity coupled with elegance. The old stone lantern was taken out of the temple compound, where it had been found until this time, and placed in the tea garden because the tea ceremony was often held at night. The weathered appearance of the lanterns harmonized with the rest of the garden. The stone lantern,the water-basin, stepping-stones and steps came in due course to be the leading features in gardenmaking. Seventeenth Century gardens saw the rise of the Stroll Garden which was a result of an increased area in the gardens adorning large estates of the nobility. Miniature scenic gems were connected by garden paths leading to ceremonial teahouses. Variety was sought for pleasure and contemplation, but at the same time design focused on the entire garden as an artistic production, characterized by unity and harmony. In making of paths, the selection and arrangement of stepping-stones and stone pavement, artistic effect suited to the location was always kept in view, and ponds, hills, streams and waterfalls all had to be so disposed as to present an equally appealing effect from whatever point they might be viewed. The idea was to arrest strollers on their way, make them slow down so they could appreciate an especially fine array of trees or a particular flower. Sometimes a partially blocked view of something ahead was used to beckon the strollers along. At other times "borrowed scenery" (shakkei) was used, perceptually enlarging the garden size by the inclusion of a view outside the garden. The Japanese Garden as we see it today is most often a monochrome one, in which moss, grasses, shrubs and trees present both subtle and wide-ranging gradations of green, gray and silver tones.The predominant use of evergreen shrubs and trees represent eternal rather than transient beauty. Massed groves of cherry or plum trees so admired for their flowers are kept in separate parts ofthe landscape. Among the flowers or flowering shrubs commonly employed are the iris and the azalea. Looking to the Future Beginning with 1990, plans have been developed which focus on the Japanese Stroll Garden as the principal asset with concomitant ecological and environmental programs. The museum serves as an East-West cross-cultural center where, through programs and events, exhibits, music andart, Americans and peoples of the East and West can appreciate and share their heritage. The museum also seeks to showcase the talent of artists in the New York Metropolitan area. Collectors in the region are also encouraged to explore the exhibiting at the Hammond.