Louise Klein Miller (August 7, 1854 – October 24, 1943) was an American landscape architect, educator, and curator of school gardens for the Cleveland public school system.

Early life and education

Miller was born on a farm near Dayton, Ohio and raised in

Miamisburg, Ohio Miamisburg ( ) is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio. The population was 20,181 at the time of the 2010 census. A suburb of Dayton. It is part of the Dayton metropolitan area. Miamisburg is known for its large industry (mainly for its nuclear ...

,Logan, Mrs. John A.
The Part Taken by Women in American History
' (Perry-Nalle Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1912): 716-717. the daughter of William Miller and Ann Cline Miller. After teaching for years in Dayton, she graduated from

Cook County Normal School Chicago State University (CSU) is a predominantly black public university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1867 as the Cook County Normal School, it was an innovative teachers college. Eventually the Chicago Public Schools assumed control of t ...

in 1893. Influenced by

Francis Wayland Parker Francis Wayland Parker (October 9, 1837March 2, 1902) was a pioneer of the progressive education, progressive school movement in the United States. He believed that education should include the complete development of an individual — mental, p ...

and

Wilbur S. Jackman Wilbur Samuel Jackman (January 12, 1855 – January 28, 1907) was an American educator and one of the originators of the nature study movement. Jackman was born in Mechanicstown, Ohio, and shortly after his birth the family moved to Californ ...

, she pursued further studies as one of the first women students of the Cornell University State College of Forestry.

Career

Miller taught school in Dayton as a young woman. She taught at the Lowthorpe School of Horticulture and Landscape Gardening for Women in Massachusetts, and designed the Lowthorpe Garden. In 1904, she became head of the Cleveland Board of Education's Department of School Gardens. The program founded eight elementary school gardens and home gardens for students. While there, she designed a memorial garden to commemorate the 172 victims of a school fire in Collinwood, Ohio in 1910. After she retired from the Cleveland schools in 1938, she was in charge of the grounds at the Blossom Hill School for Girls in Brecksville, Ohio. She lectured on her work to community groups, and wrote several books. Miller was vice-president of the

National Plant, Flower and Fruit Guild The National Plant, Flower and Fruit Guild was a charity in the United States, started by 1895. It may have been associated with the Women's club movement. Its original goals were "to collect flowers, fruits and vegetables, and to distribute them ...

, and of the School Gardening Association of America. She was a fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

. She was awarded life membership in the National Council of State Garden Clubs.

Publications

* ''Course in Nature Study for Detroit Schools'' (1896) * ''Children’s Gardens for School and Home: A Manual for Cooperative Gardening'' (1904) * "School Gardens" (1909) * "A Garden that is a Memorial Forever" (1927) * ''As I See It'' (1940)

Personal life and legacy

Miller died in October 1943, at the age of 89, in Cleveland, a few weeks after speaking at the annual meeting of the Garden Club of Ohio. "She not only taught the art of raising flowers and vegetables, she helped people to overcome their quandaries," recalled an acquaintance in 1953. More a century after she designed it, the Collinwood School Fire Memorial Garden remains as a monument, though it was much reduced in size when it was redesigned in the 1990s. She is recognized as a leader in the American school gardens movement of the Progressive Era.

References

External links

* Jennifer Ebeling
"Miss Louise Klein Miller: The Female Landscape Architect"
''The Daily Gardener'' (July 22, 2020), a blog post and podcast segment about Miller * Tim Evanson
Collinwood School Fire Memorial Garden
a photo album on Flickr {{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Louise Klein 1854 births 1943 deaths American educators People from Montgomery County, Ohio Chicago State University alumni Landscape architects