Frank Albert Waugh

His ideas spread via his diverse writings, including Recreation Uses in the National Forests and The Natural Style in Landscape Gardening.

Waugh begins each edition of his text with the sentence: “Landscape gardening is eminently a fine art.” He covers general principles of design and discusses three basic styles – the natural, the architectural and the picturesque.

The photographs included in the book, taken by Waugh, are landscapes – ranging from Europe and Japan to unique regions in the United States.

Waugh was an avid writer of magazine articles and books with writings on technical horticulture (Systematic pomology, 1903), landscape architecture (Formal Design In Landscape Architecture, 1927), education (The Agricultural College, 1916), gardening (Everybody’s Garden, 1937), and society (Rural Improvement, 1914).

By creating a scattered canopy by taking away the formality in the trees, Waugh believed it would unify the natural and undomesticated surroundings with the overall presentation of the town.

This movement began with a grant from Congress on June 30, 1864, for the preservation of Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees.

These byways feature “paragraphic” vistas which appear sequentially at turns along the road, accompanied by turn-offs for stopping and taking in the view.

It is no wonder that he developed a taste for native vegetation and natural scenery, considering that these elements coincided with the concept of a place's ecological scheme and overall spirit.

With English influences such as the large estate garden at Stowe in England, the wide-open lawn reigned supreme, implying the values of naturalistic landscaping through little manipulation of planting arrangements and circulation patterns.

This was especially influential in terms of the national forests, whose uses prior to 1917 were primarily characterized by timber production and livestock grazing.

Along with his contemporary Henry Vincent Hubbard, Waugh fostered the creation of a landscape design style that was uniquely American.

Many of them achieved great successes, including such accomplishments as designing public sculptures in Washington D.C. and inventing the United States federal food stamp program.

Although he was a man of small physical stature, being just over five feet tall, his charisma was widely felt and influenced his family, colleagues, and students alike.