The CAAF manages the working library of former Century president and architect Charles Adam Platt (1861-1933), an autodidact who designed landscapes, country houses, and institutional buildings. It also contains over 450 photographs from his 1892 survey of Italian landscape and architecture design, which culminated in his landmark monograph Italian Gardens (1894). His photographs, portraying the garden in its natural state, often neglected and run down, depicted classical architectural details for study and adaptation. The photographs are instructive, with special attention paid to terrain, architectural details and their scale, appropriateness in the use of plantings as to density and shade, terracing and balustrades, as well as approach avenues and how they set off the houses. His book served as the first English-language introduction to the concept, followed by his friend Edith Wharton’s Italian Villas and their Gardens (1904), which solidified the fashion in America set by Platt. For access to the full collection, contact the Archivist.