Introduction: Moving Landscapes in the Transatlantic World

Abstract

• Over the last fifty years, some of the most compelling work on designed landscape on both sides of the Atlantic has focused on its symbolic power, on its ability to speak of nation and of national imaginings.1 Such histories of garden design, however, have also remained trapped within these imaginings of national landscapes and their geographies. This special issue explores the apparently “national” character of gardens in the context of their transatlantic connections during the long eighteenth century; here, we focus on shared cultures and outlooks, even as we recognize the powerful influence of local geographies and claims of national distinction. Central to this project is understanding designed landscape as constructed and contested by communities that defined themselves both by what they shared and by how they differed. Our aim is to explore the experiences of location and dislocation that might have played out on both sides of the eighteenth-century Atlantic world. By bringing together researchers who work at disciplinary boundaries, this special issue challenges understandings of the garden that continue to emphasize the borders of nation-states and national geographies. In their attention to the relation