Jackson, John Brinckerhoff, 1909-1996

J.B. (John Brinckerhoff) Jackson, author, editor, and educator, was born to American parents on September 25, 1909, in Dinard, France. Educated in France, Switzerland, and the U.S. He studied architecture at MIT for one year before departing to work as a reporter, and then to travel by motorcycle across the country. Eventually, he settled in northeastern New Mexico. Credited with founding the field of landscape studies, Jackson elevated vernacular architecture and landscapes to a level of study once reserved for architect-designed buildings. He founded, published, and edited Landscape, a magazine that covered topices relating to cultural landscape. La Cienega, N.M. was Jackson's homebase from 1965 until his death in August of 1996.

J.B. (John Brinckerhoff) Jackson, author, editor, and educator, was born to American parents on September 25, 1909, in Dinard, France. He was educated in France, Switzerland, and the United States. He studied architecture at MIT for one year before departing to work as a reporter, and then to travel by motorcycle across the country. Eventually, he settled in northeastern New Mexico. Credited with founding the field of landscape studies, Jackson elevated vernacular architecture and landscapes to a level of study once reserved for architect-designed buildings. He founded, published, and edited Landscape, a magazine that covered topices relating to cultural landscape. La Cienega, N.M. was Jackson's homebase from 1965 until his death in August of 1996.

J. B. Jackson talking with students of landscape architecture, Berkeley, CA, 1980. Paul Groth collection of J. B. Jackson.

J. B. (John Brinckerhoff) Jackson, author, editor, and educator, was born to American parents on September 25, 1909, in Dinard, France. He was educated at private schools in France, Switzerland, and the United States. In 1932 he received a B.A. in History and Literature from Harvard. He studied architecture at MIT for one year before departing to work as a reporter, and then to travel by motorcycle across the country. Eventually, he settled in northeastern New Mexico, where he had previously spent time visiting his uncle, Wall Street lawyer Percy Jackson. During WWII, Jackson served as a field intelligence officer, an experience that may have been the catalyst for his lifelong interest in the landscape.

Credited with founding the field of landscape studies, Jackson elevated vernacular architecture and landscapes to a level of study once reserved for architect-designed buildings. Shortly after returning to New Mexico, he founded, published, and edited Landscape, a magazine that covered topics relating to cultural landscape. Jackson published Landscape from 1951-1968, when he turned the operation over to Blair Boyd, who continued it into the mid 1990s. La Cienega, New Mexico was Jackson's home base from 1965 until his death in August of 1996. From there he travelled seasonally to teach classes. He taught at UC Berkeley's College of Environmental Design and Department of Geography, and also at Harvard (starting in 1969), both as a lecturer in the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies and in the Department of Landscape Architecture. His books include Landscapes (Amherst: Univ. of Massachusetts Press, 1970), American Space: The Centennial Year (New York: Norton, 1972), Discovering the Vernacular Landscape (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984), and A Sense of Place, A Sense of Time (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995).