Nichols, Rose Standish

Rose Standish Nichols (1872-1960) was one of America's first professional female landscape and garden designers, a writer of garden history and criticism, a lifelong pacificist, and a women's rights activist. She was the daughter of Dr. Arthur Howard Nichols (1840-1923) and Elizabeth Fisher Homer Nichols (1844-1929) of Boston, Massachusetts. She published three books and many articles on European garden design, helped found the Woman's International League for Peace and Freedom, and remained single her entire life.

She was a favorite niece of American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens; he encouraged her interest in garden design and she became his confidante through a rich correspondence. Augusta F. Homer Saint-Gaudens, the wife of Augustus, was also close to Rose Nichols and they frequently wrote each other.

From the guide to the Rose Standish Nichols papers, 1877-1922., (Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University)