Celia Thaxter's Island Garden (2013)

Many of New England's best known artists, authors, and musicians flocked to the Isles of Shoals in the late nineteenth century to visit poet and author Celia Thaxter and to stay in her parent's Appledore resort hotel. With an unhappy marriage and a disabled child to care for, Celia's refuge became her beloved flower garden. After many people urged her to write about the garden, Celia collaborated with her close friend Impressionist Childe Hassam to produce a remarkable book about the garden published just before her death in 1894. This book became the basis for the recreation of the garden in the late 1970s. Thaxter, Hassam, and the garden, past and present, are the basis of this short film.