Enid A. Haupt
Encyclopedia
Enid A. Haupt was an American publisher and philanthropist whose gifts supported horticulture, the arts, architectural and historic preservation, and cancer research. She has been described as "the greatest patron American horticulture has ever known" by Gregory Long, the president of the New York Botanical Garden
New York Botanical Garden
- See also :* Education in New York City* List of botanical gardens in the United States* List of museums and cultural institutions in New York City- External links :* official website** blog*...

.

Family and early years

Haupt was born in Chicago to Sadie and Moses Annenberg
Moses Annenberg
Moses "Moe" Louis Annenberg was an American newspaper publisher, who purchased The Philadelphia Inquirer, the third-oldest surviving daily newspaper in the United States. in 1936. The Inquirer has the sixteenth largest average weekday U.S...

, the founder of a publishing empire based on The Daily Racing Form and The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer is a morning daily newspaper that serves the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, metropolitan area of the United States. The newspaper was founded by John R. Walker and John Norvell in June 1829 as The Pennsylvania Inquirer and is the third-oldest surviving daily newspaper in the...

. She was one of eight children (seven girls and a boy) born to the couple; the boy was Walter H. Annenberg, who was to become a publisher and philanthropist in his own right.

She was tall and thin as a young girl, and resolved to impress her older sisters by memorizing a new word each day. She attended Mount Ida Seminary in Newton, Massachusetts
Newton, Massachusetts
Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States bordered to the east by Boston. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the population of Newton was 85,146, making it the eleventh largest city in the state.-Villages:...

, during which time her family moved to New York. Her father was imprisoned for tax evasion during the 1930s.

Adult life and professional career

In 1953, she was charged with publishing Seventeen magazine
Seventeen (magazine)
Seventeen is an American magazine for teenagers. It was first published in September 1944 by Walter Annenberg's Triangle Publications. News Corporation bought Triangle in 1988, and sold Seventeen to K-III Communications in 1991. Primedia sold the magazine to Hearst in 2003. It is still in the...

, a post she would hold until 1970. She also wrote "Young Living", a syndicated fashion, beauty and lifestyle column.

Haupt's first marriage, to Norman Bensinger, ended in divorce. She later married Ira Haupt, who died in 1963. It was through this marriage that she became involved with gardening, particularly in the growing of flowers, after she encouraged her husband to help his gardeners find better jobs.

Philanthropic legacy

Haupt is quoted as often having said "Nature is my religion," and once told The New York Times "Books are the most important things in my life besides nature." As an heiress to a family fortune, she was able to make significant contributions to her personal causes and interests, foremost among which was horticulture.

Haupt contributed the Haupt Fountains at the Ellipse located between the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...

 and the Washington Monument
Washington Monument
The Washington Monument is an obelisk near the west end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built to commemorate the first U.S. president, General George Washington...

, and also a four-acre Victorian garden, known as the Enid A. Haupt Garden, on the south side of the Smithsonian Castle. The Enid A. Haupt Garden at the Smithsonian is intended by its architect, Jean Paul Carlihan, to interpret nearby museums. It is situated atop the underground African Art exhibit building and adjacent to an underground Asian Art exhibit. Accordingly, the end of the garden nearest the Asian Art exhibit is accented with pink granite moongates, and the end nearest the African Art exhibit contains a modern interpretation of an Islamic garden.

She donated a 27-acre plantation, located near Mount Vernon
Mount Vernon
The name Mount Vernon is a dedication to the English Vice-Admiral Edward Vernon. It was first applied to Mount Vernon, the Virginia estate of George Washington, the first President of the United States...

 and once owned by George Washington, to the American Horticultural Society
American Horticultural Society
The American Horticultural Society is a nonprofit, membership-based organization that promotes excellence in American horticulture. It is headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia....

. A Victorian style
Victorian architecture
The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...

 conservatory located in the New York Botanical Garden
New York Botanical Garden
- See also :* Education in New York City* List of botanical gardens in the United States* List of museums and cultural institutions in New York City- External links :* official website** blog*...

 was saved from demolition through her efforts and funding. She spent large sums over the years to maintain the gardens of The Cloisters
The Cloisters
The Cloisters is a museum located in Fort Tryon Park, New York City. The building, which is a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, was reconstructed in the 1930s from the architectural elements of several European medieval abbeys...

, part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...

. She contributed to the garden of Claude Monet
Claude Monet
Claude Monet was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. . Retrieved 6 January 2007...

 in Giverny, France, and to Lady Bird Johnson
Lady Bird Johnson
Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Taylor Johnson was First Lady of the United States from 1963 to 1969 during the presidency of her husband Lyndon B. Johnson. Throughout her life, she was an advocate for beautification of the nation's cities and highways and conservation of natural resources and made that...

's National Wildflower Research Center.

Among her other contributions are works of art for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Gallery of Art
National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art and its Sculpture Garden is a national art museum, located on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW, in Washington, DC...

, and funding for the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center is a cancer treatment and research institution founded in 1884 as the New York Cancer Hospital...

. According to The New York Times, "The gift that gave her the most satisfaction, she said, was one of her earliest and least heralded: the Enid A. Haupt Glass Garden
Enid A. Haupt Glass Garden
The Enid A. Haupt Glass Garden was built in 1958 as part of the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine at New York University Medical Center. It provides horticultural therapy for patients, but is also open to the public. It is contained in a greenhouse at 34th Street and First Avenue in New...

, a playground for children who are patients at the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine at New York University Medical Center."

External links


See also

  • Enid A. Haupt Glass Garden
    Enid A. Haupt Glass Garden
    The Enid A. Haupt Glass Garden was built in 1958 as part of the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine at New York University Medical Center. It provides horticultural therapy for patients, but is also open to the public. It is contained in a greenhouse at 34th Street and First Avenue in New...

    This child's playground was her favorite project.
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