Archives On The Air 65: Flowers Of Japan—Dorothy Eidlitz Papers

Published September 19, 2018 at 10:58 AM MDT

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Scrapbook page with photographs of "the Household Staff," Jan. 11 1921. Box 20, Dorothy Eidlitz papers.

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Scrapbook page with photographs of "the Household Staff," Jan. 11 1921. Box 20, Dorothy Eidlitz papers.

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Page of pressed flowers in one of Eidlitz's journals from Japan, ca. 1921-1935. Box 17, Dorothy Eidlitz papers.

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Page of pressed flowers in one of Eidlitz's journals from Japan, ca. 1921-1935. Box 17, Dorothy Eidlitz papers.

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Scene from Kanjincho, a Kabuki play, circa 1921. Box 20, Dorothy Eidlitz papers.

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Scene from Kanjincho, a Kabuki play, circa 1921. Box 20, Dorothy Eidlitz papers.

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Pagoda and Sarusawa Pond at Nara, circa 1921. Box 20, Dorothy Eidlitz papers.

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Pagoda and Sarusawa Pond at Nara, circa 1921. Box 20, Dorothy Eidlitz papers.

Dorothy Eidlitz was an accomplished woman. She graduated from Vassar in 1915 and did graduate work at Pennsylvania and Columbia.

Eidlitz lived in Japan in the 1920s. In Japan she was an amateur photographer and a women’s rights advocate working to reduce suicide rates among young Japanese girls.

Eidlitz also loved gardening. She found inspiration in Japanese gardening, saying, “Westerners may well study the Japanese formulas of scale, proportion, balance and contrast, continuity in line, form, mass and color. … We work so hard in futile attempts to defy nature, while the Japanese have learned to accept nature and conform to her demands.”

She returned to the US in the 1930s and lectured on Japanese culture, exhibited her photos, and judged floral shows.

The Dorothy Eidlitz papers at UW’s American Heritage Center provide a snapshot of Japan in the 1920s.