Garden Club of America (GCA) / Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) – Douglas Dockery Thomas Fellowship in Garden History & Design

Sponsored by the Garden Club of America, this fellowship was established in 2000 by Mr. and Mrs. Wilmer J. Thomas, Jr. and is awarded annually to an exceptional graduate student to assist with study and research at a leading American institution. Eligible applicants must be U.S. citizens or permanent resident aliens.

This fellowship reflects and promotes the Garden Club of America’s interest in supporting garden history and design, and examining the future of gardens and their unique place in our environment. Today, with growing constraints on all open space, the art of the garden increases in importance. Professionals have expressed the need to focus on American garden history and design, and have expressed dismay at the lack of funding help for talented students.

Project study should have wide scope, such as investigating new techniques of garden restoration; studying how small gardens created by community groups have impacted public gardens; exploring and documenting physical, emotional and spiritual healing properties of the garden; and instigating the development of gardens that use ecological and regenerative concepts, to name but a few possibilities.