Date of Award
2021
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelors
Department
Humanities
First Advisor
Carrasco, Magdalena
Area of Concentration
Art History
Abstract
Edward Bok, the editor of the Ladies Home Journal from 1889–1919, has earned a reputation as an overlooked yet influential figure of the Progressive Era (1896–1920). Through his power as editor, Bok fostered conventional change towards his goal of making the world more “beautiful.” To Bok, beauty could improve social conditions in America and this vision is best illustrated in his final project, The Mountain Lake Sanctuary and Singing Tower, now known as Bok Tower Gardens, in Lake Wales, Florida. This thesis examines how Edward Bok, with his selected artists and architects, utilized landscape design, architecture, and the decorative arts to materialize the Progressive Era causes he championed. Bok Tower Gardens blends idealized Floridian nature, medievalist architecture, and site-specific iconography through a lens of aesthetic environmentalism to create Bok’s climactic example of a “beautiful” cultural and physical landscape. This thesis presents a new way to understand the role that Edward Bok played in shaping an ideal America through architecture and garden design.
Recommended Citation
Cox, Noah, "THE SINGING TOWER OF FLORIDA: MATERIALIZING THE PROGRESSIVE ERA AT BOK TOWER GARDENS" (2021). Theses & ETDs. 6046.
https://digitalcommons.ncf.edu/theses_etds/6046