“In the Dark O'The Moon”
By Ida M. H. Starr
Garden magazine, March 1913
14 1/2” x 9 3/4”
Maryland author, Ida Mae Hill Starr worked as a garden correspondent for elite publications including Country Life in America and Garden magazine. In her numerous publications, she shied away from portraying herself, which was the trend of the day. Instead of plastering fashionable photographs of herself in the articles, she repeatedly depicted her gardener, Isaac Copper, as he skillfully plied his trade and worked with agricultural equipment on her estate. She chronicled lessons taught by this wise man, known to locals as the “Royal Black” because he was reputed to be a direct descendant of an African chief. Again and again, Copper patiently guided her away from her mistaken attempts to impose European designs onto the challenging microclimate of Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Writing in deep appreciation and wonderment of Copper’s and others’ wisdom culled from generations of folklore she stated: “I was suddenly transplanted among a people who had faith in things they could not see, who sowed their seed in concord with the moon, who raised their crops by the measure of the stars.”