Staci L. Catron

Member since: 2014

Proposed by: Cherokee Garden Club, Zone VIII

Staci L. Catron is a public historian, landscape preservationist, author, curator, and community collaborator who is a passionate advocate for documenting and preserving the diverse and meaningful stories of the people and plants that have shaped the world. In her current position as the senior library director of the Cherokee Garden Library, she manages the development, care, preservation, interpretation, and use of the Library. Founded in 1975 by the Cherokee Garden Club of Atlanta, the Library contains a growing collection of over 40,000 objects, including books, periodicals, landscape architectural drawings, photographs, manuscripts, seed catalogs, postcards, and ephemera, all of which tell the fascinating stories of garden, horticultural, and botanical history in the Southeastern United States and areas of influence throughout the world. With holdings dating from the 16th century to the present, the Cherokee Garden Library opens the fascinating world of gardening, design, horticulture, history, and friendship to gardeners, landscape architects, ecologists, historians, writers, students, and nature lovers.

Every year, the Cherokee Garden Library professional library team, led by Catron:

o supports thousands of researchers
o hosts curatorial tours
o supports and presents engaging programs
o expands and makes available collections of books, manuscripts, and visual arts
o conserves and preserves invaluable resources
o produces two issues of the Garden Citings magazine; and
o engages with broader communities throughout Atlanta, the state, the Southeast, and beyond.

Catron is honored to serve the public and help connect people with the expansive resources available at the Cherokee Garden Library, part of the Kenan Research Center of the Atlanta History Center.

Catron holds a B.A. in history and Latin from Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia; Primary Teacher Certification from the Association Montessori Internationale; and a Master of Heritage Preservation from Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia. Catron has contributed to or served as curator for numerous exhibitions at the Atlanta History Center, including Pathways to the Past: Highlights from the Cherokee Garden Library Collection; Gone with the Girdle: Freedom, Restraint & Power in Women's Dress; Women in Atlanta; Edward L. Daugherty, A Southern Landscape Architect; and Seeking Eden: A Collection of Georgia's Historic Gardens.

Her articles and essays have been published in many magazines, newsletters, journals, and books, including Shaping the American Landscape: New Profiles from the Pioneers of American Landscape Design Project (University of Virginia Press, 2009), Warren H. Manning: Landscape Architect and Environmental Planner (University of Georgia Press in association with the Library for American Landscape History, 2017), Garden Gateways, and Magnolia: Publication of the Southern Garden History Society.

In 2005, she co-authored the award-winning book entitled Women in Atlanta (Arcadia Press, 2005, 2007). Her most recent award-winning book, with co-author Mary Ann Eaddy, Seeking Eden: A Collection of Georgia's Historic Gardens, photographs by James R. Lockhart, was published by the University of Georgia Press (2018).

Catron is past president and honorary director of the Southern Garden History Society, past chair of the Georgia National Register of Historic Places Review Board, a director of Easements Atlanta Board, lifetime member of the Garden Club of Georgia, member of the Garden Club of Virginia's Research Fellowship Committee, member of the Cherokee Garden Club, member of the Society of Georgia Archivists, member of the Southeastern Museum Conferences, and member of the Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries. Catron is an Honorary Member of The Garden Club of America and an Honorary Member of the American Society of Landscape Architects. The Garden Club of America bestowed its prestigious Historic Preservation Medal upon Catron in 2023.