Patios, Pools, and the American Backyard

The suburban backyard is an American original—an invention so familiar it hardly seems invented at all. Patios, Pools, & the Invention of the American Backyard explores the mid-century backyard from the rise of the suburbs and tract houses to the beauty of postwar garden design and the birth of the environmental movement. Filled with vintage photographs, historic drawings, and fun period advertisements, the exhibition reveals how these spaces became such an integral part of American popular culture.

Pictured: Lakewood Plaza, outdoor living space. Long Beach, Calif., 1950s. Maynard L. Parker, photographer. Courtesy of The Huntington Library, San Marino, Calif.

Presented by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service and the Smithsonian Gardens’ Archive of American Gardens