The Mary Rutherfurd Jay collection documents Jay's career as a landscape architect, her lectures on gardens, and her involvement in the profession. Research notes and images on gardens around the world and architectural drawings form the bulk of the collection. There are also photographs of her commissions but no textual project files. The collection is arranged into four series: Personal Papers, Professional Papers, Project Records, and Art and Artifacts.

Mary Rutherfurd Jay was born in Fair Haven Connecticut to the Reverend Peter Augustus and Julia Post Jay. Her family descended from John Jay, first Chief Justice of the United States. She studied architecture at MIT and Harvard's Bussey Institute* in Forest Hills, Massachusetts. Her first commission was planting a plaisance on the grounds of a friend living in Connecticut. She began her practice in New York in 1908 and referred to herself as a garden architect. Most of her work was residential for clients in New York, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, with some in New Jersey and Massachusetts. She spent an extended period travelling around the world in 1912 and throughout her life presented illustrated lectures related to international gardens.

All requests for permission to publish, reproduce, or quote from materials in the collection should be discussed with the Director.

Collection is open for research.