Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Socio-Ecological Practice Research https://doi.org/10.1007/s42532-019-00032-4 INTELLECTUAL BIOGRAPHY Ian L. McHarg: an illustrated chronology of his life William Whitaker 1  · Frederick Steiner 1 Received: 8 August 2019 / Accepted: 10 August 2019 © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 Abstract An illustrated chronology follows Ian McHarg’s life from Clydebank, Scotland, UK to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Key personal, professional, and academic events are noted. Keywords Ian McHarg · Design With Nature · University of Pennsylvania · Ecological design · Ecological planning 1 Introduction When preparing his autobiography A Quest for Life in the 1990s, Ian McHarg asked Frederick Steiner for assistance. One of Steiner’s tasks was to compile a chronology of McHarg’s life. This was done by abstracting key events from McHarg’s curriculum vitae and through discussion. As this special issue was being undertaken, Socio-Ecological Prac- tice Research editor Wei-Ning Xiang suggested an updated and illustrated chronology. This recommendation was timely as the Stuart Weitzman School of Design and the Ian L. McHarg Center for Urbanism and Ecology at the Univer- sity of Pennsylvania were preparing a series of events and exhibitions to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Design With Nature (see https://mcharg.upenn.edu). One of the “Design With Nature Now” exhibitions focused on McHarg’s life. “The House We Live In” was curated by William Whitaker and yielded a rich array of images, a couple of which are published for the frst time here. The planning for “Design With Nature Now” (undertaken also with Richard Weller, Karen M’Closkey, and Billy Fleming, all of whom are with the Stuart Weitzman School of Design) helped Whitaker and Steiner prepare this chronology. 2 An illustrated chronology of Ian L. McHarg 1920 November 20—Ian Lennox McHarg is born in Clyde- bank, Scotland, first child of John Lennox McHarg (1894–1969) and Harriet Bain (1895–1943). His father, a clerk and traveling salesman, instilled in his son a preoc- cupation with religious attitudes to nature. His mother was a gifted dress designer and seamstress. “Whatever talent I had [in drawing, painting, and design],” McHarg would later recall, “was a bequest from my mother, as was my love of nature and gardening” (McHarg 1996, p. 11). The family’s long-time home at 106 Riddell Street was at the fulcrum of city and countryside, with farm felds and views to the Old Kilpatrick Hill to the north and west giving way to the mighty cranes of the Clyde River shipyards and industrial grit of Glasgow’s steel mills to the south and east (Fig. 1). 1932 The grim efects of the Great Depression hit Clydebank hard. Although his father remained employed, the impact on the community was much deeper than economic, “it tested the human spirit,” McHarg recalled (1996, p. 13). It was in this context that his parents frst allowed Ian the freedom to explore the countryside alone and on foot, journeys that formed an enduring touchstone for his future development. 1936 Following his 16th birthday, McHarg withdraws from high school to apprentice as a landscape architect with Don- ald Alderson Wintersgill (1891–1954) of Austin and McA- slan Ltd. in Glasgow, leading seedsmen and nurserymen * Frederick Steiner fsteiner@design.upenn.edu 1 Stuart Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania, 210 S 34th Street, 102 Meyerson Hall, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA