When thinking of painters and trees, Bob Ross may be the first to come to mind. However, painters were charmed by “happy little trees” for centuries before Ross.

Artists like Frederic Church, Albert Bierstadt, and those from the Hudson River School, captured the beauty of the country’s majestic landscapes. It is through their eyes that many came to see these unique places for the first time. These works captured imaginations and helped the national park movement take root by making people realize that these places were worth preserving for future generations.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation houses many incredible trees, some of which are under the purview of their Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios program, a coalition of 61 museums that were the homes and working studios of American artists. Visitors to these sites can stand where ideas were transformed into tangible and see how the light falls on the easel, as well as look at the view out of the window, and see how the landscape may have inspired the artist.

Here are six HAHS sites that have remarkable trees on-site. Plan a visit today to see the foliage that inspired these artists, and allow them to spark your own creativity.

Burchfield Homestead Society (Salem, Ohio)

Charles E. Burchfield was a modernist painter known for his distinctive watercolors that depict the natural world. He lived in the humble frame house in Salem, now known as Burchfield Homestead, from the age of 5 to 28 (1898-1921). His painting “Cherry Blossom Snow,” was inspired by a tree across the alley from the Burchfield Homestead. While the tree from his youth was lost years ago, a new tree was planted in 2008 in memory of Sharon Medford, a volunteer who led the re-creation of the homestead’s garden according to Burchfield's journal descriptions.

Visitors in the spring will see the new cherry tree in a glory of pink flowers. If you visit on a windy day, the lawn will again be blanketed with a snow of dropped petals.

Florence Griswold Museum (Old Lyme, Connecticut)

Are you familiar with the tale of Connecticut’s Charter Oak? Legend has it that the state’s Royal Charter of 1662 was hidden within a venerable oak tree in Hartford to thwart its confiscation by the English governor-general. A terrible storm in 1857 fell that great tree. However, the acorns were collected and over the years, the progeny have been cultivated and planted in various locations across the state.

During the first two decades of the 20th century, Old Lyme, Connecticut was the setting for one of the largest art colonies in America. Vanguards in the Tonalist and Impressionist movements were drawn to Old Lyme by its natural beauty. Many visitors to Florence Griswold's boarding house painted outdoors, where American Impressionist Wilson Henry Irvine (1869-1936) noted “there’s a kind of hazy beauty in the air.”

In 1976, as part of the local American Bicentennial festivities, a seedling from a Charter Oak acorn was planted at the Florence Griswold Museum. In 2002, an iconic painting of The Charter Oak by Frederic Church (1826-1900) was given to the museum. Today, visitors can see both, the fifty-foot high oak tree and Church's painting of the original tree.

Thomas Cole National Historic Site (Catskills, New York)

Wharton Esherick Museum (Malvern, Pennsylvania)

In the years to come, Esherick would depict the cherry tree numerous times in paintings, prints and drawings, and–when the tree finally succumbed to age and Japanese beetles – he used its large branches for the walls of his iconic studio dining room, surrounding himself in its warm tones for decades to come.

Soldner Center for the Arts and Innovation (Aspen, Colorado)

Manitoga/The Russel Wright Design Center (Garrison, New York)

Manitoga is the former home and 75-acre woodland garden of American industrial designer Russel Wright (1904-1976), envisioned with his wife Mary Einstein Wright (1904-1952) for their future family.

Once a ravaged industrial site, the Wrights transformed the scarred land to a place of extraordinary beauty. Inspired by the area’s ancestral residents, the Wappinger people, Wright called the emerging vision for the land “Manitoga” or "Place of Great Spirit."