CALL FOR PAPERS: STUDY DAY ON WOMEN GARDENERS C.1500-2000

‘I think that the garden may be described as the triumph of hope. It was always full of experiments, it gave endless pleasure and if you walk through it, you will see the careful thought bestowed on each plant’. Muriel Messel in the Preface to A Garden Flora (1918) describing the garden at Nymans, Sussex. This study day has come about through research for two exhibitions: Gardening Women at Sissinghurst (5th May – 21st October 2018) and The Triumph of Hope at Nymans (16th June – 28th October 2018). Both exhibitions explore the work of women gardeners and their legacies. Papers might address some of the following topics but are by no means limited to them: 1. The education of women gardeners 2. Women gardeners and their clients 3. Women and the development of plant collections 4. Writing on gardens and gardening by women 5. Women gardeners and their travels 6. The depiction of women gardeners in art The format for the day will be 15 minute talks, and then a roundtable discussion that will open up these papers to further elaboration. To offer a paper, please email your paper proposals to Alice Strickland and Catherine Horwood. You need to provide a title and abstract (250 words maximum), your name and institutional affiliation (if any). Please make sure the title is concise and reflects the contents of the paper. We encourage submissions from a range of disciplinary perspectives. You should receive an acknowledgement of receipt of your submission within two weeks. Colin Matthew Room, Faculty of History, University of Oxford 16th October 2018 from 11am-4pm Deadline for submissions: 20th July 2018 Dr Catherine Horwood (Garden historian and author of Gardening Women: Their Stories from 1600 to the present), ch@catherinehorwood.com Dr Alice Strickland (Curator, London and the South East, National Trust), Alice.Strickland@nationaltrust.org.uk Dr Oliver Cox (Heritage Engagement Fellow, TORCH | The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities, University of Oxford) oliver.cox@humanities.ox.ac.uk In