Gertrude Jekyll Collection
Scope and Content
Personal Papers and Project Records. The personal papers contain Jekyll's photograph albums (ca. 1888-1914). There are six volumes of photographs, which fall into broad subject categories: studies of landscapes, gardens, floral arts, plants and rural subjects, as well as portraits. The greatest number of photographs represent Jekyll's own garden at Munstead Wood, which she documented from 1888 until 1914. These six albums (of an original eleven) were purchased by Agnes Milliken in 1948 and donated to the Reef Point Gardens Library.
The project records were cataloged and arranged chronologically while part of the Reef Point Gardens Library. Although textual records have been separated from the oversize drawing files, both subseries maintain their chronological order. These project records have been indexed by estate name, client name, and geographic location (see card file in the Environmental Design Archives). A microfilm of this material is also available.
The Gertrude Jekyll collection was part of a larger donation made by landscape architect Beatrix Farrand to Berkeley in 1955 after the dissolution of her own study center, Reef Point Gardens, in Bar Harbor, Maine. Farrand acquired the collection in 1940 by way of the Royal Horticultural Society's Red Cross Sale. The collection documents most, but not all, of Jekyll's projects. Unfortunately material on some of the better known projects, such as Abbotswood, Deanery Garden, and Orchards are missing or incomplete, and may have been lost or sold in the intervening years between Jekyll's death in 1932 and Farrand's acquisition of Jekyll's records
Dates
- Creation: 1877-1931
Access
Collection is open for research.
Publication Rights
All requests for permission to publish, reproduce, or quote from materials in the collection should be discussed with the Curator.
Biography
Gertrude Jekyll was one of the twentieth century's most important British landscape designers and writers. In her youth Jekyll was a painter, but poor eyesight forced her to choose another career. She loved the cottage garden and reinterpereted it in many medium- and small-scale landscapes in Edwardian England. In the course of her career, Jekyll consulted on approximately 350 gardens in England and abroad.
Jekyll was influenced substantially by the Anglo-Irish author William Robinson, and contributed many articles to his magazine The Garden, serving as its joint editor for a while. She also wrote for the Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society and for Country Life. A prolific writer, Jekyll published over 1,000 articles and 13 books in her lifetime. Much of her design approach was developed during visits to the Austrian Tyrol and the Swiss Alps, as well as the Mediterranean. Her writing helped to popularize her ideas on "controlled" wildness and herbaceous borders. She was extremely influential during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in opening up the question of what a garden should be.
Jekyll is often referred to in conjunction with Sir Edwin Lutyens, an architect with whom she collaborated on over 100 gardens. One of their most well-known collaborations is Hestercombe in Somerset. A "Lutyens house with a Jekyll garden," a phrase denoting the very best in design, became an important contribution to the English way of life.
For the last half of her career (after the age of 65), Jekyll did not leave her home town of Surrey, and therefore did not visit many of the garden sites that she designed. To consult on gardens, she had clients and architects send her plans and even soil samples. Gertrude Jekyll died in December, 1932.
Sources:
Bisgrove, Richard. "The Gardens of Gertrude Jekyll." London: Frances Lincoln,1992.
Brown, Jane. "Miss Gertrude Jekyll 1843-1932, Gardener." London: Architectural Association, 1981.
Brown, Jane. "Gardens of a Golden Afternoon." London: Allen Lane,1982.
Mann, William A. "Landscape Architecture: An Illustrated History in Timelines, Site Plans, and Biography." New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc, 1993.
Extent
183 Digital objects: (183 digital images)
33 Linear Feet: (2 boxes, 1 half box, 10 flat file drawers, 17 reels of microfilm, 6 photograph albums)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Contains records related to the life and career of landscape architect Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932) who practiced primarily in England. Documents Jekyll's collaborative relationships with architectcs, especially Edwin Lutyens, through project records. Records include correspondence, photographs, drawings, and albums.
- Title
- Gertrude Jekyll Collection
- Status
- In Progress
- Author
- Processed by the Environmental Design Archives staff
- Date
- © 1999
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Sponsor
- Arrangement and description of this collection was funded by the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning and by a grant from the Getty Foundation
Revision Statements
- November 15, 1999: 1. Finding aid revsed to incorporate new materials located and/or reflect changes in collection arrangement as a result of Summer 1999 move preparation, and re-encoded by Kelcy Shepherd.
- March 23, 2004: PUBLIC "-//University of California, Berkeley::College of Environmental Design::Environmental Design Archives//TEXT (US::CU-CEDA::1955-1::Gertrude Jekyll Collection)//EN" "jekyll.sgm" converted from EAD 1.0 to 2002 by v1to02.cdl.xsl (2004-09-16).
- July 17, 2000: 1. Finding aid revised to reflect changes in CDL subject headings or controlled access terms, and re-encoded by Kelcy Shepherd.
- March 23, 2004: PUBLIC "-//University of California, Berkeley::College of Environmental Design::Environmental Design Archives//TEXT (US::CU-CEDA::1955-1::Gertrude Jekyll Collection)//EN" "jekyll.sgm" converted from EAD 1.0 to 2002 by v1to02.cdl.xsl (2004-09-16).
- August 17, 2006: Finding aid revised to reflect updated series description and incorporate digital object links.
Repository Details
Part of the University of California, Berkeley. College of Environmental Design. Environmental Design Archives Repository