Gertrude Jekyll

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

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Susan Vollenweider (0:54)

Welcome to The History Chicks, where any resemblance to a boring old history lesson is purely coincidental.

Beckett Graham (1:01)

And here is your 30-second summary.

Gertrude Jekyll could turn her hand to anything. Deeply involved with the Arts and Crafts Movement, she mastered dozens of specialties in her quest to explore the relationship between human lives and their environment. As her eyesight failed, she turned to large-scale endeavors and changed how the world thought about gardens, turning them from formal displays into living, breathing works of art. She used color, texture, and shape like a painter on a large, ever-changing canvas. Gertrude's innovations within her finished gardens and decades of written work made her an inspiration for generations of gardeners and landscape architects. And she became one of the most influential garden designers of all time. The end.

A quick note before we begin. In September of 2027, yes, a year from when we are currently speaking, we are going to go to San Francisco on a field trip.

Susan Vollenweider (2:03)

It's from September 8th through the 12th, and it's one of our weekend field trips, a long weekend. Of course, because it's one of our trips, it's got a heavy focus on women. And we're, for instance, making a walking tour that was designed just for our group that touches on the lives of Maya Angelou and Odetta and Isadora Duncan.

Beckett Graham (2:24)

Love that. Also, we are going out to the mysterious, question mark, and legendary Winchester Mystery House for a guided tour where we are going to hear the real story.

Susan Vollenweider (2:37)

There's a lot of other things, including the private dinner cruise on the last night, which will be open to locals. So if this sounds like something you're interested in, go to Like Minds Travel and look up San Francisco Field Trip with the history checks and check it out. That's where you can register and get all the information.

Beckett Graham (2:57)

And now, without further ado, on with the show. Let's talk about Gertrude Jekyll.

Susan Vollenweider (3:05)

But first, let's drop her into history. In 1899, in her last public ceremony, Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Rubber heels for boots and shoes, aspirin, and the motor-driven vacuum were first patented. Four years after its German patent, Ferdinand von Zeppelin's navigable balloon was patented in the United States.

A New York City cabbie going 12 miles per hour down Lexington Avenue was the first US arrest for speeding. The first paper ticket for it would be issued four years later in Dayton, Ohio.

The Boer War begins between Britain and two Boer Republics in South Africa. Then, news reporter Winston Churchill was sent to cover it, was promptly captured by the Boers, and escaped a week later by scaling a wall and hopping a freight train to freedom. Mount Rainier National Park in Washington State was established. It's the U.S.'s fifth of our current 63 official designated national parks. Al Capone, Gloria Swanson, Duke Ellington, Fred Astaire, Humphrey Bogart, Alfred Hitchcock, EB. White, Ernest Hemingway, and PL. Travers were all born. Rosa Boner died. And in 1899, at 55 years old, Gertrude Jekyll's first of many books was published.

Beckett Graham (4:30)

Gertrude Jekyll was born at number two Grafton Street in London, England, on November 29th, 1843, the fifth of the seven children of Captain Edward Joseph Hill Jekyll and Julia Hammersley Jekyll.

Though the little boy who had been born right before Gertrude died the same year of his birth. So Gertrude grew up fourth of six children, with a much older sister and then two brothers on either side of her, the middle girl and a pack of adventurous brethren.

Susan Vollenweider (5:01)

Papa's family had most likely come from a Scandinavian country, possibly Denmark. What we do know is that the family in England was packed with people named Edward and Joseph.