Spring Garden Lecture: The Texture of Empire

The 1747 Shirley-Eusits House, preserved at Shirley Place in Roxbury, Massachusetts, is a relic of British rule in colonial North America, and one of only four colonial governors' mansions remaining in the United States. The Shirley-Eustis House Association preserves the site in order to explore the early history of our nation and the community of Roxbury. More information about guided tours, events and programs can be found on our website: www.shirleyeustishouse.org.

Shirley-Eustis House

Historian J'Nese Williams explores how botanical gardens proliferated both scientific knowledge and Empire across the British colonies.

In eighteenth century Britain, wild, botanical landscapes became more popular than the more traditional and carefully manicured gardens of early modern Europe. Many historians attribute part of this change to the global proliferation of Empire - as more plant specimens were "discovered" and collected in newly colonized lands, they could be shipped back to Europe, and vice versa. Colonial gardens could showcase the astonishing reach of Empire through flora.But these ostensibly British gardens were shaped by many workers of varying origins, social statuses, and motives. Dr. Williams will discuss the "Texture of Empire": how increasingly global botanical gardens had a local impact on their enslaved and free workers and colonized populations. How might the knowledge these workers gained from gardening have changed their lives, or challenged the scientific status quo?

About our speaker:J’Nese Williams works on the history of modern Britain, science, and empire. She received a PhD in history from Vanderbilt University and a BA in history from Princeton University. Williams has continued her research as an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow at the Humanities Institute of the New York Botanical Garden, a Residential Fellow at the Linda Hall Library, and a Fellow at the Stanford Humanities Center. She is currently an Assistant Professor at Wake Forest University.

The Shirley-Eustis House's annual spring garden lecture was established in 2021 in order to celebrate the upcoming growing season with a dose of botanical history. We’ve explored everything from gentleman farmers, to pollinators, to the life-saving gardens of frontier soldiers in the Seven Years' War. Cover Image: Marlow, William. "View of the Wilderness at Kew." 1763. Watercolor, 11 1/16 x 17 13/16 in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Spring Garden Lecture: The Texture of Empire

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Spring Garden Lecture: The Texture of Empire

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