A Queen’s Book of Flowers Susannah Lyon-Whaley
Event details
What did a 17th-century queen know about daffodils in Africa? How did books (and gardens) shape the world for women who couldn’t travel? What flowers did they grow? How were flowers part of empire?
Visit a letterpress display at Thin Ice Press: the York Centre for Print reimagining women’s knowledge about plants and join in a botanical printing activity. Discover a book of flowers written for a queen and explore questions about women’s floral worlds.
Taking John Parkinson’s 1629 botanical guide Paradisi in Sole as its starting point, this event includes a short introductory talk by Susannah Lyon-Whaley of the University of York.
Please note: This event is particularly aimed at adults, but anyone aged 9+ is welcome to attend. Children under 12 must be accompanied by an adult. No experience is required.
You may also enjoy an accompanying outdoor exhibition running from 31 May to 30 June at Thin Ice Press: the York Centre for Print during normal opening hours.
BBC History Magazine
BBC History Magazine is Britain’s biggest-selling history brand with a highly engaged and loyal audience. It brings history to life with informative, lively and entertaining features written by the world’s leading historians and journalists. Whether it’s the grand history of politics and institutions or the fascinating stories of our private lives through the ages, BBC History Magazine sheds new light on the past and helps us make more sense of today’s world. Look out for an article by Susannah Lyon-Whaley in the June edition about how gardens and plants shaped the world for women in the 17th century.
About the speaker
Dr Susannah Lyon-Whaley is a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (UKRI-guaranteed) Fellow at the University of York in the Department of English and Related Literature. She completed a PhD in Art History at Waipapa Taumata Rau The University of Auckland in New Zealand in 2023. She has written on queens, flowers and spas at the Tudor and Stuart courts. Her current project focuses on 17th-century queens and their interactions with the foreign world of nature through materials and books.
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