The Duchess of Botany: Mary Somerset, Jacob Bobart, and the Formation of the Oxford Botanic Garden

植物学公爵夫人：玛丽·萨默塞特、雅各布·鲍巴特和牛津植物园的形成

• 批准号: 2649901
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Queen Mary University of London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2649901
• 关键词: Duchess; Botany; Mary; Somerset; Jacob

This project focuses on the relationship between Mary Somerset, Duchess of Beaufort (1630-1715), a prominent noblewoman and botanical collector, and Jacob Bobart the younger (1641- 1719), second superintendent of the Botanic Garden at Oxford (following his father, Jacob Bobart the elder). Substantial exchanges of botanical material, information, and expertise were undertaken between the Garden under Bobart and the Duchess's gardens at Badminton. The project will leverage manuscript and herbaria records to analyse these transactions in unprecedented detail. As such, the studentship will elucidate key aspects of the Oxford Botanic Garden's early history, focusing on the material and intellectual networks that supported the development of its plant collections and institutional structures during the later seventeenth century. Research will therefore directly complement attention to OBGA's heritage in preparation for celebrating the Botanic Garden's 400th anniversary in 2021.While scholars have attended productively to the Duchess's patronage of botany and horticulture, little research has been conducted into the specific plant specimens (and associated archival documents) that survive inter alia at Oxford University Herbaria and the Natural History Museum. This project will rectify that scholarly omission, conscious of Mark Laird's instructive observation that without such work we possess 'only a preliminary and conjectural history of a very significant patron in the realm of flowers' (A Natural History of English Gardening, 2015). Focusing on the relationship between Bobart and the Duchess also enables the project to emphasise the roles of women in the formation of botanical networks and knowledge. Although Mary was unusually privileged in social and economic terms, she functions as a valuable case-study for uncovering how women during the period engaged as contributors to natural science. How did the Duchess's identity as a woman and status as the wife of a peer impact her relationships with horticultural labourers and botanical scholars? To what extent did she involve other women in her botanical network, and what contribution did they make to its social, intellectual, and economic structures? Bobart's relationship with the Duchess is central within broader networks of botanical exchange that this project excavates. Both were actively connected to botanical experts and suppliers, including institutional centres (above all, the Chelsea Physic Garden and the Royal Society); individual collectors, like William Sherard (who importantly brought financial security to the Garden via his endowment of the Sherardian Chair of Botany), Hans Sloane, and Leonard Plukenet; and commercial gardeners such as George London and Thomas Fairchild. How did these stakeholders collaborate and compete to acquire and categorise new plants from across Britain and the globe? What botanical knowledge and horticultural skill was generated (and/or disrupted) as a consequence? What was the early Oxford Botanic Garden's role and significance as a centre of botany and horticulture?In addition to these historical questions, this research contributes importantly to Oxford University's understanding of its institutional heritage. Cole will reconnect repositories that speak to the Garden's history, including site-specific materials at OBGA, botanical matter in the University Herbaria, and manuscripts at the Bodleian. By mapping these resources for research purposes - so that early-modern plants, print, and papers are re-engaged in dialogue together - the doctoral candidate will also be enabled to account for the later institutional fortunes of the Botanic Garden (between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries) through understanding the dispersal and reorganisation of its archive elsewhere. Relevant external repositories will also be consulted, including the British Library, Natural History Museum, and Badminton Muniments.

该项目着重于玛丽·萨默塞特（Mary Somerset），博福特公爵夫人（1630-1715），著名的贵族和植物收藏家，雅各布·鲍巴特（Jacob Bobart）年轻人（1641-1719），牛津植物学花园的第二任校长（继他的父亲，父亲，父亲之后雅各布·鲍尔特（Jacob Bobart）长者）。 bobart和公爵夫人的花园在羽毛球的花园之间进行了大量的植物材料，信息和专业知识的交流。该项目将利用手稿和草药记录以前所未有的细节来分析这些交易。因此，该学生将阐明牛津植物园早期历史的关键方面，重点关注支持其植物收藏和制度结构在17世纪后期发展的物质和知识网络。因此，研究将直接补充Obga的遗产，以准备庆祝2021年植物园成立400周年。虽然学者已经有效地参加了公爵夫人的植物学和园艺的赞助，但对特定的植物标本（以及相关的相关档案文档及相关的临床文档）的研究很少。 ）在牛津大学植物园和自然历史博物馆中生存。该项目将纠正该学术遗漏，即意识到马克·莱尔德（Mark Laird）的启发性观察，即没有这样的工作，我们只拥有“鲜花领域中非常重要的赞助人的初步和猜想的历史”（英国园艺的自然历史，2015年）。关注Bobart和公爵夫人之间的关系也使该项目能够强调妇女在植物网络和知识形成中的作用。尽管玛丽在社会和经济方面具有异常特权，但她是揭露妇女在这段时期如何担任自然科学贡献者的宝贵案例研究。公爵夫人作为女人的身份以及作为同伴妻子的地位如何影响她与园艺劳动者和植物学学者的关系？她在多大程度上让其他妇女参与了植物网络，以及她们对社会，智力和经济结构做出了什么贡献？ Bobart与公爵夫人的关系是该项目发掘的更广泛的植物交流网络中的核心。两者都与包括机构中心在内的植物专家和供应商（最重要的是切尔西物理花园和皇家学会）积极联系；个人收藏家，例如威廉·谢拉德（William Sherard）（通过植物学主席的捐赠给花园，汉斯·斯隆（Hans Sloane）和伦纳德·普鲁克内特（Leonard Plukenet），将财务保障带到了花园。以及乔治·伦敦和托马斯·费尔柴尔德（Thomas Fairchild）等商业园丁。这些利益相关者如何合作并竞争从英国和全球收购和分类新工厂？结果产生了哪些植物知识和园艺技能？作为植物学和园艺的中心，牛津植物园早期的作用和意义是什么？除了这些历史性问题，这项研究还对牛津大学对其机构遗产的理解重要贡献。 Cole将重新连接有关花园历史的储存库，包括Obga的特定地点材料，Herbaria大学的植物性物质以及Bodleian的手稿。通过将这些资源绘制为研究目的 - 以便将早期的植物，印刷和论文一起进行对话 - 博士候选人还可以考虑到植物园的后期机构命运（在18至18之间20世纪）通过了解其在其他地方的档案的分散和重组。还将咨询相关的外部存储库，包括大英图书馆，自然历史博物馆和羽毛球大通。