Susannah Darwin, née Wedgwood, is the mother of renowned naturalist Charles Darwin and daughter of the famous potter Josiah Wedgwood. She is often silenced, anonymized, and referred to only as ‘Darwin’s mother’.
This unique and FREE event is an opportunity to discover more about Susannah’s life, including her experiences of motherhood, her guiding influence on the young Charles, and her contribution to the Darwin family home, business interests, and garden.
Throughout the day a team of notable academics, experts, and creative practioners will examine various aspects of Susannah’s life. The event will also include opportunities to tour the building and take part in fantastic participatory elements, focused on ways of including Susannah's story into possible heritage developments at Darwin House, and within a specially commissioned artwork.
This event is not to be missed!
Places are FREE but strictly limited, so please only book if you can definitely attend.
The event is funded by the Research Institute for Literature and Cultural History at Liverpool John Moores University and organised by Dr Jude Piesse and Gaynor Llewelleyn-Jenkins of LJMU, in collaboration with Shropshire Museum Service for the Darwin Festival.
Details of scheduled talks and sessions:
‘An Introduction to the Life and Letters of Susannah Darwin, née Wedgwood (1765-1817): The Reclamation of Susannah Darwin’, with Gaynor Llewellyn-Jenkins. Drawing on my archival research, this talk will introduce you to the mother of Charles Darwin, Susannah. By bringing Susannah’s life-writing and legal documents together, my research has connected me with a community of other women scholars who have, in different ways, recognised her historical significance. I aim to reveal to you how, by drawing on this wider network, my own research prioritises Darwin’s status as a historically important figure in her own right rather than someone to be viewed in exclusive connection with male lineages and contexts. Gaynor Llewellyn-Jenkins is a PhD candidate in the English Department at Liverpool John Moores University.
'Pregnancy and Childbirth in early Nineteenth-Century Britain', with Dr Jessica Cox. Jessica Cox is a Reader in English Literature at Brunel University London. She has research interests in maternal histories, the Brontës, and Victorian popular ficiton, and has published widely in these areas. Her most recent book, Confinement: The Hidden History of Maternal Bodies in Nineteenth-Century Britain, was published by The History Press in 2023.
‘The Mount Doves and Other Tales’, with Dr Jude Piesse. Jude Piesse is a writer and academic who works as a Senior Lecturer in English Literature at Liverpool John Moores University. Her most recent book is The Ghost in the Garden: in Search of Darwin’s Lost Garden (Scribe 2021), which tells the story of Darwin’s family garden at The Mount through a blend of biography, historical research, memoir, and nature writing. She will explore what is known of Susannah’s gardening, dove-breeding, and other activities at The Mount, and her own creative responses to Susannah’s history. In September 2023, Jude was Writer in Residence at Gladstone’s Library in Wales.
'Mapping Susannah Darwin', with Katy Alston. Following a degree in Fine Art painting at WSCAD (UCA Farnham) Katy now works mainly in illustration, predominantly illustrated maps but has recently been working on a project involving egg-tempera paint, having received an Arts Council award to develop her creative practice. She is particularly known for her maps of the area and is commissioned by clients both corporate and individual. She also creates three dimensional illustrations and images inspired by the natural world, especially garden drawings. Following a year's Creative in Residence at Hereford College of Art in 2016, Katy returned to university to take a postgraduate degree in Teaching in Further Education with Edge Hill University (2018). Then after teaching for a year with Aberystwyth University, she decided to concentrate on teaching her own natural history illustration classes and workshops. She also gives talks on map making, book art and zines. Katy exhibits widely at galleries, illustration and book-art fairs and in December 2021 was the outright winner of the prestigious Michael Marks Illustration award for her work in the Fan-peckled pamphlet, a collaboration with Jean Atkin. More information from her website: katy-alston.co.uk and Instagram: katy_alston
Katy’s session will explore her experiences of creating a map of The Mount garden, mapmaking as a form of research, and her new commission to ‘map’ Susannah Darwin onto the space of The Mount. The session will include a participatory element, inviting audience members to try out techniques and approaches that Katy will aim to incorporate in her commissioned map.