20C Women in landscape design -FOLAR and The Gardens Trust
LEFT Plymouth Civic Centre 1957-1962 CREDIT: Susan Jellicoe Photographic Collection, The MERL, University of Reading. RIGHT Photo of Susan Jellicoe by Geoffrey Jellicoe, CREDIT: The Jellicoe Estate
Speaker: Sally Ingram
Susan Pares Jellicoe (1907-1986) joined the office of Jellicoe, Page and Wilson as a secretary in 1936 and went on to become a highly regarded honorary member of the Institute of Landscape Architects, collaborating with Geoffrey Jellicoe in all aspects of his work. When the International Federation of Landscape Architects was formed after the war, Susan Jellicoe’s skills as a linguist, and her wartime experiences, were instrumental in promoting international understanding between nations. The work of Geoffrey Jellicoe has overshadowed Susan’s contribution to the study of twentieth century landscape design, and yet she was an accomplished plantswoman, writer, editor, and a skilled self-taught photographer.
Drawing on Susan Jellicoe’s collection of thousands of small black and white photographs, taken during the 1950s and 60s and pasted on sheets of brown paper, this talk will consider her extensive journey with a camera, capturing the post war landscape. Sylvia Crowe commented of the time ‘we all thought we could make a new world’ and this unique archive creates a visual narrative of the mid twentieth century, filtered through the preoccupations of a distinctly modern eye.
After a career in education Sally completed an MA in Garden History at Birkbeck University and has continued to research aspects of garden history for a number of projects.
Her particular interest is in the twentieth century landscape and her MA dissertation considered the design of memorial parks and gardens in the post war era. She studied the work of Geoffrey Jellicoe when investigating his design for the roof garden at Harvey’s department store in Guildford and discovered Susan Jellicoe’s photograph albums, in the archive at the Landscape Institute. She has continued to explore this fascinating collection of over 6,000 images - now at MERL - and its significance in the history of the post war urban landscape.
Sally is a member of Sussex Gardens Trust, and edited their most recent publication, Gertrude Jekyll in Sussex, a collection of research studies examining Jekyll’s commissions in the county. She researches and writes articles for the SGT Journal, and publishes a monthly newsletter on their website.