Kew's Forgotten Queen: Marianne North

How excited was I when the BBC put out a documentary about one of the women I read about in my studies on Imperial-era Women travelers?! SUPER. I watch an obscene amount of BBC documentaries every month, but they're rarely about anyone or anything I study specifically. And, while Marianne North isn't my Isabella Bird, she has been in several of the books and articles I've read lately (such as Frontiers of Femininity: A New Historical Geography of the Ninteenth-Century American West).

I assume North got a whole show on herself due to the collection of botanical paintings she left to Kew Gardens and it probably needed a bit of publicity, but really I wish they would have just gone all in and done a whole series on her (BBC history docs are usually a series of around 3 'films', an hour each).

While this one-off special was enjoyable to watch, and actress Emilia Fox was adorably and appropriately excited to learn about her and follow in her footsteps, it's treatment of North was, of course, quite superficial. My BBC ladies, Drs. Amanda Vickery & Lucy Worsley, do such a great job in giving their topics some intersectional feminist 3-dimentionality, I suppose I'm just spoiled now. There just wasn't enough time to do any imperial traveler justice with only one film/episode!

This is particularly unfortunate because it's a show about an imperialist, shown on BBC, with pretty much no mention at all about the negative aspects of imperialism that her work helped to perpetuate (by giving British folks a taste of all the flora and fauna out there in the wild, that they then wanted to go and see and collect, encouraging the continual greedy and entitled Imperial British presence in countries all around the world). Awkward.

But, I was still able to turn my academic brain off long enough to just enjoy the ride. If you have a British ISP you can watch it on iPlayer for the next few days, otherwise, BBC shows can often be found on youtube!

Within Kew Gardens stands an extraordinary gallery, celebrating the work of one of the most prolific botanical artists of the Victorian age. At a time when women barely left their parlour rooms, Marianne North's globe-trotting exploits defied convention as she travelled alone at the height of the British Empire. From Borneo and Brazil, to Japan, South Africa, Australia and India, she fearlessly navigated the world twice over in her pursuit of capturing every living plant on canvas.

Actress Emilia Fox tells the story of how this Victorian rebel changed the face of botanical research, propelling her to the top of a male-dominated world of science and exploration, gaining the admiration of Charles Darwin and even Queen Victoria. Retracing Marianne's footsteps and her passion for the natural world, Emilia revisits the awe-inspiring locations of some of her greatest experiences.

With exclusive access to Kew Gardens and Marianne's wealth of personal memoirs, letters and paintings, this is a tantalizing tale of a visionary who rejected marriage and social convention for a pioneering life of conservation and adventure. Her artistic legacy remains as mesmerising today as it was in 1882 when her gallery opened at Kew Gardens.