Community engagement and outreach project - Marianne in my home

Marianne in My Home is a project connecting Marianne North and London’s diverse communities.

We contacted people from the communities Marianne North visited on her travels and asked them what they think about her account of their ‘homes’ as recorded in her botanical paintings and her book Recollections of a Happy Life.

Did they recognise the landscape they grew up in?
Has it disappeared?

'The World - showing the countries visited by Miss North (red), and other floras partially illustrated in the collection (green).' (Image from Recollections of a Happy Life)

Appeals were sent to various London community voluntary groups working with the relevant communities to recruit the participants for the project. The participation in the project was voluntary. We recorded nine interviews between February and June 2008 with people from Japan, Singapore, Brazil and Sri Lanka.

Recollections of a Happy Life, Marianne North (now re-titled A Vision of Eden - The Life and Work of Marianne North) is an account of the tropical journeys of 19th-century British botanist and painter who traveled widely through the Caribbean, Brazil, South Africa and the Indian Ocean.

You can listen to audio files on slavery in Brazil, Japanese humour, the Istana (palace) of Singapore and paddy fields in Sri Lanka, by clicking on the links below: