Scarlet Geranium & Lobelia Cardinalis

Edmund Burke called Mrs Delany (née Mary Granville, 1700–1788) ‘the highest bred woman in the world, and the woman of fashion of all ages’.Quoted in Ruth Hayden, Mrs Delany and her Flower Collages, 2nd edn (London: British Museum Press, 1992), 129, citing what Dr Johnson heard Edmund Burke say. See also Lady Llanover, ed., The Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs Delany, 6 vols (London: Bentley, 1861–2), V, 12. Already recognized in her own times, she continued to attract admirers after Lady Llanover brought out a complete ‘autobiography and correspondence’ in the...

The twelve essays in Mrs. Delany and her Circle range widely but all contribute to an understanding of the mantua petticoat representing the first half of Mary’s life, and the “paper mosaicks” that are the crowning achievement of the second. In planning the exhibition, we...