First, we heard a talk on Beatrix Potter's journal: she wrote it in a code she invented when she was 15, and she kept it up for 15 years. Leslie Linder, who lived near her home in Lakes District, was able to crack the code in 1958. It took him five years to crack it and another four to translate it.
Next, the children's literature archivist (I think!) of Blythe House gave us a more detailed talk on Potter's life. Her grandfather was a successful calico printer, and he was able to move his family up through the ranks of society through his fabric printing. Potter was vey proud of her grandfather's hard work and success and his status as a "self-made man," and she used some of his fabrics to cover sketchbooks she made later in life.
Several tables in the room held objects from the Linder collection, a collection of materials donated by the man who cracked the journal's code. All of the items are from Beatrix Potter's life, and what we saw included her paintbox (not from the collection - a short loan from another person), some of her fungus drawings, along with her sketchbooks and some family photo albums.
We learned that Potter had done extensive studying and research on fungus, and she had approached the experts at Kew Gardens to try to convince them that fungus held some important elements that could change medicine forever. Basically, had the men of Kew Gardens listened to her and helped her in her research, she might well have discovered penicillin 50 years before Fleming—before the World Wars—and saved millions of lives. So here's a big ol' THANKS to those men for being big ol' sexists. Good job.
Anyway, I was thrilled to see the letter Potter sent to her former governess's son (Noel) that contained the first Peter Rabbit story. She had also sent a letter to his sister, Nora, that contained a draft of Squirrel Nutkin's story. We also saw her sketches of fungi and her beloved Lake District.
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The first presenter mentioned several times that she was more than just a woman who drew cute bunnies, but honestly, that is already such an impressive part of her story. She drew those bunnies to perfection: her skills took years of practice and study, and her determination to create Peter Rabbit in the first place makes me look at my own give-upped-ness in shame. In short, she was an accomplished woman who took her own initiative in the face of an oppressive world, and I've found a new respect for the woman who drew little bunnies!
My tiny souvenir:
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