Where to Find Gertrude Jekyll's Books, Articles and Archive Material

Updated

The official Jekyll Estate website (gertrudejekyll.co.uk) is the best starting point: it hosts a complete list of every book and article she wrote, and it points to the main archival collections. For original material, the key locations are Godalming Museum (notebooks and copies of all her garden drawings), the University of California, Berkeley (the original drawings), and the Surrey History Centre in Woking (family and garden-design material). Her own gardening books remain widely available in modern editions.

What the official website provides

The site, subtitled "The Official Website of the Jekyll Estate," is organised around her life, work and gardens. The sections most useful for research are:

  • Books – a complete list of her books and articles, described on the site as "a complete list of every book and article written by her."
  • Life & Career – family background, early years, garden design, later life, a chronology, and "Her Lasting Achievements."
  • Gardens – visiting information, split into gardens within one hour of London, gardens one hour or more from London, and gardens outside Britain.
  • Lutyens – an overview of her collaborative work with the architect Edwin Lutyens.
  • Arts & Crafts – origins of the movement, William Morris's influence, and Jekyll's own painting and plant knowledge.
  • More – paintings by Jekyll, her work as a plantswoman, the Jekyll family line over 500 years, and "Lost Gardens of Gertrude Jekyll."

The site also has Search, News and Contact Us pages, which are worth checking for updates on publications or archive access.

Her books and articles

Jekyll wrote prolifically. According to the site, she contributed over 1,000 articles to Country Life, The Garden and other magazines, and her own books about gardening "are widely read in modern editions." The Books section is the place to confirm a specific title or article before searching libraries and secondhand dealers.

Archive and manuscript collections

Collection What it holds Location
Godalming Museum Many of her notebooks and copies of all her garden drawings (compiled and sorted by members of the Surrey Gardens Trust) Godalming, Surrey
University of California, Berkeley The original garden drawings Berkeley, California
Surrey History Centre Material about her and the Jekyll family, including copies of her garden designs Woking, Surrey

A practical route: use the website's book and article list to identify what you need, then check Godalming Museum for notebooks and drawing copies, and the Surrey History Centre for family and design material. If you need the original drawings themselves, plan around the Berkeley collection.

Context worth knowing

Jekyll (1843–1932) created or advised on more than 400 gardens in the UK, Europe and America. She spent most of her life in Surrey, latterly at Munstead Wood near Godalming, where she ran a garden centre and bred many new plants. That Surrey base explains why the museum and history centre hold so much of her material. Some of her gardens have been faithfully restored, wholly or partly, and can be visited — the Gardens section of the site is the place to plan a visit alongside archive research.