Here’s a brief report on the 14th International Study Conference of the Beatrix Potter Society held in Ambleside UK this month. Before the conference itself, I joined the Pre-Conference tour in Scotland.

This group visited many of the sites in Perthshire and the Borders associated with Beatrix. This included homes where the Potter family stayed for summers , places she mentioned in her journal, and the Perth Museum & Art Gallery, where we had a special viewing of 25 original watercolor fungi studies, painted by Beatrix in the 1890’s. The Conference was held at the University of Cumbria, and was attended by members from the UK, US, Canada, Japan, Sweden, France, the Netherlands, and Croatia. The theme of the Conference was “Beatrix Potter and the Natural World”. Talks covered topics including red and grey squirrels, nature study, fungi, the wild flowers and plants of Beatrix Potter’s farmland, and gardening in the Lake District. While in the area, I visited John Ruskin’s home from 1-872-1900, Brantwood, and also Blackwell, “Britain’s finest surviving Arts and Crafts house”, by the architect MHBaillie Scott.

In London on my way home, I saw an exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum of preliminary sketches and all the original watercolors for The Tale of Peter Rabbit. If you are traveling to London anytime before October 31, I highly recommend an exhibition at the Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, about Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, their family , and their patronage of the arts.

The Beatrix Potter Society will be holding a meeting in Boston & Cambridge MA in October 2010. We’ll be viewing a collection of original letters to children from Beatrix at the Houghton Library, followed by a reception there, and visiting Boston sites associated with Beatrix and The Horn Book Magazine.

Suzanne Terry,
Children’s Librarian, Boston Athenaeum