H-Announce Edward Kemp, Landscape Gardener, 1817-1891 Announcement published by Robert Lee on Monday, July 24, 2017 Type: Call for Papers Date: October 18, 2017 Location: United Kingdom Subject Fields: British History / Studies, Cultural History / Studies, Environmental History / Studies, Local History, Social History / Studies The World Urban Parks European Congress will be held this year at New Brighton on the Wirral (17-21 October), in part as a celebration of the 170th anniversary of the opening of Birkenhead Park, the first publicly-funded park in the world. This year also marks the bicentenary of the birth of Edward Kemp who was first appointed superintendent of the park in 1843 and remained in post (albeit from 1860 onward as a consulting superintendent) until his death. The Friends of Birkenhead Park, with support from Historic England and other bodies in the North West, have decided to use this occasion to hold a one-day symposium on Kemp's legacy on Wednesday 18th October 2017. Kemp is seen as leading figure in the design of public parks and municipal cemeteries, although he also developed an extensive list of private clients. He undertook a series of major commissions for local authorities particularly in Cheshire and Lancashire, including Grosvenor Park, Chester (1864-67), Newsham Park (1864-68) and Stanley Park (1866-70) in Liverpool, Hesketh Park in Southport (1868), Congleton Park (1868-71), Saltwell Park in Gateshead (1875-76), and Queen's Park in Crewe (1887-88). He also played a prominent role in designing municipal cemeteries, such as Anfield Cemetery, Liverpool (1856-63), St Helens Cemetery (1857), Flaybrick Cemetery, Birkenhead (1861-65) and Southport Cemetery (1865). Like other leading landscape designers of the Victorian era, Kemp enjoyed an enviable reputation as an author. Some of his books, in particular How To Lay Out A Small Garden (1850), went through numerous editions both in Britain and the US, while he was also a regular contributor to the Gardeners' Chronicle and other contemporary journals and regarded by many as 'an arbiter of good taste'. When Frederick Law Olmsted first visited Birkenhead Park in 1850 he sought out Kemp (as the 'head gardener') and seven years later when the Commissioners for Central Park, New York, were considering how best to evaluate the 33 entries in its design competition, Kemp was recommended as one of the two European experts who should be invited over. According to Olmsted, many people regarded Kemp as the designer of Birkenhead Park, while other eminent European landscape designers, such as Alphand and Andre, frequently cited his work. And yet very little is known about Edward Kemp and no photograph of him has survived. Apart from an excellent article by Elizabeth Davey on his private commissions in Cheshire, virtually nothing has been published about his contribution to landscape design in mid-Victorian Britain. The one-day symposium is designed to address this deficiency. It will explore Kemp's contribution to the public Citation: Robert Lee. Edward Kemp, Landscape Gardener, 1817-1891. H-Announce. 07-24-2017. https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/188063/edward-kemp-landscape-gardener-1817-1891 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 1 H-Announce parks' movement, the design of municipal cemeteries, and the landscaping of suburban villas and rural estates. Papers are invited that focus on Kemp's achievements as a landscape designer, the impact of his parks and cemeteries on contemporary society, and the extent to which his design principles differed from those of other leading landscape gardeners of that period. Attention will be paid to Kemp's role as superintendent of Birkenhead Park, his arboricultural expertise (as applied in an urban context affected by serious air pollution), and the extent to which Kemp operated within a national or international network of landscape gardeners. The papers presented at the symposium will form the basis for a major publication on Kemp that will seek to consolidate his reputation as one of the great landscape designers of his era and make his achievements known to a wider public. Contact Info: Professor Robert Lee Contact Email: [email protected] Citation: Robert Lee. Edward Kemp, Landscape Gardener, 1817-1891. H-Announce. 07-24-2017. https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/188063/edward-kemp-landscape-gardener-1817-1891 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 2.