Women's Work
The Lee Memorial Park Wildflower and Bird Sanctuary project in Petersburg, Virginia, was funded by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and took place between 1935 and 1940. The project’s aim was to preserve the native flora, particularly wildflowers, as well as document the park’s creation. Here, presented for the first time, are a selection from the Lee Park Collection, which includes 325 preserved herbarium specimens and 238 botanical watercolor illustrations.
But preservation is not the whole story of Lee Park’s creation. The project was exceptional for its time as it was conceived and planned by women, as well as predominantly created through the labor of women, the vast majority of them Black. Very few of these women’s names are known. This exhibition is a tribute to the nameless and voiceless laborers and the beautiful sanctuary that would not have been possible without the work of these extraordinary women.