Room 179, University College
15 King's College Circle
University of Toronto

 An illustrated lecture by James Eckenwalder.

 William Morris's wallpaper and fabric designs are justifiably treasured, but are they the paragons of botanical accuracy that some commentators have claimed? Comparing the images to their corresponding models and to Turkish and other sources shows that many are conventional representations rather than botanical illustrations and that WM quite reasonably sacrificed technical accuracy for harmonious design, presupposing he even used real plant models in the first place.

 James E. Eckenwalder is a professor of plant classification in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto.  He has, at times, made use of his plant identification skills to interpret imagery on fabrics, shoes, and ceramics for the R.O.M. and has a research interest in how various cultures portray plants and animals.

 How to get there: Museum subway station or Harbord bus