In April 2024’s newsletter, we found inspiration in a modern sort of pleasure garden — the insanely well-tended and lush landscapes at a certain theme park in Anaheim.
Modern pleasure (gardens)
Martial’s Zingers
The Roman satirist Martial often wrote of scent in disparaging terms: perfume, for him, was strongly equated with the ridiculous, the false, the pretentious, and – often (but not always) – the feminine. Read a few choice epigram, here.
Field Notes from Philly: Mütter Museum and Benjamin Rush Botanical Gardens
IAO director Saskia Wilson-Brown recently visited Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In her ongoing quest to visit every botanical garden, she took a moment to check out the Benjamin Rush Botanical Gardens at the Mütter Museum, tended by the oldest private medical society in the United States: the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. Here is her report from the field!
Roerich Pact: November Newsletter
For our November newsletter, we explore a historic peace activist named Nicholas Roerich, and his influence in the creation of the Roerich Pact, signed in 1935 at the White House.
Field Notes from Virginia: The Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum
IAO Board Member Rubia Chaudri and director Saskia Wilson-Brown recently visited Alexandria, Virginia, and went on a tour of a beautiful (and definitely haunted) historic apothecary. In this post, Saskia shares what they learned during their tour of the Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum.
Autumn Whodunnits
In the October 2023 email newsletter, IAO’s Saskia Wilson-Brown ponders the writers and the aromatic language in early 20th century British murder mysteries.
Guest Blog: The Connection Between Fragrance and Memory, by Jackie Edwards
Often spoken about and just as often misunderstood, scent’s connection to memory is nonetheless incontrovertible. This guest post by Jackie Edwards explains some of the details of this unique phenomenon.
Guest Blog: Sniffing the Dead, by Liam R. Findlay
Colette Planchette can talk to the dead with a supernatural sense of smell. That was the starting point for Liam R. Findlay’s novel The Doom Town Dummies, which follows the misadventures of Colette as she sniffs her way through a village of eerie shop-window dummies, aided by a ghostly best friend. Read all about it, in this guest post from Liam!
The Unfixed Memory
In the August 2023 email newsletter, IAO’s Saskia Wilson-Brown takes a moment to think about memory, nostalgia, her grandmother’s return to Cuba, and how it ties in to scent.