Peer reviewed publication

“‘The love of enterprise and Nature was born in the woman’: Theodosia Shepherd and the Gendered Garden of California Commercial Horticulture, 1880-1900.” Western Historical Quarterly 45, no. 3 (Autumn 2014).

PDF Hopkins, WHQ 45.3 Autumn 2014

Abstract: “This article examines California seed seller Theodosia Shepherd as a case study of how women navigated gender norms to gain acceptance and success in late nineteenth-century commercial horticulture. Shepherd tapped into western boosterism and the women’s movement to expand and question limitations on female fruit and flower growers.”

Lightning Round Presentation

The following images are Powerpoint slides (edited for clarity) from my presentation at the Digital Projects Lightning Round at the American Historical Association Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia, January 7-10, 2016.

PDF version here: Hopkins-Grapes of Math

Abstract:

This project uses GIS mapping and data visualizations to examine the expansion of woman-run California vineyards in the 1880s-1890s. In collaboration with UC Davis postdoctoral researcher Amber Manfree, I use maps to reveal how female farmers thrived in northern and central counties but not in southern ones and suggest reasons why. I also use visual data to illustrate how the small size of women’s farms correlated with farm failure. Both methods reveal useful digital analysis tools for women’s historians.