The Gwillim sisters, Elizabeth Gwillim and Mary Symonds, offer a captivating glimpse into life in Madras, India, during the early 19th century. Their letters from India between 1801 and 1807 were acquired by the British Library from the family in 1971. Alongside their writings are watercolour sketches which form a treasured part of McGill Libraries’ holdings. These materials have inspired students and researchers to delve deeper into the sisters’ lives and the extraordinary historical context revealed in the holdings.
Stanford PhD student and podcaster Ciel Haviland has transformed these historical treasures into Letters Home, a short-series podcast that brings the Gwillim sisters’ voices to life. Each episode features readings of their letters followed by engaging conversations with researchers from diverse fields, including ornithology, botany, art history, and the history of science. The podcast delves into the researchers’ experiences with the Gwillim materials and highlights their contributions to Women, Environment, and Networks of Empire, a recently published book that examines the sisters’ lives and work through new perspectives.
In this interview, McGill Libraries speaks with Ciel about the creative journey behind Letters Home, her collaboration with scholars, and the significance of the Gwillim sisters’ materials.
How did the idea for Letters Home take shape, and what inspired you to turn the story of the Gwillim sisters into a podcast series?
The idea for Letters Home was inspired by the Gwillim Project and my History MA on Elizabeth Gwillim’s botanizing. I wanted to share the work of the project as well as the process of research and how each person comes to the material in a different way.
What role did McGill Libraries’ collection of the Gwillim sisters’ watercolours and materials play in your research and creative process?
The experience of working in Rare Books & Special Collections, working with the Blacker Wood Collection, collecting my materials and pouring over documents is unparalleled. Holding Elizabeth Gwillim’s sketches in my hands and seeing the sureness of her strokes and quality of painting in person brought her alive to me in a way that is otherwise inaccessible. Looking at her bird paintings in person – seeing how each was scaled to the size of the bird and the intricate detail brought her work and ambition into focus for me in a way that I had not appreciated with the online scans, as great as they are.
What was the most challenging aspect of transforming historical material and turning it into engaging podcast episodes?
Letters Home changed in format several times, as I had originally imagined it as a no-budget endeavour. I let the Gwillim Project know I was thinking about making a podcast and they immediately offered some funding and then I got a grant from the Dean of Arts Development Fund, so I was able to hire voice actors and a sound editor. The Indian Ocean World Center has a podcast and had interviewed several people involved with the Gwillim Project and Lost Voices: An Untold Story of the South Asian Diaspora is another podcast project that drew upon the materials. I wanted to showcase the material in a new way, while keeping it manageable and interesting. Once I came up with the idea of 20 minutes of reading the letters with a 20-30 minute conversation with a researcher, it seemed so obvious! I want to say the production of the podcast was the hardest aspect of this podcast– reaching out to researchers, scheduling, finding voice actors, choosing and editing down letters to be read – but I had never conducted interviews before, let alone recorded interviews, and it took a couple before I felt like I found my style and rhythm.
There is, of course, also working with aspects of their world that are distasteful or difficult to a modern audience. The mediation of the text and materials was an issue I considered a lot and had many conversations about. I did not want to skate over issues and I did not want to pretend expertise I don’t have (by focusing on them solely). Asking questions from others who understood the world of British in India in 1801 felt like a great way to access a dynamic conversation.
Can you describe your process for selecting which themes to focus on for each episode?
I wanted to cover as many different research topics as possible and I wanted to make sure I was talking with those with different experiences in academia as well. I wanted anyone to be able to listen to an episode on its own and feel like they got it, and I also wanted an arc to the series so people listening in sequence could have closer intimacy with the letters and Elizabeth Gwillim, Mary Symonds, and the many characters that made up their world. As much as I could, I also worked with the letters chronologically. Everyone I requested to speak with was very gracious and though a couple had reservations, they were all willing to join me in this project.
How did you approach interviewing researchers and weaving their perspectives into the podcast?
I did background research on each person I talked with to understand the expertise they brought into the project. I read their chapter in Women, Environment, Networks of Empire and focused on that in the interview. I made sure the letter read before the interview was relevant and tried to refer to parts of the letter in our chat that were specific to their subject. I also came in knowing I was not going to be an expert in any of the subjects, like most listeners, so my very basic questions would make it more accessible.
Were there any surprises or discoveries during your research or production that profoundly impacted the direction of the podcast? The podcast bridges historical letters with contemporary voices. How do you hope this interplay resonates with listeners?
I thought about the mediation of voice and time quite a bit, and for a while I was very attached to the idea of having the person or people being interviewed read the letter. The feasibility of making that happen was logistically too much, as they are all over the world and it takes a long time to record – depending on how many takes are needed. This approach felt like a way to hear what the letters sounded like to researchers.
It was delightful to work with voice actors Rosie and Amber, as we were able to work in person over several sessions. I cast them both as modern stand-ins for Elizabeth and Mary as well as the recipients of the letters back home in England. Creating an approximate version of contemporary reader and writer seemed like the best way to bring in the listener. I feel like I’m asking a lot of a podcast listener, but I also know people love time travel and this is quite the journey!
What has this project taught you about podcasting, history, or storytelling?
I have listened to many podcasts and appreciate different formats but had never made one. Building it from the ground up was quite the exercise! It was thrilling to jump in and learn on the go, but definitely humbling. It was important to me to make History as a discipline more accessible, so learning about everyone’s research process in addition to their career that put them in a position to add to the project was helpful.
Are there moments or letters in the series that hold personal significance for you? Why?
Reading over 700 pages of personal letters really makes you feel like you have a sense of a person, so doing justice to their lives was important to me. At one point Mary quotes Job 34:14, “all flesh is dust” and though I am not Christian, it spoke to me on a project and personal level. These two women and their contemporary world is long gone, and we are left with their dust, so to speak. Research is inherently ephemeral, for all that it often creates a product, and being deeply steeped in the work was fleeting. Mid production for this project my very close childhood friend passed away after a long illness and I felt the parallels with Mary as her life continued after Elizabeth died.
What advice would you give to other students looking to combine academic research with creative projects like podcasting?
Have a format or structure that will help narrow ideas into something digestible, have good support, and embrace the fear of jumping in! I’m so excited for more projects integrating creative interactive modalities with academic research.
What’s next for Letters Home or your work with the Gwillim sisters?
I am pursuing my PhD at Stanford University in the History of Science and my work with Botany continues! I’m excited for the project Hidden Hands that came out of the Gwillim Project and continues the investigation of making science, but looking at subaltern voices that are often not heard. I am hoping to stay in touch with colleagues and professors at McGill and continue to work on interdisciplinary projects.
Listen to Letters Home on Spotify or Apple platforms.
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