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A senior thesis about a garden on the National Register of Historic Places led one ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ student on a grant-funded trip to New York to continue her research.  

Adele Peri Manwell’s research into the Italian Garden at the Cummer Museum of Arts & Gardens in Jacksonville also helped her decide her next steps.  

After she graduates this month from ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ with a double major in art history and Spanish, she plans to enroll in graduate school, studying landscape architecture and historic preservation. 

Manwell, who goes by her middle name Peri, says she developed an interest in art at an early age, with her family supporting her artistic interests in painting and paper collage. 

Gaining inspiration from nature, her artistic expressions often depict her interpretations of landscapes and flowers.  

As a homeschooled student, Manwell also enjoyed taking Spanish language courses and learning about the historical significance of various art forms during her teens. She hoped to find a university with programs that matched these interests. Manwell initially became familiar with ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ’s campus through her older brother Preston, who graduated from ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ in 2023 with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering.  

Impressed by the beauty of the campus and having discovered that ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ offers both art history and Spanish programs, she felt it was the ideal place to continue her education and double major in art history and Spanish. To complement her double major, Manwell chose digital humanities as her minor. 

Conducting research 

Manwell spent the greater part of this year working on her art history senior thesis, “Ellen Biddle Shipman and Ninah Cummer’s Italian Garden: Collaboration, Gender, and Historical Memory in Landscape Architecture,” which she presented at ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ’s 2024 Advancements in Research, Inquiry, and Scholarship Exhibition (ARISE) in July.  

Her research focused on the historical significance of the Italian Garden, designed in 1931 by acclaimed landscape architect Ellen Biddle Shipman in collaboration with local garden activist Ninah Cummer for whom the Cummer Museum is named.  

Fascinated by the beauty of the Cummer Museum’s Italian Garden and her admiration for the women involved in its conception, Manwell says that working on this project has been an incredible experience. 

“My thesis project has been my favorite experience at ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ so far because it’s opened so many opportunities for me,” Manwell said. 

One of those opportunities came about through the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow (SURF) grant she received that afforded her the opportunity to spend one week at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York this past summer, looking through their archives to learn more about Shipman for her thesis project. Manwell says this experience allowed her to cross off several first-time life experiences, including her first time on an airplane and her first time traveling to the Northeastern U.S. 

The Italian Garden wasn’t her only research project while at ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ. 

Since spring 2024, she has served as a student leader in a digital humanities project titled “Revista Tierra,” under the direction of Dr. Clayton McCarl, professor of Spanish and digital humanities. This project is dedicated to preserving the history of a popular socialist magazine in Mexico from the 1920s named Tierra.  

In this project, Manwell and other students work to digitize the publication to provide open access to the public. In April, she and fellow ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ student Erin Garry presented their research on this project at the Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS) Conference at ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ. She also presented this research at the 2024 Florida Digital Humanities Consortium 10-Year Anniversary Conference in September. 

“It’s really cool to see how this project has come together as a result of ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ students working with faculty,” Manwell said. She says the experience presenting the “Revista Tierra” project at these conferences and contributing to the future of digital humanities was humbling, exciting and inspiring. 

Currently, Manwell is participating in an internship with McCarl working on a digital humanities project titled “Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America,” which involves analyzing artistic works from colonial Spanish America. Her duties include creating short, themed videos discussing art from that period in both English and Spanish to be used in future courses. Manwell says she is appreciative of McCarl for actively offering research opportunities to students. 

"He’s always looking for ways to involve his students in projects,” she said. 

McCarl says Manwell is an active participant in her academic success and he admires her ability to work conscientiously and proactively. 

"Peri is a strong critical thinker and she writes exceptionally well,” said McCarl. “She is able to see connections between apparently unrelated things and draw original, compelling conclusions.” 

Life outside of the classroom and future plans 

Manwell says that while her coursework keeps her busy, she does set aside time for herself to relax, paint and enjoy nature. Some of her activities on campus include being a member of the Reformed University Fellowship (RUF) student Christian club and she previously worked as a Spanish tutor in the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures. 

Although she is looking forward to the next chapter in her life, she appreciates ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ’s ability to help its students thrive personally, socially and academically. 

“It’s been great to be a student at ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ,” said Manwell. “¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ does a great job of helping students balance their academic and social lives.”