page_title: Gertrude Carter
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Gertrude Carter / Career
caption_attribution_description: English: Barbados Postage stamp, 1905 issue
context_page_description: Gertrude Carter, who was also known as Lady Gilbert-Carter was an American-born artist and architect who signed her works as either Gertrude Codman Parker, Gertrude Carter, or Gertrude Codman Carter. Upon her 1903 marriage, she became a British citizen and wife of the Governor of the Bahamas. Within a year, her husband was appointed as Governor of Barbados, and she moved with him to Bridgetown. Immediately becoming involved in the local community, she designed a stamp for the 300th anniversary of the annexation of Barbados by Great Britain.
  Though Carter continued to produce art, she became more known for her designs of gardens and homes. Carter designed the garden at Queen's Park, as well as several other landmarks. The couple's home, Ilaro Court was designed and built upon her plans and later became the official residence of the Prime Minister of Barbados. A feminist, she established the Women's Self Help Association to assist women in earning their own income and fought for their right to vote. Traveling world-wide frequently, she maintained her home in Barbados until her death.
context_section_description: Immediately after their two-month honeymoon, the couple returned to Nassau, where Carter served as hostess for her husband. In 1904, Sir Gilbert-Carter was posted as the Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Island of Barbados and its Dependencies. When the couple arrived in Bridgetown, preparations were underway for the Tercentenary of Annexation of Barbados by the British Empire and Nelson Centenary celebrations. Carter immediately submitted two stamp designs for the competition, including a bust of Nelson for the Trafalgar contest and a design of the ship Olive Blossom, which had purportedly landed in Barbados, annexing the island to Britain in 1605. While Carter's design was not selected for the Nelson bust, her design for the tercentenary stamp won and was issued in 1906.
  That same year, Carter submitted designs for the garden at the Queen's Park, which were accepted and completed in 1909. She also designed the gardens for the lazaretto, the leper quarantine asylum; the Empire Theatre; and the couple's residence, Ilaro Court, now the official residence of the Prime Minister of Barbados. Finding inspiration in the tropical setting, Carter produced drawings, gouaches and watercolours, in an impressionist style, balancing light and movement with strong design elements. Her subjects depicted images of life in the busy port of Bridgetown, which she observed in her every day dealings, including scenes of the yacht club, the Chamberlain Bridge, and the Colonial Secretary's Office.
  Interested in improving the lives of women, Carter was one of the founders of the Women's Self Help Association. She proposed creation of the association in 1907 to allow women to sell handicrafts and homemade foods to tourists, enabling women to have their own income. She also served as the patron of the Civic Circle, a group aimed at public beautification. Governor Gilbert Carter served as acting governor of Trinidad and Tobago as well from 1907 and then he retired in 1910. The following year, in Boston, Carter gave birth to a son, John Codman Carter, (who later went by Gilbert-Carter). Her son inspired Carter to write a book A Tropical Alphabet (ca. 1915), which was illustrated with images of things found commonly in the tropics. Carter explained in the preface that the book was written for English children living in the West Indies because most of the illustrated alphabet books used images of things like apples or foxes which were alien to them. Instead, she pictured grapefruit and other tropical items.
  Between 1915 and 1920, the family made their home in Torquay, taking frequent trips back to Barbados, as well as touring Europe and visiting friends and family in Boston and New York City. During this time, Carter kept diaries recounting their daily business and extensive travel, as well as concerns over World War I. Her husband legally changed the family surname to Gilbert-Carter in 1919 and they returned to live in Ilaro and Barbados the following year. In 1924, Carter designed the Barbados exhibition hall for the British Empire Exhibition, held in Wembley. Basing her pavilion design on the historical dependence on cotton, sugar and rum and the modern development of tourism, she reproduced the Barbadian landscape in alcoves flanked with tropical orchids, palm trees, coral, conch shells, and images of blow fish and turtles. On display were pottery and other handcrafted items from the Women's Self Help Association, as well as products like cane sugar, syrup, baskets and woven rush furniture.
  Sir Gilbert Carter died in Bridgetown on 18 January 1927. Carter continued to live in Barbados, traveling frequently to Boston and Palm Beach, and summering in Bar Harbor, Maine. A supporter of suffrage, she served as a representative for Barbados in London in 1929 during the National Council of Women of Great Britain’s discussion on international voting rights for women who had property and were taxpayers. Carter donated some of her artworks and other memorabilia to the Barbados Museum and Historical Society in 1952 and a special exhibition of her work w
caption: Olive Blossom 1905 issue
exif: {"Image Make": "PENTAX Corporation", "Image Model": "PENTAX *ist DL", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Microsoft Windows Photo Gallery 6.0.6001.18000", "Image DateTime": "2009:11:13 13:40:27", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "2342", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 0, 33, 0, 1, 0, 22, ... ]", "Image Padding": "[]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "1/96", "Thumbnail YResolution": "1/96", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "60682", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "2931", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1", "EXIF FNumber": "22", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2009:11:13 13:35:00", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2009:11:13 13:35:00", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "50", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "782", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "642", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "60172", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "75", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Hard", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "1", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "83F91A9C9B864825A7ABA969CF375857", "EXIF Padding": "[]", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "4156"}