Letters, Poems, Flowers, and Bluestocking Friendship: Mary Hamilton's Collage–Biography of Mary Delany.

This article examines the friendship between Mary Hamilton (1756–1816), a courtier and diarist, and Mary Delany (1700–1788), an artist and prominent figure in the eighteenth-century Bluestocking network. Drawing on Hamilton’s extensive diaries, letters, and manuscript compilations, it reveals how their intergenerational relationship fostered continuity of female experience, knowledge exchange, and skills transfer within the Bluestocking circle. Hamilton’s creation of a unique collage-biography—comprising excerpts from Delany’s letters, transcriptions of poems by and dedicated to Delany, and records of their shared artistic and social activities—positions her as Delany’s first biographer and highlights women’s active engagement in manuscript culture and friendship practices of the period. The article also sheds light on Delany’s poetic works, paper flower collages (Flora Delanica), and the material culture of friendship tokens, illustrating the intertwined literary, artistic, and social dimensions of Bluestocking women’s lives.