About 'The Bee Kingdom'
Joy Amina Garnett is an artist and writer from New York. She holds a BA in Humanistic Studies from McGill University with a minor in environmental biology from MacDonald College. She currently lives Los Angeles where she is writing a memoir about her family history. Her maternal grandparents were 20th-century beekeepers and pioneers in small farming and apiary sustainability. This tumblr partially documents her findings in the family archive, which was acquired by NYU Abu Dhabi Library in 2020.
Garnett’s grandfather, Egyptian beekeeper and poet Ahmed Zaky Abushady (1892-1955), became interested in beekeeping while growing up in Cairo. After graduating from medical school in London, he and his wife Annie (née Bamford) moved to Benson, Oxfordshire where they founded The Apis Club, an experimental co-operative apiary. In 1919, Abushady launched a bee science journal, The Bee World (1919-present) and patented several beehive improvements including the first removable aluminum honeycomb. A decade later, Annie and Zaky moved back to Cairo and founded a co-op and school called ‘The Bee Kingdom League.’ Abushady launched The Bee Kingdom (1930-41), a bilingual monthly.