Chandra’s research at Shangri La questions the 19th-century contention that women, despite their status as traveling connoisseurs and scholars, could only engage with gardens through their link with the domestic. First, she examines the design of Shangri La's Mughal Garden and explicate its relationship with Lahore's Shalimar gardens, which is one of its known inspirations. By studying Duke's private papers, honeymoon scrapbook, and travel photographs, Chandra traced relationships between her visits to Mughal and colonial gardens in pre-independence India and the design of Shangri La's Mughal Garden. Second, she examines the DDFIA collection for objects that represent flora or landscapes to ascertain if Duke's passion for horticulture and gardens translated into her collecting patterns. For example, the DDFIA houses a pair of 17th-century north Indian carpets with tulips, chrysanthemums, and poppies that form a hexagon when placed together and which could possibly have been used as seating around a similarly shaped pool of water (81.49 & 81.50). Lastly, she brought to bear her doctoral research on the intimate relationship between European women and garden spaces in colonial India with Duke's partronage of the Mughal Garden.