A Golden Afternoon: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

"You can learn a lot of things from the flowers,
Especially in the month of June..."

"All In The Golden Afternoon" from Disney's 'Alice in Wonderland'

After a journey on the train we all arrived at Kew's Library, Art & Archives, housed just down the road from an entrance into the gardens. We were led by the Head of Library, Art & Archives, Fiona Ainsworth who informed us that the library itself is 165 years old and holds:

over 185,000 monographs

150,000 pamphlets and reprints

5,000 periodicals

over 20,000 maps

200,000 prints and drawings

7 million sheets of paper

She went on to say she and her team of 20 are moving towards digitizing the collection to make it more accessible, which would be wonderful because the items she showed us were wonderful! Ms. Ainsworth explained how a single botanical illustration holds so much value because it contains all scientific aspects of a specimen through multiple stages of its cycle and multiple angles, whereas a photograph would only show one angle and one stage of the specimen's cycle.

The items that were laid out for us to view were not only beautiful but, as Ms. Ainsworth explained, they also show how environmental disturbances and climate change affect the habitat range of certain specimens over time.

One thing that her team was tasked with was working to first collect and then prevent further wear and tear to botanic illustrations that had been used in-the-field and had therefore been folded and unfolded repeatedly or frequently exposed to the elements.

Another challenge is preventing the detrimental practice of those who razor out botanic illustrations from books to then sell them as items to be framed and displayed solitarily. They decided to purchase one that came to their attention simply to remove it from this destructive market.

One particular project that their team is currently working on is the Joseph Hooker Collection. They are transcribing, digitizing, and otherwise making available online, the work and correspondence of Joseph Hooker, one of the early directors of the gardens. The work of this significant, yet relatively unknown naturalist and botanist, and the process in which it is being processed is further described here.

The archives are currently not cataloged and the finding aids are not digital but they hope to soon have the resources to do so and therefore further their ability to aid in scientific, historical, and social research.

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