About Kew's Archive Team

Meet Kiri, Michele, Stephanie and Omelia - the team that are responsible for the kilometre of documents that make up the Archives!

A selection of letters from the Archives

The Archives are managed by a small team of professional staff. In total there are four of us and we are responsible for the kilometre of documents that make up the Archives and also the management of Kew’s modern records. In the team there is:

Kiri, our Archivist and Records Manager
Michele, Assistant Archivist
Our Graduate Trainee who is currently Stephanie (we have a new trainee every year)
Omelia, Modern Records Administrator.

We will be blogging about our work, so you can learn about what we do and also about some of the fascinating collections that we hold.

The kilometre of documents in our archives equates to about 7 million pieces of paper and includes papers relating to the history of Kew, such as the historical correspondence of the directors at Kew (see the Directors' Correspondence Digitisation Team for more details), as well as other items relating to the history of botany and gardening. The Archives form a valuable resource on the history of the discovery, study, transfer and use of the world's plants and fungi. Some of the highlights of our collections are the correspondence and journals of Sir Joseph Hooker (Kew’s second public director), letters from Charles Darwin, the illustrated Calendarium by Schedel dating from 1610 and the diaries, notebooks and photographs of Victorian plant hunters.

Storage of some of the 7 million pieces of paper that make up the Archives

The Archives are open to the public and anyone who has a genuine need to use the collections may do so. Our users vary from students and academics, to family historians and actors researching parts!

Our work involves taking steps to ensure that the documents are safely maintained and ensuring their long-term preservation, as well as making them accessible to the public. Our daily tasks include: