4 May 2018

Spotlighting the unique in the Archives

In this blog, Cam Sharp Jones explores some of the unique and interesting items housed in the Archive collections of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

By Cam Sharp Jones

A letter found in Kew's archive collection

Archiving Kew

The Archives of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew houses both the official records of the Gardens alongside the personal papers of many botanists, gardeners and other individuals who have a connection to modern and historical botanical practice.

Some of the highlights of the collection include letters written by Charles Darwin whilst onboard the HMS Beagle as well as the Directors’ Correspondence, a collection of thousands of letters sent to the senior staff of Kew between 1841 and 1928 from correspondents across the world as well as earlier correspondence with Sir William Jackson Hooker when he was Professor of Botany at Glasgow University. Other unique items are the Goods Inwards and Outwards record books that trace the movement of plants to and from Kew from 1793 until 1950, providing important information on plant migration throughout this period.

The Archives also include the personal papers of notable figures such as Sir Joseph Banks, George Bentham, Sir Joseph Hooker, Marianne North and Francis Kingdon-Ward. 

These collections provide an invaluable resource for the history of the discovery, study, transfer and use of the world's plants and fungi. And the diversity of material held within these collections becomes all the more evident as researchers and visitors delve deep into these collections.

Discovering the unique

It is perhaps not surprising then that with collections amassed over such a long period and with the oldest item in the Archives dating from the 17th century onwards, the treasures of this collection are still being uncovered. Whilst undertaking a survey of the Archival collection to identify correspondence authored by Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, various unusual and interesting items have come to light, illustrating the diverse material held within the Archives.

 

A royal visit

One of the most interesting items that has come to light in the collection survey is a memorandum recording the visit of the Maharaja of Indore, Shivaji Rao Holkar Bahadur XII on the 3rd July 1887. The Maharaja was visiting London to attend Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee celebrations and had travelled to Kew on Sunday the 3rd July with the intention of driving his carriage around the Gardens. However, having been informed that no personage, ‘not even the Crown Prince of Prussia’ to quote the memo, was allowed to drive through the gardens, the Maharaja decided to return the following Tuesday when it was quieter, to visit the collections on foot.

This subsequent visit was much more successful, with the Maharaja visiting the Palm House and the Marianne North Gallery during his visit and expressing his delight in the Gardens as a whole.

Artist and student tickets

The regulations that prohibited the Maharaja of Indore from driving in the Gardens also required that those wishing to bring in books or apparatus for the study of the collections should apply for a special ‘ticket’ of admittance. Guidelines issued in 1884 required all such applicants to submit in writing the reason for their applications.

Once the application was accepted the successful student or artist would then be issued with an admittance ticket, like the one shown above, allowing them to enter the Gardens from 6 am in the summer and 7 am in the winter, for the period of a year.

‘Large bags’ not allowed

As any traveller of the last 10 years or so will have experienced, rules on the dimensions of luggage has increasingly become a problem when planning a trip or visiting a site. However Kew appears to have been a leader in the field of such security measures, with the below poster issued in 1903, stating that all bags, baskets or parcels brought into the Gardens could not exceed 7 inches by 5 inches by 4 inches!

This regulation appears to have been the outcome of a protracted discussion between the Director of Kew, Sir William Thiselton-Dyer and the Treasury following increasing concern regarding the bringing into the gardens of ‘large bags’ that could be used to hide stolen or damaged flora, the main issue being the lack of clarity over what defined a ‘large bag’. The earliest evidence for such concerns appear in correspondence dated 1897, culminating in the Regulation of 1903. 

Whilst today’s visitors are still not allowed to injure the collections - thankfully the regulation on bag size has been relaxed.

Personal insurance in 1896

One of the more unusual items discovered in the recent survey is an ‘Accident Coupon’ for Sir William Thiselton-Dyer for the year 1896. Taken out during his tenure as Director of the Gardens, the coupon stipulates the pay-out should Thiselton-Dyer be killed whilst travelling on a passenger train or riding a bicycle or tricycle on the road. 

Whilst it is not clear why this coupon has been retained or even more mysteriously why the coupon has been bound within a volume on Keys and access to the Gardens, it does provide interesting insight into late nineteenth century insurance terms and conditions (or lack thereof) and how staff at Kew may have tried to protect themselves in case of an accident.

More treasures still to find

Through initiatives such as the Joseph Hooker Correspondence Project and a forthcoming project to conserve and catalogue a large series of Miscellaneous Reports, the Archives team hope to bring as much of this informative material forward so that members of the public and researchers can engage and explore the history of Kew.

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