Portraying plants: illustrations collections at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Abstract

The Library & Archives at Kew hold one of the world’s greatest collections of botanical illustration, assembled over the last 200 years. A resource well-known to the natural history community, it contains much to interest art historians. Using this historically rich heritage our forward thinking includes acquisition of more contemporary items and the formulation of a digital strategy for 21st-century access and exploitation.

Learned, professional and independent libraries

“…The latter also planned its digital strategy to make available its superb collections of botanical illustrations. 46 The Tony Arnold Library installed a pc for users with online databases and CD-ROMs and intends in the longer term to move from print to electronic resources for the benefit of their members outside London. The Geological Society Library offered access to over 100 e-journals, and also provided internet and email access for visitors from 2002, and wifi access in 2005.…”

Kew's Art Collections

“…Work from the 18th and first half of the 19th century, the golden age of botanical art, is a particularly strong part of the collection. The masters of this period include Franz and Ferdinand Bauer, Pierre Joseph Redouté, Georg Dionysius Ehret and Walter Hood Fitch (Ward & Flanagan, 2003).…”