Category: Library and ArchivesPage 1 of 6
Information about the collections held in the RBGE Library and Archives
Routes to Roots brought artists and collections staff together at RBGE to ask what meaningful collaboration inside botanic institutions looks like, and what artists need in order to work well with living and preserved collections.
H.J. Noltie When the museum and library of the East India Company (EIC), following its inheritance by the India Office of the British government, was dispersed in 1879…
By John Wilkins Professor Emeritus of Greek Culture, University of Exeter Botanists will be familiar with the names of Theophrastus and Dioscorides who organised the description of plants…
The jeweller Susan Cross from Edinburgh College of Art has been in the herbarium recently working on a project about lace. This brought to mind a ‘natural’ source…
We are proud to announce that the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh Archives are officially now an Accredited Archive Service – a result of many years of hard work…
On my daily walk to Wardie Bay I pass a curiosity shop of an almost extinct type, whose proprietor Dorian Hiram has the measure of my eclectic tastes….
By Madeleine E. Dugan My name is Madeleine Dugan and I am an Art History Mlitt student. As part of my studies at the University of Glasgow, I…
By Madeleine E. Dugan My name is Madeleine Dugan and I am an Art History Mlitt student. As part of my studies at the University of Glasgow, I…
By David Soden and Jill Tivey. The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh Library … Four tall, metal cabinets. The sort common in offices, often filled with stationery items or…
In November 2024, a one-month project funded by the Sibbald Trust aimed to create a top-level finding list for the archives of the late RBGE botanist, Jimmy Ratter….
These reflections on the life of John Dickie were written by RBGE Library Research Associate Jane Corrie, 20.1.2025 John Dickie (holding the banner in this photograph) died very…
There is a box in the RBGE Archives marked ‘Granny’ which usually begs the question of what’s inside? The following blog, researched and written by RBGE Garden Guide…
by Dr Amanda Thomson I was sitting in the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh Library, looking through F.R. Irvine’s archive boxes. Irvine was a botanist who was born in…
I recently acquired two botanical watercolours by Janet Dick (1774–1857) painted in Madras in 1802 and 1803. Competent enough in execution, the main reason for buying them was…
What is the ‘mushroomy’ scent of heritage? And what do the institutions that care for it — such as the RBGE — smell like? By Siôn Parkinson Dr…
The following blog was written by Connie Ma, a placement student in the Herbarium. As part of my MSc History of Art, Theory and Display programme at the…
In Spring 2004 a memorable exhibition curated by Carol Armstrong and Catherine de Zegher was shown at the Drawing Center in New York, and later that year at…
In May 1810 the McNab family took up residence in Botanics Cottage, then on its original site on Leith Walk. The family consisted of William, his wife Elizabeth,…
This Black History Month, we explore our links with Dr William Fergusson (1796 – 1846) and Surgeon-Major James ‘Africanus’ Beale Horton (1835 – 1883).
George Herbert Cave of Windsor, southeast England (1872-1965), was a botanist and plant collector who rapidly rose to prominence in the Victorian era. He collected plants in Sikkim…