The visitor On the 17th of November 1874 an elderly working weaver – ‘compelled in his destitution’ – applied for poor relief in the Aberdeenshire parish of Alford….
Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara L.) is found throughout Scotland. It is among the early spring flowers. Over the years people have used this ‘common’ plant in a number of ways.
By Henry Noltie Rituals to mark the unrolling of the seasons have always seemed important, but never more so than as reference points by which to punctuate the…
By Henry Noltie In April 2017 I visited a memorable exhibition at the Yale Center for British Art at New Haven, CT. It was entitled ‘Enlightened Princesses’ and…
By Henry Noltie & Mark Watson (continued from Part III) Military Men, Society Ladies and the French The Army Officers The violence inflicted upon India by the EIC…
By Henry Noltie & Mark Watson (continued from Part II) Horticulturists and Civil Servants The designation ‘professional’, which, during the twentieth century, increasingly came to be used in…
By Henry Noltie & Mark Watson (continued from Part I) The Surgeons (and a Vet) Perhaps unsurprisingly the second largest number of specimens in the Herbarium came from…
By Henry Noltie & Mark Watson Nathaniel Wallich was one of the most significant superintendents of the Calcutta Botanic Garden (now the AJC Bose Indian Botanic Garden, Howrah),…
This is an extended version of the talk I gave at the ‘Trailblazers’ online event to mark RBGE’s 350th anniversary on the 15th October 2020. I work in…
Born in 1967, the daughter of R.N. Joshi (1938-1988), painter and doyen of Nepali art Personal Statement I am an independent self–employed artist and botanical illustrator in Nepal….
Karissa Adams, a volunteer with the Library and Archives, writes: Jane Webb Loudon was born in 1807 in Birmingham. In 1819, her mother died, prompting her bereft father…
A series of posts from our volunteers … Maggie Stevenson I am Maggie, formerly an occupational therapist. Always a keen gardener, I completed the RHS (Level 2) Principles…
We recently received the sad news that one of RBGE’s longest standing photography volunteers had passed away. Alex Wilson was recruited as a photography volunteer in 2000 by…
Reginald Farrer (1880-1920) was a remarkable botanist whose correspondence and photographs are among the treasures of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh Archives. Many of the species that he…
***Deadline for expressions of interest extended to 30th October 17:00 UTC.*** You put your images in, your data come out – that’s what crowdsourcing’s all about! It sounds…
A series of posts from our volunteers … Diana Wilkinson I’m Diana, a former civil servant who worked as a social scientist in the Scottish Government, finally retiring…
A series of posts from our volunteers … Laura Gunstensen – Library Volunteer The ‘Botanics’ have always been a very special place for me since I arrived, fresh…
A series of posts from our volunteers … Helen Bennett A period of secondment from Scottish Arts Council in 2006 confirmed my ambition to volunteer with Royal Botanic…