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William Purdom was born on the 10th of April at Heversham near Kendal but he spent most of his childhood at the Lodge, Brathay Hall in Ambleside, where his father, William, was head gardener. After leaving school at 14, Purdom's first four years of gardening training was under his father's tuition, before joining Low Nursery of Enfield, and then the Veitch Nursery of Coombe Wood.
In 1902 Purdom applied for a student position at the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew where he stayed for six years before being chosen to lead a plant collecting expedition to China in 1909 planned by Veitch and the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts. He returned to England in 1912.
Reginald Farrer heard of Purdom's achievements and determined to travel to China to collect plants with Purdom as his assistant. He chose Kansu / Gansu in northern China as it was hoped that this area would yield alpine plants suitable for the British climate. The dangerous and difficult expedition took place between 1914 and 1915 and was funded by Charles Hough of White Craggs, Ambleside and William Groves of Holehird.
Farrer returned to England in 1915, but Purdom elected to remain in China to become a forestry advisor to the Chinese Government. He died in November 1921 in Peking / Beijing after a short illness at the age of 41 while working on a comprehensive forestry survey for the Chinese Railways.
Biographical information on William Purdom was compiled by Margaret I. Perkins, Hon. Archivist for the Lakeland Horticultural Society.

German botanist and pteridologist, husband of Helga Rasbach.

Longtime collaborator with his wife, Helga Rasbach. Members of the Baden State Association for Natural History and Nature Conservation for over 60 years.

[Translated from German via Google from "In memoriam Helga und Kurt Rasbach"]
Dr. Kurt Rasbach came from the Westerwald region. He grew up in modest circumstances and under difficult times. He often recounted how he had to walk long distances to school, which sharpened his eye for natural phenomena. Returning from the Second World War with a gunshot wound, he studied medicine in Heidelberg, became a physician, and – perhaps even more importantly – a professional nature photographer.

In Glottertal in 1960, the State Insurance Institution took over the local spa and sanatorium, including the associated forest and open spaces. Under the direction of Dr. Rasbach,
the spa clinic was established for the treatment of physical overexertion, neurovegetative disorders, and states of exhaustion or burnout. When the idyllic clinic was chosen as the filming location for the TV series "Die Schwarzwaldklinik" (The Black Forest Clinic) in 1986, Dr. Rasbach took early retirement to avoid the hustle and bustle of filming. Throughout his medical career, he was actively involved in nature and landscape photographer.

Supported, among other things, by his early membership in the Baden State Association for Natural History and Nature Conservation, the Rasbachs maintained diverse contacts within the natural science community in Tübingen, Freiburg, and Karlsruhe. Especially in geobotanical work, they supported projects by young scientists at the diploma thesis level, many of whom later became professors. Here, too, the Rasbach couple proved themselves to be a perfect team: Helga Rasbach meticulously prepared the thematic requirements for photographic documentation of the relevant questions and results. Over the weekend, they both worked through the assigned tasks – and on Sunday night, the results were produced together in their own darkroom.

As a nature photographer, Dr. Rasbach possessed the gift of combining expressive plant portraits with their natural habitat. A guiding principle of his approach was: "Photographing for the eye." By this, he meant the challenging task of capturing the complex process of sensory perception in a single, static image. His best vegetation photographs show both the identifying characteristics of the individual plant and its habitat embedded in the landscape, thus embodying the process from detailed view to overview in a single shot. He always found his first and most important editor in his wife. This close collaboration between specialist author, expert guidance, and photographic realization at the highest technical and aesthetic level continues to set standards. As a result, both became sought-after volunteers for key book projects in Germany and internationally. The series of publications on the most important nature reserves of the former LfU Karlsruhe would be virtually inconceivable without the Rasbach couple. For the first editions of the volume "Kaiserstuhl," they were both responsible for the editorial work. The "Feldberg" book from the same series was also edited by them and received all the photographic material from them.

Both played a prominent role in the major species conservation works of the State Institute.

The eight-volume vascular plant flora, the moss flora, and the lichen flora contain many hundreds of illustrations by Helga and Kurt Rasbach. For specific tasks involving mosses and lichens, for illustrating a book by Gerold Hügin on lady's mantle species, and especially for Arno Hölzer's work on sphagnum mosses, Kurt Rasbach explored the photographic edges of macro photography. The early, large-format work "The Ferns of Central Europe," with the young Otti Wilmanns as the expert author, remains a classic of plant photography. The aesthetic of the black-and-white illustrations shown here is reminiscent of Karl Blossfeldt's seminal work.

The last major project they jointly undertook was the design of the 4th edition of the
Kaiserstuhl book – published in 2009. Helga and Kurt Rasbach did not complete the transition from
analog to digital photography, which was almost finished at that time, although they had a
lively interest and continually critically examined the new possibilities.

For Helga and Kurt Rasbach, illustrations were not merely an accessory or illustration, but rather,
in the field of natural history, a first-rate source that describes more about the nature and structure of an organism than would be possible in text form. They both left behind many
plans for future publications and an image archive of approximately 400,000 black-and-white negatives and color slides, which is currently being prepared for further use.

German botanist and pteridologist, wife of Dr. Kurt Rasbach.

Helga was also an outstanding botanical illustrator – from cytology (e.g., of ferns) to the overall habitat (e.g., in her husband's early orchid volume).

Longtime collaborator with her husband Dr. Kurt Rasbach. Members of the Baden State Association for Natural History and Nature Conservation for over 60 years.

[Translated from German via Google,
Helga Rasbach was a biologist who specialized in the taxonomy of ferns. Her specialty was the discovery of unusual species. Numerous new discoveries of fern species in Central and Southern Europe can be traced back to her. At the same time, Helga Rasbach possessed the systematic knowledge to identify and thoroughly investigate doubtful cases in the field, particularly to examine them cytologically with regard to the chromosome numbers of individual ferns. Based on this, she was able to describe new hybrids, cytotypes, and subspecies of ferns and to identify hybrids. She also contributed many anonymously, for example, her work on the identification key for ferns in Oberdorfer's Excursion Flora.

Supported, among other things, by his early membership in the Baden State Association for Natural History and Nature Conservation, the Rasbachs maintained diverse contacts within the natural science community in Tübingen, Freiburg, and Karlsruhe. Especially in geobotanical work, they supported projects by young scientists at the diploma thesis level, many of whom later became professors. Here, too, the Rasbach couple proved themselves to be a perfect team: Helga Rasbach meticulously prepared the thematic requirements for photographic documentation of the relevant questions and results. Over the weekend, they both worked through the assigned tasks – and on Sunday night, the results were produced together in their own darkroom.

The series of publications on the most important nature reserves of the former LfU Karlsruhe would be virtually inconceivable without the Rasbach couple. For the first editions of the volume "Kaiserstuhl," they were both responsible for the editorial work. The "Feldberg" book from the same series was also edited by them and received all the photographic material from them.

Both played a prominent role in the major species conservation works of the State Institute.

The eight-volume vascular plant flora, the moss flora, and the lichen flora contain many hundreds of illustrations by Helga and Kurt Rasbach.

The last major project they jointly undertook was the design of the 4th edition of the
Kaiserstuhl book – published in 2009. Helga and Kurt Rasbach did not complete the transition from
analog to digital photography, which was almost finished at that time, although they had a
lively interest and continually critically examined the new possibilities.

For Helga and Kurt Rasbach, illustrations were not merely an accessory or illustration, but rather,
in the field of natural history, a first-rate source that describes more about the nature and structure of an organism than would be possible in text form. They both left behind many
plans for future publications and an image archive of approximately 400,000 black-and-white negatives and colour slides, which is currently being prepared for further use.