RBGE acknowledges that our collections contain historic materials which may contain, either in their content or catalogue descriptions, terminology which is inappropriate, outdated, offensive or distressing. Such information does not reflect the current views and values of RBGE.
We welcome feedback about the language in our catalogues. While we cannot change fixed attributes connected to items in the collection (e.g. published titles, names or contents) we will always consider requests for changes to be made to other aspects of the records in our catalogues. Please contact archives@rbge.org.uk
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Adam Forman Sphagnum Moss papers and photographs
The collection comprises photographs and reports related to the gathering and preparation of Sphagnum moss, in and around the Moffat/Beattock area, S.W. Scotland, which was used as a medical dressing for wounds during the First World War.
Forman, Adam
William Alfred Hughes's Silver RHS Medal 1929
The medal is a silver Royal Horticultural Societ Joseph Banks medal and is inscribed 1929 Junior Section General Examination in Horticulture William A Hughes First. In 1987 Hughes made contact with Roy Watling at RBGE and donated his medal - both men had been office bearers for the Botanical Society of Scotland. The medal, and eventually the certificate and all associated correspondence came to the care of M.V. Mathew in the library who placed them in the Archives.
Hughes, William Alfred
Mairi Planner's Downie, Laird and Laing Research
Collection consists of Mairi Planner's research into the Edinburgh nurserymen Downie, Laird and Laing, including material used in exhibiting the research. Mairi's great great grandfather Andrew Robertson Annan worked for the firm in the 1860s before moving to the Ravelston Estate in Edinburgh where he became Head Gardener - in researching him, Planner became interested in the nurserymen he worked for.
Planner, Mairi
Swinley Album: Papers relating to Prof. J.H. Balfour, Prof. I.B. Balfour and Prof. J. Cleland
1 album containing ephemera to do with the Balfour professors; John Hutton Balfour, Isaac Bayley Balfour and John Cleland, plus other papers of interest.
Balfour family
Reginald Farrer - correspondence to Ernest Gye
Part of Reginald Farrer Collection
A collection of 13 letters purchased at auction in 2008, written by Reginald Farrer and most likely sent to the British Diplomat Ernest Frederick Gye C.M.G., though Farrer tends to refer to him as his “Poison”, “Viper” or “Venom”.
Gye's mother was the singer Dame Emma Albani and his father was Ernest Gye, the lessee of Covent Garden theatre. Gye entered the Foreign Office in 1903, became Second Secretary in 1908 and Councillor in 1924. He served for some years in Tehran in the earlier part of his career (and where he was when these letters were written) before being appointed Minister and Consul General in Tangier in 1933. Three years later he was made Minister Plenipotentiary in Venezuela, retiring in 1939.
The 13 letters were written in Upper Burma (now Myanmar), mainly from Hpimaw and Nyitadi, and date between May 1919 and September 1920, the last being written only five weeks before his death. The letters are liberally peppered with nicknames and gossip, and the identity of everyone mentioned may never be known; for example, his 1919 travelling companion, fellow plant collector Euan Cox, is often referred to by the name “Jumps”. In amongst intimate information and personal references are descriptions of the country, people met and plants collected.
Gye, Ernest Frederick
Reginald Farrer - Farrer Family Collection
Part of Reginald Farrer Collection
Farrer, Reginald John
Reginald Farrer - Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh archives
Part of Reginald Farrer Collection
Two boxes of correspondence, seed lists and field notes to, from and relating to Reginald Farrer and his expeditions to Kansu (Gansu) in Northern China (1914-1915) and Upper Burma (1919-1920) and one box containing a photo album and letter. These records were likely brought together from various sources within the RBGE Archives so that items relating to Farrer were kept together. It has been decided to keep this collection together.
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (Creator)
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh Institutional Archives
• Draft copy of an article titled ‘The New Plant Houses at the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh’ (stored in the ‘R’ box)
• History and development of the garden
• Accounts, 1764-1876 (incomplete)
• Staff Records (incomplete)
• Probationer Gardener records (1889-1935)
• Records relating to education at RBGE
• Photographs
• Maps
• Papers relating to regional gardens – Dawyck, Benmore and Logan
• Plant flowering records (phenology registers)
• Plant records, including inventories, and registers of plants entering and leaving the garden
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (Creator)
Plant labels found by members of the RBGE Horticulture Department and transferred to the Archives:
1: Magnolia acuminata, United States - found to the east of the copse, RBGE; a label intended to hang from the tree, this type of label had the impressed letters painted white by hand, then the entire label was hand painted black - would have been surrounded by a metal holder which has since decomposed - probably dates to around 1940?
2: Ilex laevigata; a temporary label found during excavations for the new Alpine House, 2012 - small label attached to wire which would have been pushed into the ground - probably dates to c.1960?
3: Viburnum dilatatum, c.1960? - temporary label from new Alpine House area.
4: Viburnum farreri - 'layers' - found in Nursery, troughs area - used when 'layering' viburnum - obtaining shoots from roots or branches.
5: Alpinia calcarata
6: Rhododendron hodgsonii
7: LA47
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh Horticulture Department
Printed papers regarding the Cambridge Botanical Museum and Library (1828, 1829 and 1830)
3 printed annual reports (3 x 4 pages, 200 x 250mm) of The Botanical Museum & Library at Cambridge University; dated 25 March 1828, 25 March 1829, 25 March 1830.
The 1828 report outlines the start of a proper funded botanical museum. Prof Henslow lists present acquisitions and solicits help in augmenting the collection. The 1829-30 reports demonstrate success in increasing the collection of plant samples and publications.
Cambridge University Botanical Museum & Library
