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• Box of colour slides from the area of the Flora Zambesiaca

• 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

Around 40 ledgers were transferred from the RBGE Herbarium in October 2023, to which was added the earliest Donations ledger already in the Archives.
List of Ledgers transferred to Archives, October 2023

Accession RBGEA2023/019

Gifts/Exchanges

Donations to Herbarium, 1878-1914 (Feb) (commencing from the Donation List printed in Trans Edin Bot Soc v xiii pt2)

Collections Presented or Purchased, 1923-1930 – small notebook

Purchases / Gifts, 1956-1999

Donation Book – indexed by year – 1902-1958 – foolscap

Exchange book – 1956-1998 - arranged by institution we’re exchanging with – keeps track of exchange tallies to keep to and fro even. Some irregular exchanges listed here with note to see red Irregular exchange book for details (below)

Irregular exchanges, 1979-1999 – details (?) of irregular exchanges listed in above book. (looks like this book was meant for listing expedition accessions, but only 2 expeditions listed in 1998.

Incoming Loans

Loans Received 1956-1964 – small notebook

Loans Received 1964-1969 – small notebook

Incoming Loans (Store Copy) 1966-1986 – boards detached

Incoming Loans 1987-1999 – boards detached

Loans Record for RBGE staff, 1952-1999 – keeping track of what loans belong to RBGE staff members

Outgoing Loans ledgers

1: Loans from 1 April 1955 to 12 December 1958

2: Specimens on loan from 6 December 1958 to 1963, Nos 42/58 to 38/63

3: Specimens on loan, 1963-1965 - 39/63 to 20/65

4: Specimens on loan, 1965-1966 – 21/65 to 106/66

5: Specimens on loan, 1967 – 1/67 to 126/67

6: Specimens on loan, 1967-1969 – 127/67 to 25/69

7: Specimens on loan, 1969-1970 – 26/69 to 59/70

8: Specimens on loan, 1970-1971 – 60/70 to 89/71

9: Specimens on loan, 1972-1973 – 1/72 to 33/73

10: Specimens on loan, (Loans Out) 1973 – 34/73 to 137/73

11: Loans Out, 1974-1975 – 1/74 to 104/75

12: Loans Out, 1975-1977 – 105/75 to part loan 87/77

13: Loans Out, 1977-1978 – 61/77 and cont. loan 87/77 to 161/78

14: Loans Out, 1979-1980 – 1/79 to 177/80

15: Loans Out, 1980-1982 – 178/80 to 77/82

16: Loans 1982-1984 – 78/82 to 26/84

17: Loans 1984-1985 – 27/84 to 60/85

18: Loans 1985-1986 – 61/85 to 130/86

19: Loans 1986-1988 – 131/86 to 4/88

20: Loans 1988-1989 – 5/88 to 66/89

21: Loans 1989-1991 – 67/89 to 7/91

22: Loans 1991-1992 – 8/91 to 99/92

23: Loans 1992-1994 – 100/92 to 91/94(pt)

24: Loans 1994-1995 – 91/94(pt) to 134/95

Outgoing Loans – abbreviated Loan books

Loans Out, 1924-1976 – one-line summaries – fore-runner to day book?

Loans Out, 1977-1992 – one-line summaries – nos 1-134 1/77-134/92

Loans Out, 1992-1999 – 135/92 to 2493 one-line summaries – new numbering system starts in 1995 (no 2004) - next book in sequence - ‘Transactions’ or ‘Day Books’

Day Books / Transactions

Transactions, 1999-2007 – nos 2494-5239 – entries are now colour coded to denote what kind of transaction they are – black- loans out, red- loans in, blue- exchange in and out, green- gift in and out

Transactions, 2007-2012 – nos 5240-6766

Transactions, 2012-2019 – nos 6767-8331

Transactions 2019-2023 – nos 8332-8525, followed by Specify Numbers to 01555 at which point it was decided to discontinue paper ledgers as Specify now used to record all transactions.

A collection of material from and relating to the plantsman and primula specialist Dr. John MacWatt including photographs, paintings, scrapbooks, papers, nursery catalogues, articles, medals and certificates.

Collection currently comprising two folders, more expected. Olive's field books are currently held in Burtt collection.

11 binders of Mike Richardson's coprolitic fungi collection notes, taken from samples of animal dung between c. 1996-2020, from locations around the U.K., Iceland and the Falkland Islands.

2 volumes of unpublished manuscript produced by Janet Rae in the early 1980s. George MacDougall may have typed the manuscripts. The idea was to produce something similar to a book already published, but it was considered too expensive and that there was not enough demand to publish this one. The manuscript does include illustrations, including at least one original pen and ink sketch by Alan McGillveray, and constitutes a description of Edinburgh's changing landscapes in c.1983.
The accession also includes 2x 2020 calendars marking the Society's 150th anniversary in 2019.

The Jimmy Ratter Archive represents a valuable collection that is of particular interest for the insight it offers into the entwined botanical and social histories of the Brazilian cerrado. The collection is diverse and idiosyncratic, and spans Jimmy’s professional and personal archives. The contents of the collection include correspondence, field diaries, funding proposals, financial records, drafts and edits of papers for publication, lecture notes, teaching materials, scientific data, photographic material, botanical and biological specimens, PhD manuscripts, and original illustrations.
The materials represented in the collection relate to Jimmy’s work in Brazil, including the various conservation projects he was involved in, and the many expeditions and collecting trips he participated in. Other items in the collection cover Jimmy’s early career, his various roles at the RBGE (including his teaching and supervisory roles), and the administration of the RBGE more generally.

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.

letters, documents and photographs from the arcihves left by John Jacob Lavranos, and printed copy of field notebooks