Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1927 - 1970 (Creation)
Level of description
Collection
Extent and medium
Comprehensive collection:
29 boxes of papers related to 'Emergency Foods'; field books; microfilm; bibliographies & index cards
Context area
Name of creator
Repository
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
The bulk of this collection was donated to RBGE in 1963 by Mrs Irvine: see The History of the Royal Botanic Garden Library, Edinburgh by Manjil Mathew, p.82 where it states, "In 1963, the wife of the Edinburgh trained British botanist Frederick Robert Irvine, who had spent most of his working life in Africa and died there in 1962, sent to Edinburgh all her husband's botanical books and papers, including his diaries [query if Mathew is correct here - there are field books but no diaries] and the large card index of his work on edible plants. The collection contained 298 books, 1,100 reprints and 550 parts of journals."
It appears a further donation of index cards was deposited at Edinburgh in 1970.
Content and structure area
Scope and content
•Box containing papers, correspondence, microfilm and information regarding the 1970 accrual of index cards.
•Two boxes of collection field books
•One box of papers and correspondence on ‘Nutrition and Vitamins’
•One box of papers on ‘World Food Problems, etc. and Food Science’
•One box of papers on ‘Emergency Foods in Europe (except Britain and Russia)’
•One box of papers on ‘Emergency Foods - Britain’
•One box of papers on ‘Emergency Foods - Russia’
•Two boxes of papers titled ‘Emergency Foods – North and West Africa’
•One box of papers on ‘Emergency Foods – Central and South East Africa’
•One box of papers on ‘Emergency Foods – Middle East and India’
•One box of papers on ‘Emergency Foods – China, Malaya, Hawaii and Australia’
•One box of papers on ‘Emergency Foods – U.S.A.’
•One box containing two folders, one of papers on ‘Emergency Foods - Canada’ and one of papers on ‘Food Plants of U.S. Indians’
•One box of papers on ‘Emergency Foods Central and South America’
•One box of papers on ‘Commodity Plants’
•One box of papers on ‘Voandzeia (Bambarra Groundnut)’
•One box of papers on ‘Bee-Keeping in Africa’
•One box of papers on ‘Edible Earths, Snakes and Insects’
•One box of papers on ‘Cattle and Sheep’
•One box of containing two folders, one of papers on ‘Lizards and Mammals (East Africa)’ and one of containing a Zoo Aquarium Guide
•One box containing miscellaneous papers, papers on crop plants and bibliographies
•Six boxes of index cards and papers, divided from: Nos.1-50 (92); Nos.51 (93) – 80 (146); Nos. 81 (147) - 111 (212); Nos. 112 (213) – 134 (249); Nos. 135 (250) – 174 (313), Nos. 175 (314) – 183 (332)
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Collection is open to researchers by appointment, see (right click, open link in new tab:) https://www.rbge.org.uk/science-and-conservation/library-and-archives/visiting-the-library/
Conditions governing reproduction
Permission required from RBGE