Leafy Legacies

Our new display, Leafy Legacies, explores fascinating staff histories captured across Kew’s Library, Archive and Illustration collections. 

These stories are told using an incredible variety of original materials: photographs, letters, rare books, pamphlets, oral history interviews, and botanical illustrations.

As one of the most comprehensive botanical libraries in the world, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Library and Archives spans over 2000 years of plant knowledge and discovery. The collections we hold are a rich source of botanic knowledge and history that encourage researchers from all over the world to visit. However, we have many other stories to tell.

This display tells the stories of those who have, over the last 200 years, helped Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, to become what it is today: gardeners, botanists, Herbarium mounters, plant collectors, botanical illustrators, librarians, and archivists, to name but a few. 

Trace the legacies of one of the first female scientists, a gardener-turned-artist, the first librarian, and pioneering student gardeners: these are just a handful of the stories told within the display. Learn about the ordinary people, who have all contributed to Kew’s development and shaped its extraordinary history.