Research Catalog

Kew : the history of the Royal Botanic Gardens

Title: Kew : the history of the Royal Botanic Gardens / Ray Desmond ; foreword by Sir Ghillean Prance.
Author: Desmond, Ray.
Publication: London : Harvill Press with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 1995.

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	Text	Use in library	QK73.G72 R693 1995	Off-site

Details

Description

xvi, 466 pages : illustrations (some color); 27 cm

Summary

This volume traces the evolution over more than two centuries of Kew's historic landscape, which began with two private royal gardens and expanded through the work of some of our most distinguished garden designers, including Charles Bridgeman, 'Capability' Brown and W.A. Nesfield. Eminent architects also contributed - men such as William Kent, Sir William Chambers, James Wyatt and Decimus Burton. Some thirty-nine listed buildings have survived, Kew Palace, the Pagoda, the Palm House and the Temperate House being the best known. All these, together with the latest additions to Kew's architectural heritage - the Princess of Wales Conservatory and the Banks Centre for Economic Botany - are illustrated and described. The principal figures in Kew's fascinating history also make their appearance in this narrative: Queen Caroline, her son Frederick Prince of Wales, Princess Augusta, his wife, George III and other members of the Royal Family; Sir Joseph Banks, who organised the first worldwide plant-collecting expeditions; Sir William Hooker and his son, Sir Joseph, who laid the foundations of the present Botanic Gardens; and successive directors who formulated policy and supervised physical improvements.
Kew played a pivotal role in the development of the natural resources of the British Empire, and its part in the introduction of commercial crops to the colonies, its compilation of colonial floras, and its collaboration with overseas botanical gardens are all examined, as is its establishment as an international scientific institution in the fields of plant taxonomy, cytogenetics seed physiology and biochemistry. Previous accounts of Kew have relied almost entirely on printed sources. The present volume makes extensive use of archives in many repositories to trace not only Kew's history but also the research activities which support modern Kew's primary objective: "the better management of the Earth's environment by increasing knowledge and understanding of the plant kingdom."

Alternative Title

History of the Royal Botanic Gardens

Subject

Genre/Form

History.

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references (p.[441]-445) and index.

Contents

1. A Queen's Garden -- 2. Prince Frederick at Kew -- 3. Princess Augusta's 'earthly Paradise' -- 4. Sir William Chambers contributes -- 5. The Royal Family in residence -- 6. Sir Joseph Banks takes charge -- 7. Publicising Kew -- 8. Collectors and collecting -- 9. Years of neglect -- 10. Sir William Hooker to the rescue -- 11. Kew transformed -- 12. Scientific consolidation -- 13. Overseas activities -- 14. Botanic garden or public park? -- 15. The Ayrton controversy -- 16. Forging colonial links -- 17. An autocrat at Kew -- 18. Imperial Kew -- 19. 'The botanical metropolis of the world' -- 20. Towards the future -- App. 1 Some basic facts -- App. 2 Chronology -- App. 3 Bentham-Moxon Trust -- App. 4 Admission of public -- App. 5 Gates and public entrances -- App. 6 Boundary walls -- App. 7 Trees -- App. 8 Sculpture -- App. 9 Ornamental ironwork -- App. 10 Water supply -- App. 11 Francis Bauer's flower paintings -- App. 12 Kew Green -- App. 13 Brentford and Lot's Aits -- App. 14 Brief biographies -- App. 15 Printed and archival sources for the history of Kew.

ISBN

1860460763
9781860460760
9781860465291
1860465293

LCCN

96149529

OCLC

ocm33850572
33850572
SCSB-2072845

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library