Main entry:

Desmond, Ray.

Title & Author:

Kew : the history of the Royal Botanic Gardens / Ray Desmond ; foreword by Sir Ghillean Prance.

Publication:

London : Harvill Press with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 1995.

Description:

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

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 441-445) and index.
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.

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."

ISBN:

1860460763
9781860460760
9781860465291 paperback
1860465293 paperback

Subject:

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew History.
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Thames
Royal Botanic Gardens (Kew, GB)
London Kew Gardens.
Botanical gardens History.
natural resources.
Jardins botaniques Histoire.
Botanical gardens
Gartenkunst
Geschichte
Botanische tuinen.
Kew Gardens.
Tuinarchitectuur.
Imperialisme.
Jardins botaniques Grande-Bretagne Histoire.
Geschichte (1631-1994)
Kew (London, England)
London (England)
England London Kew
England London
England
Botanic gardens History.

Form/genre:

History

Added entries:

History of the Royal Botanic Gardens

Holdings:

Location: Library main 91137
Call No.: ID QK73.G72 R6; ID:95-B5001
Status: Available