Blogs and Essays
Dorothy Chapman's (note)books
Two printed books morphed into heavily used notebooks, when lovingly filled out and coloured in by an early 20th-century amateur botanist.
25th March 2025
“This Book is Chineese Manufacture”
This month Conservator Janet Ashdown explores the notebooks used by Alfred Russel Wallace during his Malay Archipelago expedition (1854-1862), focusing on their unusual construction, materials, and the conservation efforts to preserve them.
14th March 2025
Newly Catalogued: The Richard Fitter and IUCN Collections
An introduction to two new collections now available on the Linnean Society Archive catalogue
14th February 2025
Anything But Commonplace: The Lady Pleasance Smith commonplace books
This month, Assistant Archivist Christina McCulloch brings us into the world of the wife of Linnean Society founder James Edward Smith, Lady Pleasance Smith, through her impressive commonplace books.
7th February 2025
Out of the Andes, Always Something New
How a new species of tropical butterfly eluded discovery by hiding in the snow
10th January 2025
"The Night-mare Life-In-Death was she": Nautical Drawings in the Sketchbook of Richard Owen
This month, Project Archivist Alex Milne dusts off her English Literature degree to examine Richard Owen's sketchbook anew and emerges with an abiding love of the albatross.
2nd January 2025
