Herbarium | Plants in a New Light | Opens 10 September
A free exhibition showcasing the photographs of Swedish artist Lena Granefelt, featured next to the original herbarium specimens from Carl Linnaeus' pressed plants collection.
FREE EXHIBITION
Opening times: Tuesdays to Fridays, 10.00–17.00
In 2022, artist and photographer Lena Granefelt spent several days at the Linnean Society, photographing a selection of pressed plants (herbarium) sheets, from the collection of Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778). Lena photographed each specimen sheet using two flashes positioned behind it to provide backlighting, thereby capturing details of the flowers, leaves and stems that are not seen with the naked eye, as well as the structure of the eighteenth-century paper with its watermarks, laid and chain lines.
These photographs became part of Lena's project A Linnean Collection, which was exhibited in Stockholm, before becoming a book, the English edition of which was published last year:The Hidden Stories of The Linnaean Herbarium (2025).
This exhibition reunites Lena's photographs and Linnaeus's herbarium specimens, displaying them side by side.
