Project Archivist

The Linnean Society of London is the world’s oldest active biological society (founded 1788) and has in its care several important collections, including those of the Swedish botanist, Carl Linnaeus, and the Society’s founder, Sir James Edward Smith. Designated a collection of outstanding national importance by the Arts Council England in 2014, the holdings of the Linnean Society (which include library, archive and biological specimen material) provide an unsurpassed resource for the study of natural history.

In the past few years, the Linnean Society has embarked on a project of cataloguing its archival holdings and counts two archivists (both part-time) in its Collections team, which also includes a Librarian, Conservator, Digital Assets Manager and a Head of Collections (also a qualified Archivist) managing the team.

The Linnean Society has recently acquired the archives of the Percy Sladen Memorial Fund (PSMF), which have informally been in its keeping since the beginning of the Fund. The PSMF was endowed by Constance Sladen, who was married to the marine biologist Percy Sladen (1849–1900), in his memory. The Trust supports field work and has funded major scientific expeditions to the Indian Ocean (1905) and Lake Tititcaca (1937), amongst others.

The role will be responsible for the cataloguing of the PSMF’s paper archives. They will ensure that these archives are catalogued to ISAD(G) standards in the Linnean Society’s online archives catalogue (Calm).