Growing roots– the first year of the Places, Plants and People Archive Network

Now we have been officially established for over a year, I thought it would be a good time to take a look back at what has happened in the first year of our new network.

As chair of the group, one of the most enjoyable aspects has been meeting other network members and having the opportunity to visit other archives with plant-based archives and hearing about their work. Whilst I always knew certain institutions had plant-y archives, it has been a delightful discovery to find out how many other organisations hold these kind of collections.

We have held seven meetings over the last 18  months, plus committee meetings. They have been a mix of virtual and in person meetings, to make them as accessible as possible to all our members, who are geographically dispersed. Whilst it is always a pleasure to speak to our members, it is the in-person meetings that I have found particularly stimulating!

We kicked off with meetings at the archive of the founding members Kew Gardens and The University of Reading/the MERL, which included collections tours and a reception with academics at Reading.

Our next in person meeting was at The National Archives, where we were treated to a wonderful display of plant related archives – from patents for fabrics including plant designs, to prize papers about seeds and plant materials.

We have also been to the Garden Museum, which included the chance to see an excellent display, as well as the opportunity to view the museum’s exhibitions.

Our most recent meeting was held at Bedgebury Pinetum. Here we received a tour of the living collections, as well as seeing the paper archives. It was a great reminder that archives come in many formats and that the paper collections exist in many organisations alongside other collections.

In the last year, we also organised and ran a virtual workshop on research funding for archivists. In this webinar, we heard about the potential of research projects for archives, funding opportunities, and how we might work together collaboratively on such projects.

I have represented the network at ‘Archives and the environment: an experimentation workshop’ organised by the School of Advanced Study, University of London and The National Archives,  and also at EBHL, presenting at both.

Our website has also been established and developed over the last year and we have a virtual, collaborative exhibition in progress.

As Chair of the network, I appreciate all the hard work our newly formed committee have put in over the last year, and also all the support and engagement from our members, particularly those who have hosted meetings and/or given talks. I am excited to see what the next year holds for the network!