Christina Welch

Breadfruit I have missed a week of posting; apologies but I have been tied up writing a book chapter on breadfruit plants using the plant-thinking as a hook. This is in essence the thrust of my chapter; apologies for the length.John Tyley produced a watercolour painting of a Breadfruit Tree with an enslaved African man sitting beneath it. The watercolour is held by The Linnean Society of London and recently has been lent to The Fitzwilliam Museum (Cambridge University), and The British Library for display

My latest blog: quite a long read but hope you enjoy it: if so please like, share and if you can, donate - just £4,000 to go :0)

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Guest blog on transcription work I’m Elisabeth Handley-Garland, and as a part of my placement work for my Cultural Heritage and Resource Management masters degree at the University of Winchester, I volunteered my time to help Dr Christina Welch with some of the transcription work of Alexander Anderson’s writing. It wasn’t something I had done much of before and was quite a challenge at first; historic cursive handwriting can be tricky to understand at the best of times, and my GCSE in Latin did me no favours with the botanical

Today’s Guidebook blog; written by one of the transcribers on the project. It includes the use of alchemical symbols and their meaning in late-18th botany
As always please read, like, share widely and donate if you can
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Enslaved African horticultural knowledge & the Garden in 1786 Alexander Anderson sent a letter to London talking about the botanical garden in St Vincent of which he had recently taken charge. Below is an extract in transcription and it contains historical language which today we find highly offensive. I have taken the decision to use the offensive word just once, then replace it with ***** as it doesn't need to be repeated. It is a tricky balancing act staying true to the original letter whilst balancing contemporary and appropriate sensitivities.

This weeks blog post: no pretty flowers but an important topic.
Please read, like, share and if you can please donate to the Guidebook project. Thanks

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Passifloras/passionflowers I love passionflowers, they are so beautiful and in September 2022 I found one in the area of Spring in St Vincent thats appears to be the same species of Passiflora that appears to be drawn on a manuscript underneath some of Anderson's writing; I wrote about this here, and this piece of manuscript became the sort of logo for this project.Anderson must have loved passionflowers too as in the largest plant catalogue that details species growing in the St Vincent Botanical Garden, there are 7 type

I hope you enjoy this weeks blog on Passionflowers. As ever, please read, like, and share. And if you can, please donate to get the Guidebook funded. Huge thanks.

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Touching and Tasting; plants that do things Last week I wrote about a couple of plants that Anderson described as 'beautifull' and a couple that had a particular smell. This week I explore a couple of plants where touch and taste are the two most prominent senses.Two plants Anderson noted transferred colour when touched. Bixa orellana, often now known as Anatto or the Lipstick Tree, was he noted used by the people now known as Kalinago, as 'their favourite dye for most of their Household utensils, as well as their skins and dress'. It gav

Finally managed to get Wix to let me post my blog (I don’t say how many times it deleted my post part way through)
Anyway, please read and Like (if you enjoy it), share and if you can, donate to the Guidebook project. Thank you

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Beautiful and smelly plants This last week I presented at the Society for the History of Natural History summer meeting in Glasgow, Scotland. The image for the call for papers was John Tyley's Passionflower so how could I resist. The theme was A Sense of Nature and for my paper I explored some of Anderson's sensorial expressions about plants growing in the Botanical Garden. I won't wax lyrical about how great the conference was, but suffice to say it was fantastic and I learnt lots, and I will be including some of Anderson

My weekly guidebook blog is now live. As ever, please read, like, share and if you can please donate.

PS: I should have used the Oxford Comma!

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On Father's Day Today is Father's Day in the UK. Back in Anderson's time, a celebration for father's did not exist. But Anderson was a father. Anderson married a woman born in Antigua; her name was Elizabeth Alexander. We know very little about her but a diary entry made by Henrietta Liston, the wife of a diplomat who visited the Botanic Gardens; her diary is online and accessible here and she too was from Antigua. In her diary, Henrietta notes that Elizabeth had been made very deaf in childhood, but this did n

A Father’s Day theme blog for the guidebook today.
Please do read (& like) share, and if you can, donate.
Thank you

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Valuable Woods in the Garden 1785-c.1806 In 1785 Alexander Anderson inherited a botanical garden that had 9 species of trees in it that he later classed as 'Valuable Wood', by 1806 the garden had 64 species of trees listed a Valuable Wood. Today the botanical garden has a list of 47 tree species; this includes fruit trees and I will explore fruits in another post.Chrysophyllum glabrum is one of the valuable woods that is listed in both the 1785 and c.1806 catalogues. Anderson says that the tree is known locally as Nisberry and was 've

A little late but my weekly garden guidebook blog is now live.
Read, share, and if you can spare some money please donate-thank

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Ornamentals c.1806; Cyrtopodium andersonii Following on from last week's post where I noted that over time Alexander Anderson focussed on planting ornamental and exotic plants over useful ones, this post highlights some of these. Anderson's 1806 plant catalogue lists 1377 plant species, of which 931 are ornamental/exotic. Of these, 121 plants he describes as beautiful, and 31 as curious. One plant that is described using both terms is Alpinia Grandifolia. There is an illustration of this plant held at The Linnean Society of London where

Today’s guidebook blog is about an orchid named after Anderson, and is a plant he described as curious and beautiful.
As always please read, share and if you can donate. I’d love it if you like it too :0)

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Caribbean Gardens at Chelsea Flower Show This past week the awards were made at the annual Royal Horticultural Show Chelsea Flower Show. There were exhibits from several Caribbean countries including St Vincent and the Grenadines who had not entered in 34 years; they won a Silver-Gilt medal as did Antigua and Barbuda with their first ever entry. There is a brief video about them here and about 4 minutes you can see how they used strips of palm leaf to reference the 'chains of slavery'. Barbados' entry won a Gold medal, as did Grenada.

This weekends Guidebook project blog references the Chelsea Flower Show. Congrats to all those who won including 4 Caribbean countries: St Vincent Grenadines won a Silver-Gilt :0)

Read, share and please donate if you can

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Slightly late on my guidebook blog but now published. Weve raised just under half the money needed so a huge thanks.
Please continue to read, share and donate if you can. Thanks

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Plants and People Conference Details

Registration is now OPEN for our conference 'Plants and People'! Please sign up for attendance and workshops through our website: sites.google.com/view/plants-...

Thanks to @sshmedicine.bsky.social @camhistory.bsky.social & the Material Culture Forum for their generous assistance.

Finances update, & 260th events in St Vincent I am very pleased to note that thanks to so many very kind and generous people, the project has raised a little over £6,000, and we are now well on the way to funding the guidebook. I may need to trim down it's length a little (cut my cloth so to speak) but it will still be a very high-quality bespoke book, with specially commissioned botanical illustrations complimenting ones produced by Tyley (c.1800), and historic dried-&-pressed plant specimens, text written by academic experts, and a fullso

Today’s Guidebook blog is published: please read, share and if you can, donate.
As ever, thank you

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260th anniversary of the St Vincent Botanical Garden

Jobs and volunteering - The Mary Rose Jobs, academic placements and volunteering opportunities at the Mary Rose Trust.

We are recruiting Visitor Experience Team Members to join our world-class museum within Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.

If you're a passionate individual, able to welcome our guests with high levels of customer service, get in touch!

More details at maryrose.org/about-the-tr...

Anderson & Barbados Alexander Anderson wrote natural histories of several islands that he visited; one was Barbados. The manuscript, which is held by The Linnean Society of London is undated so it is not known when he wrote it but it is likely in the very late-1700s to very early 1800s. The document is not long. Transcribed it runs to just over 3,700 words (so 9-pages); untranscribed it is 12-pages in length. Anderson mentions the parish of St Lucy (St Lucia in the manuscript). He notes the following: "The Soil Ric

For the guidebook project update I’ve decided to focus on part of Barbados: the Animal Flower Cave.
As usual please share and donate if you can

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Microfinance from CARE International UK CARE International's microfinance lending initiative

Lend with Care code in case anyone wishes to support microfinance for people in Rwanda, the Philippines, Ecuador etc.

lendwithcare.org/referral/M8T...

'A Family of Charaibes...' Agostino Brunais (c.1730-2 April 1796) painted a number of illustrations of life in the colonial island of St Vincent. Two of these are currently under an export order by the Uk Government. One is an imaged scene of 'Sir William Young conducting a Treaty with the Black Caribs on the Island of St Vincent'. It is highly likely that one of the then-called Black Caribs, now Garinagu' present was Chatoyer. He is a highly significant man and you can read more about him in this free-to-access article.T

Added my weekly blog post this time based around one of the Brunais paintings that the Uk government has an export hold on; read about it here
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As usual, please share and if you can, please donate
Huge thanks

Cocoa bean Cocoa (Theobroma Cacoa L.) has long been growing in the St Vincent Botanical Garden. In his co-called Hortus (c.1806) Alexander Anderson states that he brought ‘Seeds of it … from Trinidad in 1786’. I...

Decided to post the Guidebook blog early this week as it's Easter, and on the cocoa plant. Enjoy the post and of course, share and if you can please donate

If anyone wants the Zoom link please email me for it

Wednesday 23rd April, I am giving an online talk with Dr Jovita Yesilyurt from the Natural History Museum.
The info is below

10.00-11.30 EDT which is 15.00-16.30 UK time

Feel free to join

www.chstm.org/group/hidden...

Guest Post from Jasmine Shadrack 'on transcribing' Dr Jasmine Hazel ShadrackDr Alexander Anderson’s Plant Catalogue really is a thing of beauty. Not only does it do an excellent job of documenting all the plants, seeds, trees and shrubs that came to h...

Next blog post for the Guidebook project and a guest one from Dr J Shadrack about her transcription work
As usual please share widely and please, if you can donate
Huge thanks

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Glue and Ink This post relates to the dried and pressed specimens of plants that were sent to London by Anderson and are housed in the Herbarium of the Natural History Museum (NHM). Prior to the original 'Unearthi...

Guidebook project blog today on glue and ink and some experimental archaeology I am doing with David Ashby and the Natural History Museum - enjoy. Please share and if you can donate. Thanks
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Soufriere Tree Enough money has been raised to start the Botanical Illustrations for the Guidebook, so a huge thanks to those who have donated.This tree is the National Flower for St Vincent and the Grenadines so it...

Just added another blog for the St Vincent Botanical Garden project; it's on the Soufriere Tree. The first batch of money has gone to the botanical illustrator so a huge thanks for donations so far.
Please, please spread the word and donate if you can
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Thank you

Cough cures I currently have a very nasty cold hence being late with this blog. So this blog is about some of the medicinal cures for coughs that Anderson recorded.Glycyrrhuiza glabia is one medicinal plant that ...

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A slightly late post for the Guidebook project. Please share and if you can, please donate

Garifuna, Balliceaux & the Botanical Garden This week the St Vincent Grenadines Government acquired the island of Balliceaux. The site is hugely important to the Garifuna of St Vincent, and for Garinagu globally; Garinagu is the preferred term ...

My Sunday blog for the guidebook fundraiser is live. Please read, share and if you able to, please donate. And a huge thanks to those who have already. I am really grateful

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On #internationalwomensday remembering Maria; an enslaved African woman who was essential in assisting a colonial woman with limited hearing.
Maria was one of countless enslaved African women whose labour, knowledge, and skills were central to colonialism.

www.winchester.ac.uk/research/Our...

It’s so frustrating isn’t it. Ongoing emails almost as soon as it opens. First world problems though I guess

Just added a new blog to the St Vincent Botanical Garden guidebook project: please read, share and if you can donate.
Thanks

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Fab. Just ordered