Discoveries and Destinies: Botanical Illustrations research project
Staff: Heather Pardoe & Maureen Lazarus
Plant collectors travelled to remote parts of the world. Finding new plants meant exploring new lands - often without accurate maps, through country without roads, and with few settlements.
The Museum holds an excellent collection of botanical illustrations. Arising from this, we are researching a popular publication focusing on the early plant collectors and botanical artists within the botanical illustration collection.
The text will describe how, during the 'days of discovery' botanists journeyed to remote and dangerous locations searching for rare and potentially economically important plants. The plants were then recorded by artists for scientific research but also, with the highest artistic and technical skill, allowed others to wonder at the new species of plants such as rhododendrons and Banksias.
The book will include magnificent botanical illustrations from the collections.