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Event Date: 6 December 2011
Flett Lecture Theatre
Natural History Museum
London SW7 5BD

 

Wallich and Indian Natural History:
Collection Dispersal and the Cultivation of Knowledge

 

This international, interdisciplinary conference will be held on the 6th and 7th December, 2011 at the Natural History Museum, London and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew on the general theme of South Asian natural history collections, with a special emphasis on those of the Danish botanist Nathaniel Wallich (1786–1854). Wallich is a major figure in the history and development of botany in the nineteenth century. As Superintendent of the Calcutta Botanic Garden between 1817 and 1846, he undertook botanical expeditions, described new plant species, collected thousands of plant specimens amassing a large herbarium, and commissioned local artists to draw beautiful botanical watercolours. His work has therefore been extremely influential in South Asian natural history research.

Major South Asian natural history collections from the 18th and 19th century are now dispersed across institutions in South Asia, Europe and beyond. This conference will explore the challenges associated with studying and exploiting such collections and the interesting opportunities they provide for interdisciplinary research. It forms an integral part of the World Collections Programme-funded project “Wallich and Indian Natural History”, the first inter-institutional endeavour of its kind between the Natural History Museum, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and the British Library. In particular, this project is creating an exciting new website (coming soon) which supports a virtual collection of the plant drawings, specimens and correspondence of Nathaniel Wallich.

In celebration of this project, a group of distinguished international speakers has been brought together to present papers covering a wide range of different disciplines. They will speak on the first day of the conference at the Natural History Museum. Day two, held at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, will provide a unique opportunity to see a wide range of Wallich and related materials (including original drawings and herbarium collections) behind the scenes at Kew. We welcome everyone interested in natural history, art history, botany, South Asian studies, social history, history of the British Empire, museum studies and digital humanities to join us for what we anticipate will be a very stimulating conference.

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Programme

Welcome by Professor Philip Rainbow (Keeper of Zoology, NHM) .

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Opening Remarks (Julie Harvey, CAHR Centre)

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Panel 1 - Nathaniel Wallich: His Expeditions and Collections

(Chair: Dr B. Venugopal, Director, National Museum of Natural History, New Delhi)

David Arnold (Department of History, University of Warwick)
Nathaniel Wallich and the Natural History of India
[AUDIO HERE]

Bodhisattva Kar (Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta, and the International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam)
Frontier, Collected: Nathaniel Wallich in the North-Eastern Frontier of British India
[AUDIO HERE]

Sangeeta Rajbhandary (Central Department of Botany, Tribhuvan University), and
Krishna K. Shrestha (Central Department of Botany, Tribhuvan University), Mark F. Watson (Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh)
Wallich and the First Explorations of the Nepalese Flora
[AUDIO HERE]

Panel 1 Discussion

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Panel 2 – Dispersal and Movement within the British Empire

(Chair: Professor Felix Driver, Professor of Human Geography, Royal Holloway College, University of London)

Sandip Hazareesingh (Department of History, The Open University)
Plants, Power and Productivity: The East India Company and Cotton Imperialism in Early Nineteenth-Century Western India
[AUDIO HERE]

Caroline Cornish (Department of Geography, Royal Holloway College, University of London)
Circulating India: Kew, Colonial Forestry and Circuits of Display
[AUDIO HERE]

Kapil Raj (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris)
Title TBC
[AUDIO HERE]

Panel 2 Discussion

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Panel 3. The Wallich Project
(Chair: Dr Vinita Damodaran, Senior Lecturer in South Asian History, University of Sussex)

Henry Noltie (Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh)
Scottish Surgeons and Indian Botany: Dispersed Collections of Drawings and Specimens, a Case Study from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
[AUDIO HERE]

Antonia Moon (British Library) and Charlie Jarvis (Natural History Museum)
Wallich’s Papers at the British Library and Beyond
[AUDIO HERE]

Timothy Utteridge (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew), Clare Drinkell (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew) and Ranee Prakash (Natural History Museum) The Wallich Plant Illustrations in London: Identification and Dissemination
[AUDIO HERE]
Panel 3 Discussion

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Closing Remarks (Julie Harvey, CAHR Centre) .

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__________ __________

Event Date: 6 December 2011
Flett Lecture Theatre
Natural History Museum
London SW7 5BD

 

Wallich and Indian Natural History:
Collection Dispersal and the Cultivation of Knowledge

 

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• Timothy Utteridge (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew)
• Clare Drinkell (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew)
• Ranee Prakash (Natural History Museum)

The Wallich Plant Illustrations in London: Identification and Dissemination

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Abstract:

The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the Natural History Museum, London have extensive holdings of historic plant specimens and associated collections such as illustrations. Recently, both institutes identified several hundred Wallich unpublished illustrations in their collections that had never been properly named. This talk will discuss the project, particularly from a botanical science view and discuss the naming and origins of the illustrations (mostly from Wallich’s trip in Nepal and others from the Calcutta gardens), and show some images of herbarium material that match the illustrations that have been scanned, databased and now be made online. In addition the use of the illustrations in publications will be briefly discussed.

Biography:

Dr. Timothy Utteridge. SE Asia Regional Team, Herbarium, Library, Art and Archives, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Tim is the Acting Head of the South-East Asia team at Kew with interests in several families in the region, especially the Icacinaceae and tropical Primulaceae. Tim was Kew’s Wallich illustration project key staff member who identified the illustrations and attempted to match them to extant herbarium material. Tim has recently taken over the role of the curator of the East India Company Herbarium at Kew (often referred to as the Wallich collection).

Clare Drinkell. SE Asia Regional Team, Herbarium, Library, Art and Archives, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Clare is an assistant botanist at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew with an interest in the tropical Primulaceae and Ebenaceae of South-East Asia. Clare was Kew’s Wallich illustration project key staff member who databased and digitized those specimens associated with the illustrations.

Ranee Prakash. Curator-Flowering Plants, Department of Botany, The Natural History Museum.

Ranee is a curator at the Natural History Museum with a strong interest in the plants of the Indian subcontinent. Before moving to the Natural History Museum, Ranee was a member of the team at Kew that initiated and conducted a major digitization programme of the world’s most important herbarium specimens – the type specimens. Ranee was the Natural History Museum’s Wallich illustration project key staff member who identified and digitized those specimens associated with the illustrations.
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