Kew's imperisl srchiie: Cstsloguing Economic Botsny in the Miscellaneous Reports, 1841-1928

Kew's imperial archive: Cataloguing Economic Botany in the Miscellaneous Reports, 1841-1928

In terms of scope, this project would investigate the significance of the Miscellaneous Reports in uncovering the attitudes which marked the relationship between humans and plants in the period 1841-1928. My approach would be centred on exploring how this collection can inform understandings of colonial plant usage, and how such colonial projects relate to contemporary issues of environmental justice.

Through a close reading of the volumes from a literary ecocritical perspective, they can be unpacked both in terms of their colonial, historic significance and their ongoing value as examples of how and why our current relationship with plants was established. I would analyse the language used to describe geographical locations and plants in terms of economic value.

Beyond issues of language, structural questions such as what the order of information within correspondence suggests about the perceived importance of certain passages would offer an additional line of enquiry. In terms of form, considering the differences between the various items within the collection will enable comparisons to be drawn between perceptions of economic botany in media reports perhaps aimed at the wider public, and travel writing and botanical magazines aimed at readers actively interested in these respective areas.

The broad subject area of this project would be the environmental humanities, as an interdisciplinary study of the Miscellaneous Reports as a collection of colonial archival texts would encompass ecocritical literary studies, environmental studies and colonial history. In terms of developing upon existing work, the unique combination of forms of the materials in the Miscellaneous Reports will offer new perspectives on current concerns such as archive decolonisation, environmental justice, and climate change, building on Rob Nixon's work on slow violence, Bonnie Roos and Alex Hunt's Postcolonial Green and more widely the work of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The insights into the colonial and industrial origins of human uses of plants which continue to influence our approach will be essential in a time of biodiversity crises. Studies of intergenerational justice and traditional ecological knowledge would be useful here in terms of knowledge appropriation, as outlined in the work of Ted Jojola.

A central aim of the research would be to evaluate the Miscellaneous Reports' indications about the roles Kew Gardens played in colonial global knowledge transfer through insights into how this was organised during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. This would encourage reflections on how the findings inform contemporary activities within the institution and how Kew can continue to lead the way in botanical research by addressing its colonial influence and supporting other institutions in doing the same.