This page contains links to permanent collections of botanical art in the UK.
( Separate pages contains links to permanent collections in Europe and the USA. )
( Separate pages contains links to permanent collections in Europe and the USA. )
The largest collections of botanical art are associated with the Botanical Gardens. However some of the most important collections are included in the Library and Print collections associated with top level museums and archives.
National Libraries of Botanical Art in the UK
British Library
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The British Library includes prints and drawings, herbals and books of botanical art have progressed over time between different collections. Items in the British Museum generally end up here or at the Natural History Museum. Periodically, works are displayed. Plus the British Library is developing a resource of digitised illustrations and books.
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The British Library (next to St. Pancras Station)
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RHS Lindley Library
The Lindley Library’s art collection numbers approximately 30,000 drawings, dating back almost 400 years. Principally consisting of botanical art, it also contains portraits of eminent horticultural figures, and to a lesser extent, paintings of gardens and ‘garden art’. The Society began commissioning paintings of flowering plants and fruit in the early nineteenth century, to support its work on plant recording and identification. Notable artists include Georg Dionysius Ehret, Augusta Withers, William Hooker, Claude Aubriet and Lilian Snelling. New works are acquired on a regular basis and represent the best in contemporary botanical illustration, by artists from all over the world. Open to the public by appointment, researchers and artists are able to consult the collection and gain inspiration.
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The RHS Lindley Library is the world's finest horticultural library. It includes
from the collection are periodically seen at
The RHS Lindley Library London has recently has a refurbishment and redesign to create a larger, open plan library and exhibition gallery on the ground floor. The Research Library is in the basement with access by appointment. You can Download the RHS Guide for Researchers (1MB pdf) |
The RHS Headquarters at 80 Vincent Square in London houses the main Lindley Library and associated collection
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Visit the Libraries - The collections are free and accessible to all.
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You can search the collection via If you go to the ‘Advanced search’ link and change the Format to Drawings, you can then call up all the entries, or limit by artist’s name.
The RHS is slowly migrating records to a new system that links thumbnails to the records. More recent acquisitions are on the new CALM system, rather than the library book catalogue, so don't come up on the library catalogue system. |
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Treasures of the Royal Horticultural Society
by Brent Elliott Dr Brent Elliott was Librarian of the Royal Horticultural Society (1982 to 2007) and subsequently became its historian. This book is about the history of the 18,000 drawings and paintings in the RHS Lindley Library Collection. It also contains 70 plates of images of plants dating from 1630s to the late 20th century. |
 
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Hardback & Paperback: 160 pages
Publisher: Herbert Press Ltd Publication date: 1 June 1994 BUY THIS BOOK Treasures of the Royal Horticultural Society (Art Reference)
from Amazon UKTreasures of the Royal Horticultural Society
 from Amazon.com |
National Museums with Botanical Art Collections
Natural History MuseumThe Natural History Museum now has nearly all the botanical illustrations which were originally in the British Museum.
The Images of Nature Gallery (on the ground floor) has a temporary themed exhibition each year which brings out artwork which is usually unseen. There are botanical art collections kept at the Natural History Museum which can be accessed by those applying for permission. This are the link to the |
Natural History Museum - part of the Cromwell Road Facade
Address:
Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD |
The video below shows the stacks for the Natural History Library Collection of botanical art and how it can be displayed to the visitor with an appointment.
Victoria and Albert Museum
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Address: Victoria and Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 2RL
Read this article to find out about the Electronic Resources in the National Art Library at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A)
Work is currently in progress to produce a web-based image database that will permit many more images to be accessed through library catalogue records. When this work is complete, over 7,000 images from the library’s early book collection will be available to view, each image accompanied by descriptive data. |
Victoria and Albert Museum - Cromwell Road entrance
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Fitzwilliam Museum
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Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge
The Museum has an excellent collection of botanical art covering its development over 300 years. These include
Address: Fitzwilliam Museum, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1RB The Museum has an outstanding collection of botanical art. It benefited from an outstanding bequest by Henry Rogers Broughton, 2nd Lord Fairhaven (1900-1973) who presented over 100 paintings, many floral miniatures, over 900 drawings and watercolours as well as 38 albums to the Museum during his lifetime and upon his death. Plus it also posses a a significant number of watercolours by the first German 17th-century female entomologist Maria Sibylla Merian and the talented Flemish painter of insects, Jan van Kessel
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Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Camrbridge - entrance on Trumpington Street
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Flower Drawings (Fitzwilliam Museum Handbooks)
by David Scrase (Author) If you want to view drawings of flowers from the collection at the Fitzwilliam Museum but are unable to visit, this Handbook is the next best thing. It takes a chronological perspective of the developments in drawing flowers from the 15th century to the present day via the more scientific approach of the later seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. I found it introduced me to a number of lesser known botanical artists over the centuries. I bought my copy from the Cambridge University Press Bookshop opposite the Senate House in Cambridge. David Scrase is Assistant Director, Collections, and Keeper of Paintings, Drawings and Prints at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. |
 
Publisher: Cambridge University Press,
Published: 19 Jun 1997 142 pages BUY THIS BOOK |
Museum of Wales | Rhagor
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Amgueddfa Cymru (National Museum of Wales)
Address: National Museum Cardiff, Cathays Park, Cardiff, CF10 3NP Holds a unique collection of more than 9,000 botanical illustrations spanning five centuries. |
UK Botanical Gardens - Collections & Archives
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
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Kew's Botanical Illustrations Collection has more than 200,000 prints and drawing.
This is one of the world's greatest collections of botanical art. It comprises over 200,000 drawings, paintings and fine art prints - typically engravings. These include works by masters of botanical art such as G D Ehret and the Bauer Brothers, together with nineteenth century artists such as Walter Hood Fitch.
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REFERENCE:
Articles:
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Treasures of Botanical Art: Icons from the Shirley Sherwood and Kew Collections
by Shirley Sherwood and Martyn Rix Treasures of Botanical Art by Shirley Sherwood and Martyn Rix was published by Kew Publishing to mark the inaugural exhibition of the brand new The Shirley Sherwood Gallery in Kew Gardens in 2008. Read my review of this book Making a Mark: Treasures of Botanical Art - a recommended read |
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- from Amazon.com
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The Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art (Kew Gardens)
Read my account of the new Gallery in Kew opens the world's first dedicated botanical art gallery.
The climate-controlled environment with managed light levels helps to make Kew's collections of botanical art treasures much more accessible. This means the botanical art is no longer kept in study collections behind the scenes and is instead viewed by many fans of botanical art from all over the world. Over time, most of the works are now being publicly displayed in a series of themed exhibitions. |
Dr. Shirley Sherwood at the "Rory McEwen: The Colours of Reality" Exhibition in the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art at Kew Gardens
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The Marianne North Gallery (Kew Gardens)
Kew Gardens - two women and two galleries for botanical art is an account of the two biotanical art galleries at Kew Garden and how they came about through the efforts of two women living decades apart - working in collaboration with the Royal Botanical Gardens. Both offered to build the galleries. |
Interior of the Marianne North Gallery - prior to the renovation
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Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh Library & Archives
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The RBGE's Illustrations Collection in the Library and Archives includes artwork which demonstrate the development of botanical art from the late 17th century through to the present day.
Examples of collections includes:
Address: Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh library, Inverleith Row Edinburgh EH3 5LR |
Edinburgh Botanical gardens by Tom Richardson [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
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Private Collections: The Shirley Sherwood Collection
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This is the largest contemporary and private collection of botanical art in the world. Dr Sherwood has been collecting botanical art since 1990.
The collection is now mainly based at Kew but also travels regularly to exhibitions all over the world - including major exhibitions in the USA - as Dr Sherwood is keen to let people see some of the best artwork from the past and present. She has also written about artwork in her collection in a number of books. You can see:
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Dr. Shirley Sherwood at the Private View for the 2016 exhibition "Brazil: a powerhouse of plants: Margaret Mee, pioneering artist and her legacy" at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery at Kew
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Digital Libraries
Plant Illustrations (website)
- botanical illustrations | artists
A very comprehensive listing of botanical artists. Click the name to see their work. The number of works is listed next to the name