Kew at Work Gallery

The Kew Gardens Question

The Kew Gardens Question. This political cartoon was published in 1878 as part of the ongoing debate as to whether the public should be allowed into the gardens in the mornings, before 1pm. Officially, only botanist and botanical artists were allowed morning access, with the Director's permission. The Kew Gardens Public Rights Defence Association was set up and successfully campaigned against this. The author of the article accompanying this cartoon smuggled himself into a morning session at the Gardens and claimed that those eminent botanists inside were mostly fast asleep in garden chairs and other gentlemen were "engaged in testing the effects of cigar smoke on open-air evergreens."

© RBG KEW

Henry Ridley

When Henry Ridley took over directorship of the Singapore Botanic Gardens, (1888-1911)there were many overgrown jungle areas and he was tasked with making a preliminary forest survey. Ridley is holding a machete for cutting his way through the undergrowth, while his assistant is carrying a vasculum for any interesting specimens they might come upon.Ridley on foot from the Henry Ridley Papers, RBG Kew Archives HNR/1/2/9/66

© The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Cultivation of Cinchona succirubra trees on the Madulsima Cinchona Cos estate, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) 1882

Cultivation of Cinchona succirubra trees on the Madulsima Cinchona Cos estate, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) 1882. The plants pictured are 8 -10 years old. The outer bark has been shaved and the trunks covered with grass to encourage the regrowth of the bark, from which quinine alkaloids were extracted for use as a malaria medicine

© RBG KEW