The RHS Chelsea Flower Show History Project

Uncovering hidden history

The RHS is embarking on a major project to fill gaps in the history of RHS Chelsea Flower Show, and how it grew from its early 20th century origins into the most prestigious horticultural event in the world today. RHS staff and volunteers will work together to catalogue and digitise thousands of historic photographs and archive materials relating to RHS Chelsea held by the RHS Lindley Library. The result will be a publicly accessible and searchable resource.

Remote volunteering opportunities

The RHS will recruit online volunteers in late 2024 to work flexibly and remotely to tag thousands of RHS Chelsea photographs that have never been seen by the public, assigning them keywords to make them searchable.  

A small group of volunteers will also transcribe the content of past show catalogues, dating back to the first very RHS Spring Flower Show at the Chelsea showground in 1913. This will unlock a wealth of information about the exhibitors and the Show itself. 

These opportunities will be advertised on the RHS Libraries Newsletter, and RHS social media channels (links are in the footer of this page) in autumn 2024.