RHS launches digital library of over 10,000 items, including rare treasures from their collections

The new collections are available for all, from children doing their homework to academic researchers and garden lovers who want to browse some of the outstanding botanical art made available on the platform.   
 
The RHS digital library project was made possible with funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, with thanks to National Lottery players¹.  
 
Many of the items available through the Digital Collections are rare, fragile or valuable so would not otherwise be accessible to the public. Currently there are 9,542 library items including books, photographs and artworks, and 458 herbarium specimens such as pressed flowers on the platform. The RHS Lindley Library and Herbarium teams will continue to upload items onto the platform, ensuring the site constantly gets bigger and richer as more content is uploaded. There will be a particular focus on uploading materials that are unique to the RHS collections and resources that are important to researchers, in addition to items that support exhibitions in the Old Lab at RHS Garden Wisley.  
 
Some of the treasures available in the RHS Digital Collections are:  

• An account book from Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown, listing his famous aristocratic and royal clients 
• An 1876 Benary seed catalogue containing exquisite prints of rare vegetable varieties  
• Humphry Repton’s Red Book for Waresley Park, a Georgian ‘lift the flap’ book of before and after garden designs 
• Thousands of beautiful botanical artworks including orchid portraits  

Fiona Davison, RHS Head of Libraries and Exhibitions, said: “We are delighted to be opening up a whole world of botanical and horticultural treasures to everyone with our new platform, especially as many of these items will not have been seen by the public before. The items in our Digital Collections chart the history of gardens and cultivated plants in the UK, highlighting the important role they play in our lives and the benefits they bring to welling, nature and our planet.” 
 
Stuart McLeod, Director England - London & South at The National Lottery Heritage Fund, added: “We are thrilled to have supported this fantastic project to make the fascinating RHS Lindley Library collections and specimens of the RHS Herbarium available through their Digital Collections platform. Thanks to National Lottery players, this platform will provide people from all walks of life with access to this wonderful horticultural heritage and allow them to embrace it in a new way.”
 
Anyone wishing to reproduce items in the collection for commercial purposes will need to contact the RHS for high resolution versions and a licence to use.  
 
For more information and to access the RHS Digital Collections please visit, collections.rhs.org.uk/ 
 
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