Visit this new exhibition in Dundee’s Botanic Garden unearthing the hidden story of the St Vincent Botanical Garden 1785-1811. Dr Christina Welch, Reader in Theology, Religion and Philosophy at the University of Winchester, has been researching the incredible story of the Garden and one of its early superintendents, Alexander Anderson (1748-1811), a Scottish surgeon and botanist.

Established in 1765, St Vincent Botanical Garden was among the earliest tropical gardens in the world. Anderson recorded plants new to western science, introduced many plants into SVBG, documented the uses of various plants and exchanged observations, information and plants with many significant gardens and botanists of the time.

Anderson’s archive is held mainly in the UK and Welch’s project to digitise it will allow global online access to these important historic resources for the first time. It will also be analysed to detect and document the contributions made by the indigenous (Carib/Garifuna) and enslaved African peoples whose knowledge and physical labour fed into successful development of SVBG, and western scientific knowledge more generally.

For more information on this fascinating project visit the website.

Dr Christina Welch with Mr Andrew Lockhart (Director of National Parks, National Park, Rivers and Beaches Authority), Rasta (St Vincent and Grenadines Leeward Ranger), and Corlan Peters, St Vincent Botanical Garden administrative officer, looking at the c. 1800 map of the St Vincent Botanical Garden, courtesy of the Linnean Society, London, during a visit in Sept. 2022

The exhibition which tells some of these hidden histories is in the Green Gallery at Dundee’s Botanic Garden from 2-14th April and Dr Welch will give a public talk at 2pm on 2nd April to open the exhibition.

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