Sub-sub-fonds
British Museum (Natural History): Department of Botany: Keeper's Correspondence and...
Catalogue reference: DF 404
What’s it about?
This record is about the British Museum (Natural History): Department of Botany: Keeper's Correspondence and... dating from 1852-1930.
Is it available online?
Maybe, but not on The National Archives website. This record is held at The Natural History Museum Archives, London. How to view it.
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Full description and record details
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Reference (The unique identifier to the record described, used to order and refer to it)
- DF 404
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Title (The name of the record)
- British Museum (Natural History): Department of Botany: Keeper's Correspondence and Papers
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Date (When the record was created)
- 1852-1930
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Description (What the record is about)
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This series consists of the correspondence, research and administrative papers of William Carruthers, George Robert Milne Murray and Alfred Barton Rendle, successive keepers of botany.
Series held at The Natural History Museum are catalogued more fully in its online catalogue (reference DF BOT/404). Online descriptions of some individual records can also be viewed on Discovery, see DF 404.
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Related material (A cross-reference to other related records)
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Further Carruthers, Murray and Rendle correspondence and papers are in DF 400
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Held by (Who holds the record)
- The Natural History Museum Archives, London
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Legal status (A note as to whether the record being described is a Public Record or not)
- Public Record(s)
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Language (The language of the record)
- English
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Physical description (The amount and form of the record)
- 82 file(s)
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Access conditions (Information on conditions that restrict or affect access to the record)
- Subject to 30 year closure unless otherwise stated
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Immediate source of acquisition (When and where the record was acquired from)
- Most of the series was transferred to the archives from the Botany Library in 1989 and 1990. DF 404/52-57 were transferred from the Cryptogamic Herbarium in 1990, and DF 404/58-64 from the Keeper's Office in the same year.
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Subjects (Categories and themes found in our collection (our subject list is under development, and some records may have no subjects or fewer than expected))
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- Topics
- Museums and galleries
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Administrative / biographical background (Historical or biographical information about the creator of the record and the context of its creation)
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William Carruthers (1830-1922) grew up and studied in Scotland before starting at the British Museum in 1859. He specialised in cryptogamic and palaeobotany, and in the application of botany to agriculture. He was Keeper from 1871 to 1895, and served as President of the Linnean Society from 1886 to 1890. In 1875 he, as an executor of the will of Frederick Welwitsch, defended a lawsuit brought by the King of Portugal for the return of Welwitsch' collection. Carruthers was responsible for the Museum's General Library from 1880 until 1883.
George Robert Milne Murray (1858-1911) was Keeper from 1895 to 1905. He came to the Museum in 1876 and worked in marine plankton. He took part in a solar eclipse expedition to the West Indies in 1886, and was involved in planning the National Antarctic Expedition of 1901-1904. Murray suffered from mental problems and retired early in 1905.
Alfred Barton Rendle (1865-1938) came to the Museum from Cambridge in 1888 and worked on flowering plants. He was Keeper from 1906 to 1930, and served as President of the Linnean Society from 1923 to 1927.
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Publication note(s) (A note of publications related to the record)
- George R M Murray (1858-1911), J Britten, Journal of Botany, 50: 73-75 (1912). William Carruthers (1830-1922), J Britten, Journal of Botany, 60: 249-256 (1922). Alfred Barton Rendle, 1865-1938, D Prain, Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society, 7: 511-517 (1939). Friedrich Welwitsch (1807-1872), a centennial memoir, T D V Swinicow, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 4: 269-289 (1972).
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Record URL
- https://beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/id/C15501/
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You are currently looking at the sub-sub-fonds: DF 404
British Museum (Natural History): Department of Botany: Keeper's Correspondence and Papers