The mobile museum: economic botany in circulation

位于基尤的皇家植物园的经济植物学博物馆最初成立于1847年，作为“各种有用和好奇的蔬菜产品的公共储存库，无论是花园里的活植物还是植物标本馆里的标本都无法复制”。反映了基尤的全球科学，帝国和商业网络，藏品增长速度如此之快，以至于在1857年，1863年和1910年增加了更多的博物馆建筑，整个建筑群在十九世纪和二十世纪的植物学知识的生产和传播中发挥了重要作用。今天，基尤的经济植物学收藏品包括超过90，000件物品，这些物品不是放在博物馆里，而是放在一个专门建造的研究商店里。这是这个集合的多样性，特别是它的并列植物标本，植物衍生物，土著文物和工业生产的对象，这使得它真正独特的：例如，埃塞俄比亚的黑芥种子被发现的对象一样多样的木薯筛由Ingariko人的亚马逊河流域，和手杖生产的伦敦。超越纯粹的植物或纯粹的文化，这是最好的描述为“生物文化”的集合，它是越来越多的兴趣，从民族植物学到设计历史，以及不同的社区和博物馆馆长在世界各地的广泛学科。对象为什么以及如何进入和离开这个集合，为什么这很重要？本项目旨在研究1847年至1987年期间物品进出基尤博物馆的流通情况。对于这些博物馆的创始人来说，仅仅积累物品本身并不是目的：他们的收藏品被设计成有用的，科学的，教育学的和商业的。如果博物馆要为创造新知识做出贡献，无论是在自然史、人类学还是设计教育方面，这将不仅仅通过获取标本或人工制品来实现，而是通过它们作为实物或其他形式的流通来实现。从博物馆藏品的流动性角度对博物馆进行概念化，需要重新思考博物馆在历史上的运作方式，以及今天的藏品可以做些什么。在这种情况下，基尤的经济植物学藏品对研究人员的价值因藏品中物体运动的异常广泛的记录而大大提高。两个档案系列脱颖而出：博物馆的入馆登记册（或“入馆登记册”）记录了从1847年到现在的藏品，而它的出馆登记册（或“出馆登记册”）记录了从1881年到现在的藏品。在其他档案资源的补充下，特别是基尤园园长的信件，这两个系列为研究十九世纪和二十世纪具有经济和民族植物学价值的植物材料的国内和跨国流通提供了基本数据，本项目将利用这一独特的档案记录绘制国际和国内尺度上生物文化物品进出基尤园的流通图。在国际范围内，研究将确定主要的交流网络，特别侧重于与澳大利亚、美国和欧洲博物馆的联系。在全国范围内，这项研究将考虑基尤在更广泛的自然历史和民族志博物馆网络中的地位，并将在当代自然研究的更广泛背景下研究它在向学校提供标本和人工制品方面的作用。将通过国家和国际交流网络进行一系列有重点的物体研究，追踪物体的轨迹。最后，该项目将提供在线访问经增强的经济植物学收藏数据库的机会，包括首次提供传出的实物。这将对全世界的研究人员、博物馆从业人员、来源社区和教育工作者具有持久的价值。

The Museum of Economic Botany at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, was originally established in 1847 as a public repository for 'all kinds of useful and curious Vegetable Products, which neither the living plants of the Garden nor the specimens in the Herbarium could exhibit'. Reflecting Kew's global networks of science, empire and commerce, the collection grew at such a rate that additional museum buildings were added in 1857, 1863, and 1910, the whole complex playing an important role in the production and dissemination of botanical knowledge during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Today Kew's Economic Botany Collection consists of over 90,000 objects, housed not in a museum but in a purpose-built research store. It is the diversity of this collection, especially its juxtaposition of botanical specimens, plant derivatives, indigenous artefacts and industrially-produced objects, which makes it truly unique: for example, seeds of the Brassica nigra from Ethiopia are found alongside objects as diverse as a cassava sieve made by the Ingariko people of Amazonia, and walking-sticks produced in the City of London. Transcending the purely botanical or the purely cultural, this is best described as a 'biocultural' collection, and it is of growing interest to a wide range of disciplines from ethnobotany to design history, as well as to diverse communities and museum curators around the world. Why and how did objects enter and leave this collection, and why does this matter? This project seeks to examine the circulation of objects into and out of the Kew museums over the period between 1847 and 1987. For the founders of such museums, the mere accumulation of objects was not an end in itself: their collections were designed to be useful, scientifically, pedadogically and commercially. If museums were to contribute to the making of new knowledge, whether in natural history, anthropology or design education, this would be accomplished not simply through the acquisition of specimens or artefacts, but through their circulation either as physical objects or in other forms. Conceptualising museums in terms of the mobility of their collections requires re-thinking the way they have functioned historically and what can be done with their collections today.In this context, the value of Kew's Economic Botany Collection to researchers is substantially enhanced by the unusually extensive documentation of the movement of objects through the collection. Two archival series stand out: the Museum's accession registers (or 'Entry Books') recording acquisitions from 1847 to the present, and its de-accession registers (or 'Exit Books') recording outgoing objects from 1881 to the present. Augmented by other archival resources, notably Kew Directors' correspondence, these two series provide fundamental data for the study of national and transnational circulation of plant materials of economic and ethnobotanical interest in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.This project will use this unique archival record to map the circulation of biocultural objects into and out of Kew, at international and national scales. At the international scale, the research will identify the principal networks of exchange, focusing especially on links with museums in Australia, the United States and Europe. At the national scale, the research will consider Kew's place in a wider network of natural history and ethnographic museums, and will examine its role in providing specimens and artefacts to schools in the wider context of contemporary nature study. A series of focused object studies will trace the trajectories of objects through both national and international networks of exchange. Finally, the project will provide online access to an enhanced database of the Economic Botany Collection, including outgoing objects for the first time. This will be of lasting value to researchers, museum practitioners, source communities and educators worldwide.