The mobile museum: economic botany in circulation

英国皇家植物园的经济植物学博物馆始建于1847年，最初是一个公共储藏库，用于存放各种有用和奇特的蔬菜产品，无论是园中活植物还是标本馆的标本都不能展示这些产品。由于Kew的全球科学、帝国和商业网络，藏品的增长速度如此之快，以至于在1857年、1863年和1910年增加了额外的博物馆建筑，整个建筑群在19世纪和20世纪的植物知识的生产和传播中发挥了重要作用。今天，Kew的经济植物学收藏包括90,000多件物品，不是存放在博物馆，而是专门建造的研究商店。正是这些藏品的多样性，特别是植物学标本、植物衍生品、土著文物和工业制品的并列，使其真正独一无二：例如，来自埃塞俄比亚的黑甘蓝种子与各种物品一起被发现，如亚马逊地区的Ingariko人制作的木薯筛子，以及伦敦金融城生产的手杖。超越纯粹的植物学或纯粹的文化，这是最好的描述为‘生物文化’收藏，它越来越受到从民族植物学到设计史的广泛学科的兴趣，以及世界各地的不同社区和博物馆馆长。为什么以及如何进入和离开这个收藏品，为什么这很重要？该项目旨在研究1847年至1987年期间进出Kew博物馆的文物流通情况。对于这些博物馆的创建者来说，仅仅积累文物本身并不是目的：他们的藏品被设计成在科学上、教学上和商业上都是有用的。如果博物馆为创造新的知识做出贡献，无论是在自然历史、人类学还是设计教育方面，这不仅仅是通过获取标本或文物，而是通过将其作为实物或其他形式进行流通。根据博物馆藏品的流动性对博物馆进行概念化，需要重新思考它们在历史上的运作方式，以及今天可以对它们的藏品做些什么。在这种情况下，Kew的经济植物学收藏对研究人员的价值因异常广泛的物品在收藏中的移动而大大增强。有两个档案系列脱颖而出：博物馆的入馆登记簿(或“入场书”)记录了从1847年到现在的收藏品，而它的退馆登记簿(或“出库书”)记录了从1881年到现在的出馆文物。加上其他档案资源，特别是Kew董事的通信，这两个系列为研究19世纪和20世纪具有经济和民族植物学价值的植物材料的国家和跨国流通提供了基本数据。该项目将使用这一独特的档案记录，绘制国际和国家尺度上生物文化物品进出Kew的循环地图。在国际范围内，这项研究将确定主要的交流网络，特别是与澳大利亚、美国和欧洲博物馆的联系。在全国范围内，这项研究将考虑Kew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，审查它在向学校提供标本和文物方面的作用。一系列有重点的物体研究将通过国家和国际交换网络追踪物体的轨迹。最后，该项目将提供对经改进的经济植物学收藏数据库的在线访问，其中包括第一次传出的物体。这将对世界各地的研究人员、博物馆从业人员、资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.