Unearthing the contribution of indigenous & enslaved African knowledge systems to the St Vincent Botanical Garden under Dr Anderson (1785-1811)
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Winchester
Department Name: Theology and Religious Studies
Abstract
St. Vincent's Botanical Garden (SVBG) was established in 1765. It was among the earliest tropical gardens in the world, and the first in the British colonial Caribbean. Dr Alexander Anderson (1748-1811), a Scottish surgeon and botanist, served as SVGB's superintendent during its early development (from 1785 to 1811). Anderson was a man of his time; educated, inquisitive, and keen to make a name for himself. Travelling widely in the Caribbean, he 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 letters, plant specimens, plant catalogues, and Caribbean natural histories, are held in London by the Linnean Society, Natural History Museum, Kew Botanical Gardens and the National Archives. These have been mostly unavailable to SVGB or Caribbean scholars as access currently requires an in-person visit.
This project will digitise the Anderson archives held by the Linnean Society and the Natural History Museum, including his important Hortus St Vincentii which details the plants growing in SVBG in 1800, and includes a number of botanical illustrations. Several of these are by John Tyley, a young African-Caribbean man; at this time, it was very unusual for botanical illustrations to be signed, especially by an African-Caribbean. Digitisation of Anderson's Caribbean natural histories, and his details of plants growing in the SVBG, will allow global on-line access to these important historic resources for the first time.
The project will also interrogate the digitised archive against wider material; letters sent by Anderson held at Kew Gardens, and receipts relating to SVBG and further plant catalogues held at the National Archive. The entire Anderson archive will then 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. Examples include Anderson gaining information about medicinally used plants from indigenous peoples, and enslaved Africans whose work helped the garden grow from 350 plants species in 1785 to over 3,000 in 1800; the rapid and continuous expansion of the gardens (its buildings and diversity of plant holdings) speaks to the effort, insights, and knowledge of indigenous and enslaved African peoples. Additionally, Caribbean plants introduced to Anderson by indigenous people were described scientifically based on Anderson's collections, and as such the local names and uses of these plants, and those of plants introduced from Africa, were credited to Anderson rather than indigenous and enslaved African people. The project aims to rectify this and give credit to those who helped Anderson's garden flourish, and then share this information globally.
The project will create a public pop-up exhibition in order to tell some of the histories hidden in Anderson's archive and celebrate how indigenous and enslaved African people contributed to the SVBG and thus to environmental and medical science more widely; a specially commissioned piece of art will compliment this. Community events will share findings and materials with people in St Vincent, and the Garifuna and African-Caribbean communities living in New York and the UK.
The project will publish academic articles in both environmental science and the humanities as well as developing a set of best practice recommendations to guide future environmental scholars when reworking publications and theories developed in colonial contexts to better detect and appreciate the contribution of traditional knowledge systems. The recommendations and findings will be shared among scholars from many disciplines. Finally, a book detailing the hidden histories of Anderson's archive and SVGB will be written.
This project will digitise the Anderson archives held by the Linnean Society and the Natural History Museum, including his important Hortus St Vincentii which details the plants growing in SVBG in 1800, and includes a number of botanical illustrations. Several of these are by John Tyley, a young African-Caribbean man; at this time, it was very unusual for botanical illustrations to be signed, especially by an African-Caribbean. Digitisation of Anderson's Caribbean natural histories, and his details of plants growing in the SVBG, will allow global on-line access to these important historic resources for the first time.
The project will also interrogate the digitised archive against wider material; letters sent by Anderson held at Kew Gardens, and receipts relating to SVBG and further plant catalogues held at the National Archive. The entire Anderson archive will then 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. Examples include Anderson gaining information about medicinally used plants from indigenous peoples, and enslaved Africans whose work helped the garden grow from 350 plants species in 1785 to over 3,000 in 1800; the rapid and continuous expansion of the gardens (its buildings and diversity of plant holdings) speaks to the effort, insights, and knowledge of indigenous and enslaved African peoples. Additionally, Caribbean plants introduced to Anderson by indigenous people were described scientifically based on Anderson's collections, and as such the local names and uses of these plants, and those of plants introduced from Africa, were credited to Anderson rather than indigenous and enslaved African people. The project aims to rectify this and give credit to those who helped Anderson's garden flourish, and then share this information globally.
The project will create a public pop-up exhibition in order to tell some of the histories hidden in Anderson's archive and celebrate how indigenous and enslaved African people contributed to the SVBG and thus to environmental and medical science more widely; a specially commissioned piece of art will compliment this. Community events will share findings and materials with people in St Vincent, and the Garifuna and African-Caribbean communities living in New York and the UK.
The project will publish academic articles in both environmental science and the humanities as well as developing a set of best practice recommendations to guide future environmental scholars when reworking publications and theories developed in colonial contexts to better detect and appreciate the contribution of traditional knowledge systems. The recommendations and findings will be shared among scholars from many disciplines. Finally, a book detailing the hidden histories of Anderson's archive and SVGB will be written.
Organisations
Publications
Welch, C
(2024)
The Journal of the Barbados Museum and Historical Society
in A late long-eighteenth century description of Barbados written by Alexander Anderson (1748-1811) with commentary
| Title | SVGardenArt |
| Description | A piece of oroginal artwork was commission as part of the project to be gifted to the St Vincent Botanical Garden for display and educational purposes |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | It is too early to tell; I will be taking the artwork to the Garden in May 2023 with the pop-up exhibition |
| Title | online exhibition |
| Description | Digital copy of the exhibition boards 'Unearthing Indigenous and Enslaved African Horticultural Knowledge in St Vincent Botanical Garden (1785-1811)' |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Impact | Digital copy of the exhibition boards 'Unearthing Indigenous and Enslaved African Horticultural Knowledge in St Vincent Botanical Garden (1785-1811)' now available online to anyone |
| URL | https://kew.iro.bl.uk/concern/exhibition_items/3f9c9365-4556-469b-ac6d-4114f9120408?fbclid=IwAR11A_8... |
| Description | Significant new knowledge generated - Information on the role that indigenous people and enslaved African peoples played in the development of the St Vincent Botanical Garden in terms of folk medicines, horticultural practice, and labour in the Garden; the original locations of plants in the Garden from 1785-1811, rewriting the history of Breadfruit in St Vincent New or improved research methods or skills developed - Analysis of historic glues used for mounting dried and pressed plant specimens - new to Natural History Museum Important new research resources identified - The cataloguing and scanning of dried and pressed plant specimens sent by Anderson to London and held by the Natural History Museum Important new research questions opened up - What glue was used in St Vincent for mounting dried and pressed plant specimens?, What was Anderson's wife's role and being 'very deaf' was her enslaved African woman Maria with daughters Chance, Francis and Liverpool effectively her ears? Can the names of more enslaved African men working in the Garden be traced? Particularly noteworthy new research networks/collaborations/partnerships, or combinations of these; - Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew and the St Vincent National Rivers, Park and Beaches Authority; Antonio Carluccio Foundation and the St Vincent Botanical Garden Increased research capability generated from training delivered in specialist skills; ?? Summary information combining outcomes detailed in other sections: What were the most significant achievements from the award? - the combing of several disciplines not usually in conversation to highlight the role that Indigenous and Enslaved African peoples played in the development of the St Vincent Botanical Garden, notably in terms of folk medicinal cures and horticultural knowledge To what extent were the award objectives met? If you can, briefly explain why any key objectives were not met. - all the objectives were met; the pop-up exhibition was produced and plans are being made for various academic and popular publications; talks have and continue to be given with networks made to ensure African-Caribbean youth in the UK can learn about researching heritage and producing their own pop-up exhibitions How might the findings be taken forward and by whom? - the research team will be taking forward many of the findings, especially the PL. All parties wish to continue collaborating as there is much more potential to use the data for future educational and environmental projects; funding allowing. At least two datasets have been created related to the project; one from the Natural History Museum cataloging the dried and pressed plant specimens they hold in their Herbarium, and a second detailing plants in the garden in 4 time periods, the categories Anderson placed them into, and where identifiable the current plant name (binomial); these will be published later in 2023 |
| Exploitation Route | Botanical Gardens globally - knowing their history and heritage can increase cultural and general tourism, as well as proving materials for educational resources for local schools. The information on plant locations might be used for comparing biodiversity over circa 225-250 years including running citizen science projects - this could be run in several Caribbean countries through the University of the West Indies and Kew Gardens The datasets will be able to be utilised by other researchers (once published) for future work on historic plant names and also on plant 'native to' and 'introduced to' locations The general findings from the project (once published) can be use by other researchers and interested parties to complicated colonial historic plant information, and inform debates around indigenous and enslaved African plant knowledge The outcomes from the project can be used by Caribbean, indigenous and mixed-race and other artists to inspire creative projects |
| Sectors | Creative Economy Education Environment Leisure Activities including Sports Recreation and Tourism Culture Heritage Museums and Collections |
| Description | The findings have fed into several public talks; Chelsea Physic Garden, UK (in-person public talk); Linnean Society, UK (on-line workshop); African-Caribbean social club, UK (in-person public talk); Tavern Talk, UK (in-person public talk) St Vincent Botanical Garden invited lecture (in-person talk); University of the West Indies Open Campus public talk (on-line talk) The pop-up exhibition has been exhibited at the High Wycombe Museum (Nov 2022-Feb 2023), and University of Winchester (Feb 2023) The findings have begun to change practice at the St Vincent Botanical Garden where they are starting to catalogue their trees and consider how best to train tour guides to make the most of the information they now have about the history of the site and some of the people who were connected with it. The findings are also being used to seek an increase in admission fee to the Garden. The findings are sparking conversations on environmental heritage in St Vincent and in Barbados and talks are on-going The artwork produced for this project has inspired the artist to learn more about ehr mixed-race heritage, take a course deepening their knowledge of botanic art, and produce some additional artwork around colonial identities and plants/vernacular plant knowledge |
| First Year Of Impact | 2022 |
| Sector | Creative Economy,Education,Environment,Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural Societal Economic Policy & public services |
| Description | SVGardenCat |
| Geographic Reach | South America |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to new or improved professional practice |
| Impact | Cataloguing the trees in the Botanical Garden will ensure they are properly recorded with species and genus allowing new trees planted to be appropriately located for maximum environmental benefits. Improving the skill level of the workforce will bring more credibility to the Garden, especially with Cruise Ship passengers, and for local schools who learn about environmentalism and botany through their visits. These benefits will be ongoing; only minimal impacts so far - on-going connections will cement these over the coming years |
| Description | SVGardenSchool |
| Geographic Reach | South America |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to new or improved professional practice |
| Impact | Training teachers to think about environmentalism and botany through practical means has improved the skill level of 5 teachers and a school Principle so far. This is only at a local level to date but talks are being held to bring about wider implementation of the project. |
| Title | Anderson manuscripts Linnean |
| Description | Alexander Anderson's Manuscripts Alexander Anderson FRSE FLS was a Scottish surgeon and botanist, born in 1748 in Aberdeen, Scotland. He studied at the University of Edinburgh and was briefly employed at the Chelsea Physic Garden in London, England before he emigrated in 1774 to New York, USA. In 1785, Anderson served as one of the first two superintendent curators of the St Vincent Botanic Garden, along with George Young. He spent over 25 years supervising the garden and during his tenure the number of species at the garden increased from 348 to over 3,000. Meanwhile, he also spent time writing papers, describing the tropical plants and landscapes he found there, to be sent back to the Linnean Society for his peers to study, along with botanical drawings he had commissioned. Also during this time he conducted travels throughout the Guianas, St Vincent, Trinidad and Tobago discovering, for Western natural scientists, more than 100 varieties of Caribbean plants. He was a correspondent of James Edward Smith and Sir Joseph Banks and was a Fellow of the Linnean Society and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He resigned his post in July 1811, and died on 8 September in the same year on St. Vincent Island, Caribbean (although the Royal Society of Edinburgh gives his date of death as 10 May 1811). |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The archive of manuscripts by Alexander Anderson has been catalogued, scanned and made public |
| URL | https://linnean-online.org/anderson_mss.html |
| Title | Exhibition online |
| Description | Online exhibition produced for the Unearthing St Vincent Botanical Garden project |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | exhibition now available to the general public and has a DOI |
| URL | https://kew.iro.bl.uk/concern/exhibition_items/3f9c9365-4556-469b-ac6d-4114f9120408 |
| Title | The herbarium specimens collected by Alexander Anderson (1748 - 1811) |
| Description | The herbarium specimens collected by Alexander Anderson (1748 - 1811) Alexander Anderson, a Scottish surgeonand botanist, served as superintendent at the St. Vincent Botanical Garden, which was established in 1765 and was the first Botanical Garden in the Caribbean and probably the first in the Americas. The garden flourished under Anderson's direction (from 1785) until shortly before his death in 1811. Prior to his move to the Americas, Anderson worked briefly at the Chelsea Physic Garden, under William Forsyth' guidance, where most probably he has built up his gardening and horticulture knowledge. When Anderson arrived at the St. Vincent Botanical Garden, there were ca. 60 plant species growing and by his death, it was over 1,300. This reflects Anderson's activities with exploration, plant introduction, propagation and consequently, distribution of the plant species. Anderson travelled around the West Indies region, including the north South America and while collecting the plant specimens, Anderson also gathered information, particularly on traditional knowledge about the plant specimens, mostly by asking (and probably also by observing) the indigenous and enslaved people and recorded the traditional uses. He catalogued the plants into broad categories of use (e.g. economic, medicinal, exotics and ornamentals, valuable woods) and also listed fruits. This information certainly contributed towards the development of colonial botanical science and to medical knowledge. This dataset was assembled as part of the project entitled: "Unearthing the contribution of indigenous and enslaved African knowledge systems to the Saint Vincent Botanical Garden under Dr Anderson [1785-1811])". This project was funded by the 'Hidden histories of environmental science' programme, a cross-council collaboration between the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) to understand how the future of modern environmental science can be informed by the past. The project was a collaboration involving Winchester University, Natural History Museum, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Linnean Society, Antonio Carluccio Foundation and The Museum Detox Interpretation Team. There is no list of the dried plant specimens that Anderson sent to Joseph Banks and that are now at the NHM. As a result, the search and cataloguing of Anderson's dried specimens housed at the Natural History Museum (BM) is an on-going task. The data set currently comprises ca.190 specimens collected by Anderson in the Caribbean and Guiana, of which 25 are type specimens. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Anderson's dried and pressed plant specimens are now catalogued, scanned and made public |
| URL | https://data.nhm.ac.uk/dataset/alexander-anderson-specimens?fbclid=IwAR2H3srM5-EKsHFnGXIvlEYKKI0PwrA... |
| Title | Tyley Botanical Drawings Linnean |
| Description | 148 illustrations thought to be by John Tyley but part of the Anderson archive |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | 148 drawings catalogued, scanned and made public |
| URL | https://linnean-online.org/170914 |
| Description | SVGardenACF |
| Organisation | Antonio Carluccio Foundation |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Raising profile of funding body related to food and plants; now exploring collaboration with St Vincent Botanical Garden for community kitchen and garden on the site |
| Collaborator Contribution | Access to expertise on African and Caribbean heritage during era of Transatlantic Slave Trade, network building, general assistance with exhibition text |
| Impact | Public pop-up exhibition - this is public engagement outcome of the grant which has several partners and collaborators; this text will appear in all of them (Linnean Society, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Natural History Museum, Antonio Carluccio Foundation, Museum Detox Interpretation Group, St Vincent Botanical Garden (National Rivers, Parks and Beaches Authority, St Vincent Grenadines) |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | SVGardenKew |
| Organisation | Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Providing historic plant catalogues for partner organisation to analyse, |
| Collaborator Contribution | Analysis of historic plant catalogues from 4 years to be analysed in terms of current nomenclature, with data and charts on original location of plants in the St Vincent Botanical Garden for exhibition panels, expertise on ethnobotany, permission to use extracts of archival text for exhibition, assistance with specialist botanical text for exhibition and general assistance with text for exhibition |
| Impact | Public pop-up exhibition - this is public engagement outcome of the grant which has several partners and collaborators; this text will appear in all of them (Linnean Society, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Natural History Museum, Antonio Carluccio Foundation, Museum Detox Interpretation Group, St Vincent Botanical Garden (National Rivers, Parks and Beaches Authority, St Vincent Grenadines) |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | SVGardenLinnean |
| Organisation | Linnean Society of London |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Transcribing the Anderson manuscripts, assisting with re-ordering the plant catalogue |
| Collaborator Contribution | Scanning the Anderson manuscripts and botanical illustrations, expertise in terms of archival material such as paper type and water marks, access to wider contacts and network building, permissions to use scans of botanical illustrations for exhibition, general assistance with text for exhibition |
| Impact | Public pop-up exhibition - this is public engagement outcome of the grant which has several partners and collaborators; this text will appear in all of them (Linnean Society, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Natural History Museum, Antonio Carluccio Foundation, Museum Detox Interpretation Group, St Vincent Botanical Garden (National Rivers, Parks and Beaches Authority, St Vincent Grenadines) |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | SVGardenMDIG |
| Organisation | Museum Detox |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Discussions around use of accessible language related to indigenous and enslaved African peoples for pop-up exhibition with multiple audiences; Vincentians, Disaporic Vincentians, school children, adults interested in history and/or plants, historians, Caribbeanists Opportunity to help design a pop-up exhibition from scratch and new member to group (exhibition designer) |
| Collaborator Contribution | Exhibition design work (background colours, layout, font size and colour), impact bookmark design work (layout, background colour, font size and colour, QR code embed), expertise on sensitive language, general assistance with exhibition text |
| Impact | Public pop-up exhibition - this is public engagement outcome of the grant which has several partners and collaborators; this text will appear in all of them (Linnean Society, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Natural History Museum, Antonio Carluccio Foundation, Museum Detox Interpretation Group, St Vincent Botanical Garden (National Rivers, Parks and Beaches Authority, St Vincent Grenadines) |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | SVGardenNHM |
| Organisation | Natural History Museum |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Expertise to provide context on dried and pressed plant specimens, technical analysis of glue and ink on historic dried and pressed plant specimens |
| Collaborator Contribution | Access to relevant dried and pressed uncatalogued plant specimens in archive, scanning and cataloguing of the same, expertise in handling historic plant material, expertise on context of plant specimens, permissions to use scans of plant specimen for exhibition, assistance with specialist botanical text for exhibition and general assistance with text for exhibition |
| Impact | Public pop-up exhibition - this is public engagement outcome of the grant which has several partners and collaborators; this text will appear in all of them (Linnean Society, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Natural History Museum, Antonio Carluccio Foundation, Museum Detox Interpretation Group, St Vincent Botanical Garden (National Rivers, Parks and Beaches Authority, St Vincent Grenadines) |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | UWI Cave Hill Medical collaboration |
| Organisation | University of the West Indies |
| Country | Barbados |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Started a collaboration with the Medical Faculty at UWI; Barbados to explore historic indigenous plant sures recorded by Anderson |
| Collaborator Contribution | At the moment just talks but will be using their faculties to take plants to their compound levels and analyse medicinal properties |
| Impact | None yet - visiting in May 2024 to start working out details |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | British 18th C talk |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | 75 people attending a talk for the 52nd Annual Conference British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies: Homecoming, Return, and Recovery, St Hughes College, Oxford, entitled 'Alexander Anderson, and Transforming the St Vincent Botanical Garden' |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Carib Skull paper |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Talk given at the Royal College of Surgeons in London; a public event as part of the VariAbilities conference entitled Bridging the Gap: bringing together the Human Sciences with the Humanities. Talk to 70 people about 'The "Carib Chief's" Skull: Where was Humanity in Late-eighteenth Century Colonial Science' including member of the museum, and heritage practitioners |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Linnean Breadfruit Tree |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Invited speaker for an online talk with the Linnean Society entitled 'In the Shade of the Breadfruit Tree: Slavery, History, and Art' to discuss the Tyley illustration of a Breadfruit Tree with at rest enslaved African/African-decent male underneath. Tyley is connected with Anderson. Talk included Dr J Kim, and Dr J Williams. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | RCP invited lecture |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Invited talk entitled 'Fruit bruised & fryed in an iron pot and applied to yaws cures them': Exploring the Indigenous and Enslaved African medicinal cures collected by Dr Alexander Anderson (d.1811) at the St Vincent Botanical Garden' given to the Royal College of Physicans, as part of their Annual Garden Lecture series. 60 people attended physically and there were over 100 watching it via Live-Stream. The cost to attend/e-attend was £15. After the Q&A I was approached afterwards by interested parties who were keen to know more about the project. The invitation came as a RCP member had visited the exhibition when it was in High Wycombe. https://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/events/medicinal-plant-lectures-2024-april-online |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | RCP lecture |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I was invited to give a lecture as part of the Royal College of Physicians' Annual Garden Lecture Series on 12 April 2024. My lecture was entitled '"Fruit bruised & fryed in an iron pot and applied to yaws cures them": Exploring the Indigenous and Enslaved African medicinal cures collected by Dr Alexander Anderson (d.1811) at the St Vincent Botanical Garden'. The auditorium was full and the event was live streamed to RCP members and interested people who purchased a ticket. There were over 500 people attending in total |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://garden.rcplondon.ac.uk/ |
| Description | SVG online |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | 'Unearthing the contribution of indigenous & enslaved African knowledge systems to the St. Vincent Botanical Garden under Dr Anderson (1785-1811),' 9th International Garifuna Heritage Conference (in collaboration with the University of West Indies Open Campus (SVG): St Vincent History, Ancestry and Heritage University of West Indies Open Campus (on-line presentation with 120 online) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | SVGTT |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Public lecture as part of the Tavern Talk series in Winchester to 23 people; overview of the project and main findings |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.winchester.ac.uk/news-and-events/events/event-items/tavern-talk---plants-people-and-powe... |
| Description | SVGardenBHMBlog |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | I provide a blog on the project for my University's Black History Month engagement. The blog is read by staff and students and the University, and it was circulated widely on Social Media. From this blog I was asked to give a talk on the project in January 2023 as part of a social engagement series of talks, and give a talk with participant activity for the Universit's 'Decolonising Research' event in May 2023 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.winchester.ac.uk/news-and-events/press-centre/media-articles/black-history-month-unearth... |
| Description | SVGardenCPG |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | 40 people attended a talk on the project and asked questions related to the topic, the charity charged for the event to assist their ongoing botanic work |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk/event/forsyth-letters/ |
| Description | SVGardenGreiggs |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | I ran 2 workshops at a school in St Vincent teaching the children and their teachers (including the Principle) how to safely collect, dry, press and mount plant specimens, with the recording of allied information such as plant stories, plant use, and consider information on the shape, colour, and size of leaves, flowers, stalks. The children reported that they enjoyed the project, felt more connected to nature and wished to learn more about plants and their uses. The Botanic Garden were given the information on what to do and will be using it for their summer school as an activity. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | SVGardenLecture |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Gave a talk to 50 invited guests about the project; this included historians, environmentalists, botanists and park rangers, government policy makers, government officials, clergy, and teachers. Questions were asked, networks build and further talks will be given next time I am in St Vincent. I will now be co-writing a peer-reviewed academic paper with a historian based around part of the project. Possibilities for future research was discussed. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | SVGardenSoton |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Gave to talk to 25 elderly African-Caribbean people. This allowed them an opportunity to reminisce about the Caribbean, and socialise with similar people. They asked questions and feedback from the organiser was that the elderly people continued to discuss their past experiences and as such their well-being increased |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | SVGardenTV |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I was interviewed by the St Vincent government press team for a broadcast on St Vincent Television about the project. The programme goes out countrywide and with a population of over 110,000 people, it is likely to have been seen by at least 50,000 people. A future event is planned on my return, and it is hoped the Garden will receive more visitors because of the interview |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Southampton Uni presentation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | 20 people attended in person and on-line to a talk entitled ''Alexander Anderson (1748-1811) and the Botanic Garden on St Vincent' presented at the University of Southampton and live-streamed on 21 November 2024 Discussions were sparked and a possible academic publication is likely; a chapter in an edited book with the editor hearing about the project via the talk |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Talk at the Andromeda Gardens in Barbados |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Talk given at the Andromeda Gardens in Barbados to 45 people. Attending were supporters of the Garden, faculty from the medical faculty at the University of the West Indies in Barbados, people from the tourism sector, and members of the general public. Outcomes are:-1) have been appointed an international visiting scholar with the Andromeda Botanical Committee, and will be engaging in work with them thinking about how the garden can engage with Caribbean ethnobotany, and 2) working with the medical faculty to explore the efficacy of indigenous plant cures - the plants noted in the archives of Anderson as cures will be taken to their compound level and analysed in terms of potential; the first disease will be yaws with 3 cures listed in the archive |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |