Meet the face behind the plants
I'm Clare and studying Victorian botanists ignited my vision of how botanical pressings might inspire us to relearn the names of wild flowers.
Sharing my plant world
I live in a red-brick Victorian back-to-back terrace in Yorkshire surrounded by pots of plants, retro linocuts, vases of seed heads, French copper, faded floral fabrics, botanical inks, vintage pens, and far too many books.
My journey so far has involved working as an environmental lawyer, then a Masters degree in plant classification & molecular systematics, working at Kew, co-authoring a botany textbook (The Wild Flower Key), botanising for a living and teaching plant identification & ecology for the Field Studies Council and several universities.
In my 40s after a back injury and Crohn's disease left me disabled, I completed a Ph.D. in the history of Victorian botany at the University of Leeds. Then the pandemic hit; I lost my job as a teaching fellow as I am severely immunosupressed, so cannot teach face-to-face. Yet at the same time, all things botanical soared in popularity.
My botanical vision
While shielding in the pandemic, I realised that the lockdown explosion of interest in natural history had happened before, in early Victorian Britain. The observation of wild plants provided spiritual comfort and inspiration for many, especially women, and working-class mill workers in northern cities like Leeds.
People turned to the natural world as a safe and enduring place during times of uncertainty brought by rapid industrialisation and social change. In a modern-day parallel, the pandemic suddenly forced many of us to live with huge uncertainties, and just like our forebears, we have embraced the calming power of nature.
Learning about nineteenth century botanists also led me to reflect that 'herborizing', as Charles Darwin's mentor Professor John Henslow called collecting and pressing plants, might provide a bridge between art and science today, as it had done so effectively for many Victorians.
Herbarium Box was founded to use pressed plant artwork as a way to share my knowledge of botany.
