Please find below details of the upcoming seminar organised by Archives for London.

Archives for London Seminar Series

The Lord Treasurer of Botany: Sir James Edward Smith

A talk by Tom Kennett, Archivist and biographer

In 1784, James Edward Smith (1759–1828), a young medical student from Norwich, outbid and outwitted Catherine the Great, the King of Sweden, and the scientific community of Europe, in the race to possess the priceless natural history collections of the Swedish naturalist, Carl Linnaeus. Using the collections as his calling card, Smith became one of the most respected botanists of his day, and through his publications and the founding of the Linnean Society, the oldest surviving natural history society in the world, did much to popularise botany, and the vital science of classification, in the 18th and 19th centuries.

This talk, based on extensive research for a forthcoming biography of Smith, will throw light on the craze for all things botanical in the Georgian era, through the life of a central figure since forgotten to history.

Thursday 5th June 2014, 6.00pm (doors at 5.30) at London Metropolitan Archives-Huntley Room 40 Northampton Road, London EC1R 0HB

Advance booking essential. Please guarantee your place by contacting: e: [log in to unmask]   t: 020 7332 3879

This seminar is free to all AfL members, non-members £5 (payable on the door).

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Megan Dunmall

Assistant Archivist

Lambeth Palace Library

London SE1 7JU

Tel: 020 7898 1400

Fax 020 7898 1043

http://www.lambethpalacelibrary.org/