Catalogue of the Pressed Flowers in the Herbarium given to Florence Nightingale by Margaret Stovin in 1833 Book

In 1833 Margaret Stovin presented Florence Nightingale with an album of pressed flowers, which they had collected together in Derbyshire. Florence was 13 years old and Margaret was 77. Florence was learning about botany, a popular subject of the day for young girls. Margaret Stovin had established herself as noteworthy botanist, and a pioneer for this subject in the Age of Enlightenment. In this outstanding example of Margaret's many herbaria the title page says simply: To Miss Nightingale, an offering from her very affectionate friend Margaret Stovin. Let not the botanic drives of Lea Hurst be forgotten! This catalogue contains over 100 coloured pictures of the plants in the herbarium. Each of the original dried plants is shown alongside a recent picture of its modern day equivalent for comparison. Every plant has its own page, which includes its original inscription and Linnean classification. These are accompanied by short extracts from a variety of contemporary botanical reference books encapsulating what was known about them at the time. This catalogue is a record of the specimens in the herbarium together with their photographs before receiving conservation treatment. Photographs and the names of their modern equivalents are shown alongside for comparison. Several of the taxonomies have changed, and the original Linnean classifications are given. There are also extracts from early 19th century botanical books giving a brief insight into contemporary knowledge about each of the plants. One section describes the origins of the herbarium and gives some biographical notes about Margaret Stovin, who in 1840 was one of the first women to be elected to the Botanical Society in London. The materials used in the making of the herbarium and its method of construction are also described. Many of the plants are exotics whose species originate from faraway places. It is interesting to see how they had established themselves in English gardens by the early 19th century. This is a fascinating document about a unique collection of plants assembled by two amazing women who had clearly formed a bond of friendship as result of their botanical exploration. The herbarium belongs to the Florence Nightingale Museum at St Thomas' Hospital in London, and it was researched and conserved by the author in the summer of 2008 at the Camberwell College of Arts.Read More