Photograph of a double page spread of an A4 diary volume rests on foam book supports. The page on the left-hand side contains the latter half of a diary entry from August 16th, 1922. Watling writes that the family discovered two snakes and saw a grasshopper with striped legs. She also writes that the ‘Railway flower and yellow Arum Lily are out.’ Below is the first half of a diary entry from August 23rd, 1922. Watling writes about various insects the family saw and caught, including a yellow ladybird, a Sphinx Moth, a grasshopper and a beetle. On the right-hand page, Watling has painted a flowering white Spider Lily, with the upper stem, upper portion of the leaves and the flower all in view. The painting takes up the whole page, with one leaf spilling over into the bottom third of the left-hand page. Midway down the right-hand side of the page, Watling’s governess has annotated the painting with the word ‘fair’ in pencil. Watling has captioned the painting ‘Spider Lily’ in pen at the bottom-right of the page.

Another week another find shared with the team by our 'Archives Revealed' cataloguer:

Elisabeth de Gravers Watling kept this diary to document encounters with nature in India when she was 10. This Spider Lily is particularly impressive, although her governess only deemed it ‘fair’!

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Picture of daffodils growing at Brodie Castle, a National Trust for Scotland property near Nairn

Picture of primroses growing at Brodie Castle, a National Trust for Scotland property near Nairn

Picture of cherry blossom and daffodils in the background, growing at Brodie Castle, a National Trust for Scotland property near Nairn

Picture of a branch of flowering currant growing at Cromarty, Black Isle, Scotland

One of the good things about visiting my folks in NE Scotland is enjoying another round of spring flowers!

Coloured illustrations of 12 tulips on a page from Emmanuel Sweerts' 1620 work 'Florilegium'. The tulips are annotated in handwriting underneath. 16. Tulipa purpurea Candidis oris. 17. Tulipa Carmosina 18. Tulipa alba rubro purpureo 19. Tulipa purpu. lineis Violaceis. 20. Tulipa luteis floribus lineis Rubris 21. Tulipa lutea oris Rubris 22. Tulipa Rubra fundo Vario 23. Tulipa luto hilari rubro confusa 24. Tulipa Cremosina

Several pink tulips photographed up close in the sunshine, showing green stems and other plants having been potted around them.

Ahead of the bank holiday weekend, I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Easter and share some more blossoms from the Library and Archives, both inside and outside the building💐

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Two stacks of shelving on either side of the photograph, filled with labelled brown archive boxes.

Get the opportunity to work with our Archives staff and a visiting artist. Travel expenses in London (TFL Zones 1-4) will be paid.

Deadline to apply: Sunday 12 April 2026
Apply via Microsoft Form here: forms.office.com/e/mdVXh3icAZ

Hand coloured drawing of two green mangoes hanging from a stem. The illustration is on darkened paper with a small identification written in ink in the bottom right corner, noting the location of Madras.

Call for participants of Asian, African and Caribbean heritage: join free creative workshops at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, where we will be critically engaging with historical botanical records about fruit, forestry and plant collection - plus opportunity to co-curate a public exhibition. ⬇️

A photograph of the back of Kew's Palm House with a tree of pale pink blossom in the foreground set against a sparkling blue sky.

A woodblock print of Prunus armeniaca from Honzō Zufu (illustrated manual of medicinal plants) from Kew's Library and Archives. It shows a sprig of 8 flowers in various stages of bloom rendered in graduated pinks to white. Japanese text runs down the side of the page.

I don't always get a chance to see what is flowering in the Gardens during the working week so it was nice to see some of the spectacular blossoms near the Palm House recently. Of course we are lucky to have our own blossoms in the Library and Archives, but in botanical illustration form! #KewLA

An illuminating and fascinating workshop at the Imperial War Museum as part of the Resettling the Colonial Lens project led by University of Nottingham

Page from Sebastian Schedel's Calendarium depicting a Narcissus and a Fritillaria

Hello! I thought this account would be a nice opportunity to share a bit more about the collections and work going on at Kew Gardens' Library and Archives. Here is a beautiful spring-like image of a Narcissus and a Fritillaria from a work by Sebastian Schedel known as the Calendarium