We have a letter, in the British Library, from Lawson to James Petiver from October 1710: "I have sent a small box of Collections ...," he says; "I hope they are come safe to you." He notes he has more specimens collected, "but of books being not full I omitt sending them untill compleated." In July of 1711 he sent another letter, hoping that "long since you have Received ye Collection of plants & Insects in 4 vials wch I sent for you." Which is the last we hear from Lawson, being as he is killed by the Tuscarora less than two months later.
So -- off I went to England, to see the specimens that Lawson left behind.
So -- off I went to England, to see the specimens that Lawson left behind.
Charlie Jarvis in the Darwin Center, having pulled out the original books of the Hans Sloane collection that include Lawson's contributions through Petiver.
I arrived at the Natural History Museum to meet with Charlie Jarvis, a historical botanist who does research into the original collections of Hans Sloane and James Petiver, among others. Jarvis took me up an elevator to the top of the spectacular Darwin Center, the building that elegantly houses and preserves the original collections that formed the British Museum, from which the Natural History Museum eventually spun off. The plants are kept in volumes of books organized by HS numbers (Jarvis says HS stands for hortus siccus, or "dry garden" -- think horticulture and desiccated, for root words; not, as some would have it, for Hans Sloane or Herbarium Sloane). There are 265 of these volumes, of which four contained enough Lawson material to be worth bringing out. They reclined, open, on those foam cushions archives always use for books they want to treat nicely.
 Each HS volume of the original Hans Sloane collection resides in its own sealed shelf compartment. Lawson's specimens are wonderful to behold: dried, labeled, and all but perfect in their expression of humankind's desire to capture, to organize, to understand. In some cases Lawson's original notes are attached to the pages; in others only Petiver's notes remain, but in all cases the pages are themselves |  This portion of the Darwin Center is thought of as a cocoon -- a hard outer covering protecting something precious within. For animal specimens kept in spirits it enables the museum to keep the temperature below the flash points for those liquids, and the cool air (15 C) keeps down pests that like to eat the plant specimens or the paper of the volumes in which they're bound. The books were deep-frozen (-30 C!) for 48 hours before being first brought into the center. |
something like works of art, and just being near them reminded me of the audacity of not just Lawson's journey but of the undertaking it represented. The old civilizations of Europe had discovered a new world at the very same time emerging Enlightenment scientific sensibilities gave them the very tools they needed to begin understanding the world better than ever before. Ray's Historia Plantarum was between volumes 2 and 3 of its publication; it was Ray who established the "species as the ultimate unit of taxonomy." (Petiver helped in that endeavor by publishing illustrated works in the 17-teens.) Sloane's collection was the greatest of its time, perhaps ever; the work of Linnaeus, establishing the naming conventions we use even today, was decades in the future, and he used Sloane's collection when he did it.
Lawson's specimens (300 or so) are just a tiny portion of the collection -- Sloane had more than 300 named collectors, though some of this is just a specimen here or there from a traveling physician or clergyman. Petiver's collections constitute more than 100 of the volumes in Sloane's collection, and Petiver himself had dozens of correspondents.
Lawson's specimens (300 or so) are just a tiny portion of the collection -- Sloane had more than 300 named collectors, though some of this is just a specimen here or there from a traveling physician or clergyman. Petiver's collections constitute more than 100 of the volumes in Sloane's collection, and Petiver himself had dozens of correspondents.
The celebrated snake root! Supposedly cures snakebite. Does no such thing.
He called Lawson "a very curious person" after the two met in London in the summer of 1709, probably at Petiver's shop, "at the sign of the White Cross in Aldersgate Street, London." That sign would have been "near Long Lane," so I had to visit the intersection. It's a couple of office buildings now.
But the highlight of course was Lawson's specimens. He included "the celebrated snake root," which supposedly cured snakebite. It doesn't. A recent article in the digital journal Phytoneuron very thoroughly describes Lawson's specimens, connecting them to their current latin names, though some remain uncertain. Most important to me, though, was just to be near Lawson's plants -- to know they were gathered by his hand, labeled with his ink, and survived the centuries because people believe it's worth trying to understand this world around us. I also could not help noting that, like all wonderfully useful things, the pages were absolutely lovely.
But the highlight of course was Lawson's specimens. He included "the celebrated snake root," which supposedly cured snakebite. It doesn't. A recent article in the digital journal Phytoneuron very thoroughly describes Lawson's specimens, connecting them to their current latin names, though some remain uncertain. Most important to me, though, was just to be near Lawson's plants -- to know they were gathered by his hand, labeled with his ink, and survived the centuries because people believe it's worth trying to understand this world around us. I also could not help noting that, like all wonderfully useful things, the pages were absolutely lovely.
There's lots more to say about what I found in London pertaining to Lawson, Petiver, and so forth. More tomorrow!
All images used by permission of the Natural History Museum.
All images used by permission of the Natural History Museum.
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