Reference Collections

Economic Botany Transparencies (Harlan Collection)

The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew has an extensive collection of photographic transparencies relating to fieldwork, artefacts and other aspects of economic botany. A recent, important, addition is the lifetime slide collection of Professor Jack Harlan (1917-1998) donated by his family. Jack Harlan was a well-known and widely published specialist in crop domestication and evolution. He travelled extensively and his photographic collection reflects both this and his range of interests, from archaeology to genetics.

A summary of the 4,500 slides in the Harlan collection has been prepared and entry of the slides into the collection database is in progress.