Human Flower Project
Botany à la Cart
A 350-year-old research garden wheels out an innovation in plant education. And now, the public’s invited. Thanks, EarthScholars, for this trip to Chelsea.
At the Entrance to Chelsea Physic Garden
Photo: EarthScholars™ Research Group
By James H. Wandersee and Renee M. Clary
EarthScholars™ Research Group
There is small and wonderful “secret” walled garden in southwest London within the Royal Borough of Chelsea that no plant enthusiast should miss. This is the Chelsea Physic Garden, founded by the Society of Apothecaries in 1673. Its purpose was to promote the study of botany in relation to medicine, then known as the “physic” or healing arts. Here, apothecaries’ (pharmacists’) apprentices were trained to identify medicinal plants.
This hidden garden is located on a 3.5-acre section of the grounds surrounding Chelsea’s most famous building—the Chelsea Royal Hospital—an elegant building designed by architect Christopher Wren and completed in 1694. Elsewhere on the grounds, the Royal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea Flower Show (“the ultimate event in the gardening year”) is held each May.
The average price of a house in Chelsea (reported by the BBC, from 2007 data) is $10,189,471. Here is a “Global Ultra Prime Residential Area,” frequented by Princes William and Harry. For 300 years, this garden was closed to the public, admitting scientific researchers only. Then, in 1983, due to financial expediency, the garden’s administration was transferred to a new independent charity, and it was decided to admit the public on a limited basis. What a joy! Ordinary folk could finally see behind those high and venerable stone walls.
View of the center of Chelsea Physic Garden
Photo: EarthScholars™ Research Group
Now, for the price of a London Underground (subway) ticket to Sloane Square (£ 1.5), a modest walk, and an admission fee (£ 7), you can experience medical students’ and plant scientists’ past exclusive privileges, plus enjoy the same plant displays that rich and famous Chelseans now do. All you have to do is arrive at the proper time on a Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, or Sunday between mid-March and the end of October and locate the small portal in the side wall—the garden’s main entrance.
Insignia of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries, Chelsea Physic Garden
Photo: EarthScholars™ Research Group
The second-oldest botanic garden in England and the oldest one in London, the Chelsea Physic Garden still fulfills its traditional functions of scientific research and plant conservation. But since 1983, it also strives to educate and inform visitors, as well as to provide a serene and beautiful secret garden deep in the heart of London. Its stated aims are: “(a) to demonstrate through its plantings and publications the range of species named or introduced to cultivation by a succession of distinguished curators; (b) to pursue horticultural excellence, especially in the cultivation of rare and tender plants; (c) to demonstrate to all who visit, the many uses of plants—and particularly the heritage of the plant world as our common medicine chest.”
Chelsea Physic Garden’s new Hans Sloane exhibition cart
Photo: EarthScholars™ Research Group
We were chiefly interested in a science-education innovation we saw at the Chelsea Physic Garden in May 2008: two new exhibition carts. One is dedicated to teaching visitors about the Garden’s most famous patron—Dr. Hans Sloane (1660-1753). It was Sloane who secured the garden’s land and established its future by granting the apothecaries an annual lease of £5 in perpetuity (i.e., even today the garden pays just £ 5 per year as rent!). Sloan also invented milk chocolate, which was initially concocted and sold by the garden’s apothecaries as a medicine, Further, Sloan began the natural history and curiosity collection that became the British Museum in 1759.
The other new push cart teaches about Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778), the famous Swedish botanist who developed the Latin-based, two-part plant naming system that we still use today.
‘Edutaining’ displays embedded in the Carl Linnaeus exhibition cart
Photo: EarthScholars™ Research Group
These original, engaging, and clever history-of-science-based educational push carts are curiosity cabinets in themselves. They contain pull-out specimen drawers, flip-open mystery port holes, explanatory graphics and signage, old recipes, experiential models, and other information-based sensory rewards, lots to explore on all four sides of each cart. Both were designed by Don Grant with graphics created by Epps Ransom Associates. Collage Exhibitions built them, using hand-cart chassis from The Gloucester Wheel and Carriage Company. We estimated that twelve visitors at a time can be “edutained” by each cart; under a docent’s direction even larger groups could be served.
How can you attract and then teach the history of science effectively to today’s outdoor visitors in an enjoyable way? This is a new approach we admire on many counts. Don Grant’s exhibition cart is inherently historical, low-tech, durable, and movable, yet it’s manages also to be multi-vocal and highly interactive. It rewards close observation and personal inquiry: we saw families learning together in memorable ways, and having fun doing so. Plus historical exhibits of this quality don’t soon become outdated; the investment in constructing them promises at least a decade of effective return. We hope other botanic gardens, arboreta, fossil parks, and history of science historical sites will try Grant’s exhibition cart idea for teaching the history of science. And we salute him for it!