{"id":630,"date":"2021-10-22T10:48:34","date_gmt":"2021-10-22T09:48:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/sssa\/?p=630"},"modified":"2021-10-22T13:02:36","modified_gmt":"2021-10-22T12:02:36","slug":"object19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/sssa\/object19\/","title":{"rendered":"SSSA in 70 Objects: Filling the Creative Well: A Tribute to Joan W. Clark"},"content":{"rendered":"

Manuscript:<\/strong> The Joan Clark Collection<\/h2>\n

Response by:<\/strong> Elaine MacGillivray<\/h2>\n

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Out of a thousand possible options, I have chosen to respond to the manuscript collection of Scottish botanist Joan W. Clark (1908-1999) – in particular, her wildflower specimen books<\/p>\n

\"Pressed<\/a>

Pressed plant specimen, \u2018Water Speedwell\u2019, collected by Joan Clark from a ditch on North Uist, August 1976 (SSSA: Joan Clark Collection)<\/p><\/div>\n

Joan Wendoline Clark grew up in Kincardineshire and Sussex. Fluent in French and German, skilled in shorthand and a trained typist, she worked for a time at the Foreign Office in London and at the British Embassy in Paris. In the 1930s she returned with her Scottish husband to Scotland and together they settled in Lochaber, where she remained until her death on 6 July 1999. Shortly after her death, her daughter, Anna MacLean kindly gifted Joan\u2019s manuscript collection to the School of Scottish Studies Archives. The collection includes her correspondence and botanical research notes dating from the 1970s right up until 1999, along with three specimen books containing almost 350 pressed wildflowers collected around Onich, Ballachulish, North Uist and Glencoe in around 1976.<\/p>\n

\"Pressed<\/a>

Pressed plant specimen, \u2018Bitter Vetch\u2019, collected by Joan Clark at [B]allachuil[ish], May 1976. (SSSA: Joan Clark Collection)<\/p><\/div>\n

Joan Clark\u2019s wildflower specimen books are made up of three A4 sized sugar paper leaved scrapbooks.\u00a0 Turning the pages, I found each leaf contained between one and three pressed wildflower specimens. Bedstraw, iris, sea pinks, sundew, dog\u2019s mercury and so many more are all represented, carefully laid out and attached with tiny strips of paper glued at either end. Beside each specimen the name of the plant, the location it was found, the date collected and additional notes are recorded in blue or black ink. The addition of this metadata means that the specimen books are not purely aesthetic but also scientifically valuable.<\/p>\n

Joan Clark\u2019s manuscript collection is testament to her incredible contribution to botanical science. Her meticulous and painstaking research informed Richard Pankhurst and J. M. Mullin\u2019s Flora of the Outer Hebrides<\/em> (1991), and she collaborated with Ian MacDonald of the Gaelic Book Council to publish Gaelic Names of Plants<\/em> \/ Ainmean G\u00e0idhlig Lusan<\/em> (1999). Many have paid tribute to her calibre as a botanist, not least the renowned and respected botanist A. C. Jermy of the Natural History Museum (Watsonia, 2000).<\/p>\n

\"Pressed<\/a>

Pressed plant specimen, \u2018St John\u2019s Wort\u2019 (also known as Goat Weed), collected by Joan Clark from the shore at North Ballachulish, July 1976. (SSSA: Joan Clark Collection)<\/p><\/div>\n

Jenny Sturgeon wrote in her response to Alan Bruford\u2019s recording of Tom Tulloch<\/a> (11 Jun 2021), \u201clocal names for flora and fauna root us to where we come from and there is a cultural history and identity associated with them.\u201d Growing up on the west coast of Argyll, I was taught the names of the local wildflowers there by my mother and grandmothers. During my post-graduate studies in Liverpool, my mother once sent me a snapdragon – collected, pressed and placed between two pieces of tissue paper in a card. On the card was a scribbled note: \u201csnapdragons are out and so I thought you would like to see one!\u201d For me, and for many, flora and fauna offer up a very tangible connection to people, place and time.<\/p>\n

\"Pressed<\/a>

Pressed plant specimen, \u2018Dog\u2019s Merury\u2019, collected by Joan Clark at Duror, April 1976 (SSSA: Joan Clark Collection)<\/p><\/div>\n

With this in mind and inspired by Joan Clark, earlier in 2021 I set out to collect some of my own herbarium specimens. I packed up my rucksack with the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland\u2019s Guide to Collecting and Pressing Specimens<\/em>, my phone (for the camera), a pair of scissors, a pack of coffee filters (in place of parchment paper), and Delia Smith\u2019s Complete Illustrated Cookbook<\/em> (the weightiest book in my library and my makeshift flower press).<\/p>\n

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Pressed plant specimen, \u2018Bluebell\u2019, collected by Elaine MacGillivray at the Den of Scone, June 2021.<\/p><\/div>\n

I collected around 10 specimens from a local Perthshire woodland. Some of them I knew well, like the common broom, vetches, campion and bluebell; others left me scratching my head.<\/p>\n

\"Pressed<\/a>

Pressed plant specimen, \u2018Unidentified\u2019, collected by Elaine MacGillivray at the Den of Scone, June 2021.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

In attempting to identify my specimens, I found myself poring over Francis Buchanan White\u2019s Flora of Perthshire<\/em> (1898), the Perthshire Society for Natural Science\u2019s Checklist of the Plants of Perthshire<\/em> (1992), and an old copy of the Readers\u2019 Digest Guide to Wildflowers of Britain (1996)<\/em>. I compared my specimens to photographs that I had of Joan Clark\u2019s specimen books, and to images and descriptions on the webpages of the Scottish Wildlife Trust, Wildflower Finder, and the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland. The result is that some of my metadata remains lacking until such a time as I can identify and name the plant, or until my newly acquired membership of the botany section of the Perthshire Society for Natural Science pays dividends!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Pressed plant specimen, \u2018Common Broom\u2019, collected by Elaine MacGillivray at Nether Balgarvie \/ Parkfield House, Scone, June 2021.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The creative process of collecting, pressing, identifying and documenting was completely absorbing. Through it I have learned to pay greater attention to my environment, gained a deeper understanding of my locality and the interdependence of people and plants. One of the many privileges of working so intimately with archival collections is that we are repeatedly offered a unique opportunity to develop knowledge and interest in a person, subject or era that otherwise may well have eluded us. In trying to see the world through the botanical wisdom of Joan Clark, the present-day natural world has opened up to me in a way I might never have imagined. I have an even greater respect for the knowledge, work, tenacity, dedication and patience that she and others must have brought to their botanical studies. I wonder what Joan Clark would have made of my amateur attempt to emulate her. I hope that she would be pleased that her legacy has inspired, and is able to continue to inspire, a new found passion to know, understand and protect plants and their environment.<\/p>\n\n\t\t