Leonie Paterson (Archivist Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh)
Leonie says -
"I've been at the Botanics now for 23 years - working with the archives for most of that time. I've not got a botanical background at all, my degree was in archaeology, but I've found i've become interested in the human stories in the archives - in the people responsible for creating what we have, in particular the plant collector George Forrest who travelled out to China 7 times at the start of the 20th Century to introduce new plants to Britain, and also many of our Regius Keepers, or Directors, Sir Isaac Bayley Balfour in particular - who features very heavily in the story about our involvement in the sphagnum moss movement in Britain during the First World War. Every so often a subject or theme will grab my attention - our war memorial, or our first female gardeners, for example, but the file labelled 'Sphagnum archives' really interested me, and although I certainly wouldn't call myself an expert, I've spent some time reading through the letters and looking at the associated photographs to create the talk I'm going to give tonight..."