LightNews LightNews
alice-munday.bsky.social
@alice-munday.bsky.social
53 followers 240 following 2 posts
Archives Trainee. All views my own.
Posts Replies Media Videos
alice-munday.bsky.social
Solidarity with BL strikers ✊
anna-aslanyan.bsky.social Anna Aslanyan @anna-aslanyan.bsky.social · 5d
British Library staff asked for a decent pay. Instead they got ‘a few money-saving present ideas’, such as ‘consider not giving presents this holiday season’. They are on strike this week. I wrote about it for @lrb.co.uk. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/de...
Anna Aslanyan | On the Picket Line
On Monday morning, more than a hundred people formed a picket line outside one of the entrances to the British Library...
www.lrb.co.uk
December 13, 2025 at 9:47 AM
Reposted
rbgkew.bsky.social
🎶A botanical musical? We recently stumbled across these in the 'Flora Cibaria' manuscript of botanist Lilly Wigg (1749-1828). The volumes consist of other people's writings and are full of surprises, with psalms and melodies strewn throughout, and little direct link to the botany on the page. #KewLA
Two lines of musical notation written vertically down a page in a bound manuscript volume. On either side of the notation are handwritten notes referencing plants, their uses and publications relating to them. As the photo is taken at an angle, some of the writing is cropped. Trippasia R 15. Citrus parva Guin I 63 Balsamita vulgar... Willd Tom III Pars III ... Tanacetum Balsamita ... Lin Ulva diaphana makes an excellent pickle. Mr J D Downes.
December 11, 2025 at 11:30 AM
Reposted
hetanshah.bsky.social
I’ve written a piece on the curious lack of media and political interest in the issues faced by our national @britishlibrary.bsky.social. This is strange given we live in a world where ideas, knowledge and research are a long-term source of innovation and insight
www.cityam.com/the-british-...
The British library is in crisis: why does nobody care?
The widespread indifference to the British Library's crippling cyberattack demonstrates a perilous failure to value the knowledge infrastructure vital for national prosperity
www.cityam.com
November 18, 2025 at 6:27 AM
Reposted
rbgkew.bsky.social
Today on #ArmisticeDay, we're remembering the Kew staff who served during both World Wars and balanced their lives in science and horticulture with duty and sacrifice 🧵👇

#KewLA
Herbarium illustration of a paper showing colour code bar at the top of the image.
November 11, 2025 at 1:09 PM
Reposted
rbgkew.bsky.social
One story that stands out from our "Men on Active Service" volume is J. Sparrow, who served in the Army Cyclist Corps in the First World War. Awarded the Military Medal in 1916, he returned to Kew in 1919.

#KewLA
An opened volume with blue pages with a light brown folder and stapled collection of papers resting on top and covering the bottom half of the pages underneath. In the volume, there are several columns which are titled as follows: name, private address, service no + unit, position at Kew, married or single, no of children, weekly wage. Titles of three remaining columns are cut off in the image. The second row is for a J.Sparrow of Kew Bridge Road, Brentford who held a gardener position. On the right hand side of the volume, a white strip of paper has been glued in and reads the following: ‘Pte J Sparrow, No.4650, 24th Divisional Cyclist Company, Army Service Corps. British Expeditionary Force. Awarded Military Medal.’ The brown folder has a black label with white typescript reading ‘J.Sparrow’ in the top lefthand corner. The stapled papers read ‘Name – John Sparrow’ as well as fields for home address and date of application or renewal, but these have been left incomplete.
November 11, 2025 at 1:09 PM
Reposted
zackpolanski.bsky.social
Solidarity with @pcsunion.bsky.social workers at the British Library.

300 workers on strike. Some of them having to take second jobs or taking out loans just to be able to survive.

A Pay "award" below inflation is a pay cut. Unacceptable.

Solidarity - and keep organising! ✊🏼
Zack on picket line with workers from PCS and British Library.
November 7, 2025 at 2:10 PM
alice-munday.bsky.social
Great to be part of #HistDay25 and talk all about Kew, as well as exploring for myself lots of new archives and collections!
rbgkew.bsky.social Kew Gardens @rbgkew.bsky.social · Nov 4
Today, our Graduate Trainees have been representing Kew Library & Archives for #HistDay25 at Senate House Library. It's been a great way to share highlights from our collections with potential students and researchers as well as discover more about other libraries and archives! #KewLA
A selection of copied Library, Illustrations and Archives material dipslayed across a table with a black tablecloth. There are two upright perspex holders with advertisements for the current exhibitions at Kew "Flora Indica" and "Persia Reimagined". Botanical illustrations on the table are of a carnivorous plant, painted by Marianne North, and fly agaric mushrooms, drawn by Elsie Wakefield. Other items on the table are copies of a handwritten letter, a copy of Curtis' Botanical Magazine, a Rocque map of Kew Gardens, a colour chart by Burchell, as well as stacks of postcards and badges for visitors to take.
November 4, 2025 at 5:35 PM
Reposted
tribunemagazine.bsky.social
British Library workers are sick of poor pay, overwork, and feeling the fallout of a cyber-attack which left them vulnerable to identity theft and blackmail. Now, they are going on strike for a fortnight.

tribunemag.co.uk/2025/10/from...
From National Treasure to National Scandal
British Library workers are sick of poor pay, overwork, and feeling the fallout of a cyber-attack which left them vulnerable to identity theft and blackmail. Now, they are going on strike for a fortni...
tribunemag.co.uk
October 27, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Reposted
ledbydonkeys.org
Farage: epic grifter
October 27, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Reposted
rbgkew.bsky.social
Last week our Library & Archives team welcomed 60 students from Graphic Comms at the University of Southampton to explore themes around plant histories, challenging perspectives through engagement with the archive. We look forward to seeing their interpretations of the display we prepared! #KewLA
A spacious library room with tables displaying open historical books, manuscripts, and documents under bright linear ceiling lights.
October 15, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Reposted
oddthisday.bsky.social
Ah, happy 88th anniversary of the day Oswald Mosley tried to sell fascism to Liverpudlians – and someone concussed him with a brick
A man in a suit stands at a microphone which has been mounted on the roof of a van. There are loudspeakers at his feet, and a building behind him. He has an arm raised, and is flinching as projectiles are hurled at him, because he's a fucking Nazi
October 10, 2025 at 7:53 AM
Reposted
rbgkew.bsky.social
Botanist or poet? For National Poetry Day, we discovered poetry hidden amongst the personal papers of botanists - from J. Fraser’s 1919 poem on poppies to H.M Ward’s critique’s on his mother’s poetry!
#KewLA
Close up of letter from H.M. Ward to his mother, reading: ‘July 20: I have just got the second batch of your poems. I strongly advise you to be careful, the ideas are…& poetical to a degree; but you…too apt to lose the on the metre on you…in technical construction. Handwritten poem by J Fraser, titled ‘The Corn Poppy’ with a sentence crossed out then four stanzas reading: “The scarlet poppy reddens daily, Amongst the cornfields blossoms gaily, Makes comely neighbours wanton palely, and dazzles all beneath the skies, But beckons me with swanting [sic] eyes. Uh! Could I like the gliding swallow, Explore the vale and upland follows, No more in smoky dens I’d swallow, No longer breathe the air that falls Midst crowded streets and staring walls. Then would I bid adieu to collow, And scour the…height and hollow, Un…the downs and blithely follow, along the fields where bright corn rose – The glorious flaming poppy – glows. To-day would have no room for sorrow, No boding thoughts to gloom to-morrow, And each day after fair would borrow Another glide along the plain, to search amongst the bended grain’” Loose papers, with handwritten poem on top of five stanzas, the second of which is crossed out then rewritten underneath. It reads: “The transport bent by wholesome breezes, Where charming guise of landscape pleases, Brings life amend, as man can…., and genders thanks for flow’r so fair, That smile and make my errand there. I love to see the wild bee settle, Upon the smooth and silky petal, And laugh to view its ardent mettle, When tumbling round the…flow’r, Collecting bee bread hour by hour. The longest day draws with gloaming, And puts an end to handsome roaming; I grieve to mark its shadows coming, But more to think when day is blind, that I must leave my flow’r behind. The corn, the poppy, bee and ether, And birds that wing on airy feather, all choose the wilds and hang together, Beneath the great and blue sky-dome, And I must visit them at home” Signed at end: J.F., March 15th 1919
October 2, 2025 at 9:50 AM
Reposted
jntod.bsky.social
On National Poetry Day, the greatest poem I have ever read
A printed poem which reads: I hav for breakfast Weetabix I hav for lunch some meat I have for tea 2 sosajis and thats enuf to eat Peter Hazel, 5
October 2, 2025 at 8:41 AM
Reposted
bucksarchives.bsky.social
Want to sign an apologetic letter? Don't just include your signature, do what Charles Grenfell has done in this 1870s letter: draw a little sketch of yourself and say that you 'feel quite idiotic'.
A signature in a letter written on black ink on thin white paper. It says 'From your [?] Charles Grenfell'. Beneath the signature is a sketch of a man posing with the words 'feel quite idiotic'.
September 26, 2025 at 1:19 PM
Reposted
araukie.bsky.social
Why aren’t Police Records in England & Wales covered by the Public Records Act? We've been campaigning on this since 2012 - blog for more info:
www.campaignforrecords.org/blog/why-arent-police-records-covered-by-the-public-records-act
#publicaccountability
of interest @andyburnham.bsky.social ?
Photo of a paper airplane on fire with text that reads "I am under no obligation to disclose anything and the papers belong to me. If I wanted to I could take them into the yard and have a bonfire with them" South Yorkshire Chief Constable Med Hughes. Credit for photo of on fire airplane is Aron Yigin via Unsplash
September 25, 2025 at 10:36 AM
Reposted
rbgkew.bsky.social
Our team recently came across these beautiful drawings of wild flowers in Libya. They were made by Jocelyn Russell in 1940s. Her Mechanised Transport Corps was stationed in North Africa during WWII and it was during this time that she made illustrations of the plants she saw. #KewLA #Wildflowers
Media (75): A cropped section from a page of a notebook, with handwriting in lines to the left of a coloured sketch. The cropped writing reads: "Sinapsis arvensis. Charlock specimen. ..., spreading plant … with numerous form-petalled … clear yellow flowers. 6 stamens… arranged 4 long, 2 short, leaves variable, .... stem leaves at the base of ... each branch deeply ... toothed, radical leaves...much cut. Stem covered ... with stiff hairs. In damp places grows to 2 feet in height. Brassica specimen ... 🐡 Media (76): A cropped section from a page of a notebook, with a coloured illustration in the bottom left corner of a written page. The cropped text reads: "in lenth ... is water. Flowers ... closely packed clusters ... 12 together, on short pedicels. Leaves with ... stalks, and three broad, toothed leaflets. Seedpods medium, much wrinkled. Very common on gravelly desert, forming brilliant yellow patches, as it flowers most prolifically, January to March. Vetch specimen. Handsome plant growing in most places. Flowers yellowish white, medium size, with standard ... delicate deck vein... leaves with 7-9 ... of leaflets, ending... forked tendril... small, dark ... Seedpod.
August 28, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Reposted
rbgkew.bsky.social
We’re thrilled to be a recipient of the latest Archives Revealed grant to catalogue & make accessible the personal papers of individuals in our collections! 🎉

This will help us uncover the hidden voices of women, Indigenous peoples & names less commonly associated with botany 🌱

👉 ow.ly/5TTb50WI3tj
Black-and-white photograph labelled “Plate 31” showing a field camp in the Kirkia forests between Tutumi and Bushman Mine. Two vehicles are parked in a grassy clearing, with one person standing between them and supplies scattered on the ground. Sparse trees surround the scene. Page from a historical botanical notebook featuring handwritten descriptions of plant species. The text is written in cursive. Another page from a historical botanical notebook featuring handwritten descriptions of plant species. The text is written in cursive.
August 19, 2025 at 9:04 AM
Reposted
rbgkew.bsky.social
For this month’s #ExploreYourArchive theme #EYAHumour, we found the 1976 journal of the ‘Gilbert and Succulent Society’ in our Kewensia ephemeral collections. Seemingly only ‘published’ once, it contains humorous poems and articles – we enjoyed this one about a cactus’s haircare routine. #KewLA
A image from a handmade journal, with a typescript poem titled ‘On the Showing of Oreocereus’. First stanza reads: “The best thing for this cactus/when he’s going to a show,/is to apply a shampoo – thus:”. Underneath is drawing of cactus hidden beneath shampoo suds and bubbles. The second stanza reads: “-From topmost spine to toe./A most refreshing feeling this-/When you have hair as long as his!”. Underneath is a second drawing of a smiling cactus, with all of its spikes standing on end. 🐡 #SciArt
August 21, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Reposted
mrcwarwick.bsky.social
Time to celebrate #NationalPotatoDay with 'Spuds in Pubs'. You've probably never considered smoked mackerel fillets with orange segments, or cod roe with pearl onions, as jacket potato toppings.

These culinary delights feature in the British Beer and Pub Association papers from the 1970s.
Cover of 'Spuds in Pubs' featuring a jacket potato, a pint and a set of darts. List of unusual baked potato fillings accompanied by a colour photograph.
August 19, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Reposted
rbgkew.bsky.social
With the Palm House set for restoration in 2027, we dipped into the archives to see how our iconic glasshouse has been cared for over time. One surprising find? The coronation arches from the Mall in 1953 were considered for a past restoration!

Missed the announcement? 👉 www.kew.org/kew-gardens/...
A typed report from section titled “Section 2: Survey and Investigation of the Structural Condition”. Text on the left-hand side of the image describes the need for a structural survey of Palm House, beginning in December 1980, which “highlighted certain areas which are in a critical condition”. Two photos (of “Clerestory Pilaster Damage” and “Lantern Structure”) on the right hand side of the image. The photo is taken diagonally across the page so that sections of the lines are not within frame. An architectural drawing showing 4 glasshouses plus surrounding gardens. The arches within the drawing are those found on the Mall during the 1953 Coronation, as noted on caption found on the back of the drawing.
August 7, 2025 at 10:56 AM
Reposted
marshslibrary.bsky.social
Vandalism! At some stage in its nearly 500 year history, someone cut out the printer's ornament from the title page of our 1544 copy of Aesop's Fables.
Title page of 16th century book with woodcut illustration cut out
August 5, 2025 at 4:16 PM