Paper Gardens: The Lives of Botanical Illustrations in India

Between the 17th and 20th centuries, the Indian subcontinent became a major site of botanical survey under colonial rule. British botanists set out to collect, classify, and circulate plant specimens in service of economic, scientific, and political aims. Central to this enterprise were thousands of botanical drawings produced by skilled – and often uncredited – Indian artists, which would go on to shape modern botany. Paper Gardens brings together hundreds of these illustrations, tracing encounters between plants, artists, and institutions, and reanimating the networks of labour and imagination that have built our understanding of the natural world. Featuring essays by art historian Dr Holly Shaffer, botanist Dr Henry J Noltie, and writer Sumana Roy, the book explores botanical drawings as living documents – as portraits of relationships between artist and patron, empire and subject, human and non-human life.