Thanks hugely to Isobel Moses (nee Hooker), descendant of the two first Directors of Kew Herbarium, and to all the nearly 9,000 who have put their names to our petition to Keep the Kew Herbarium at Kew.

Once we get above 10,000 names dialogue will be triggered with decision makers: the three Science Trustees of RBG, Kew (Ian Graham, Paul Nurse, Christopher Gilligan), the Minister of State for DEFRA, Lord Benyon, and his Shadow, Jim McMahon. The final decision to move the herbarium cannot go ahead without their support.

So please, help us getting to 10,000 names by signing and sharing the link to this petition https://chng.it/vsDT2xmKXN to avoid catastrophe and keep the Kew Herbarium at Kew!

Spread the word on Twitter: @kewkeepers and Facebook: KewKeepers

Petition comment from descendant of William and Joseph Hooker:

“This is being signed by Isobel Moses (nee Hooker), a descendant of the first two Directors. The collection was started by William Hooker, who bought his first cabinet in 1806 - thus the first specimens are well over 200 years old. When he became Director in 1841, William Hooker moved his entire collection of specimens from Glasgow, where he had been Professor of Botany, by ship from there to the riverside at Kew. It was then the largest collection in the world, bigger than that in Berlin (the largest in Europe). Following Darwin's voyage on the Beagle, Kew acquired many new specimens from him. Joseph Hooker, who became the second Director in 1865, had added many more specimens from his voyage with Ross to the Antarctic (1839-43) and his travels in Sikkim, Nepal and India (1847-1851). All these specimens collected by Darwin and the Hookers are, therefore, likely to be very fragile, and it would be doubtful that they could be moved without severe damage and loss.
I have met several botanists, and Hooker cousins, visiting from the US and Australia, who have all regarded a visit to the Herbarium and Archives as essential. Other scientific visitors from abroad, staying in the London area, would find it very difficult to fit in a visit to a likely green-field site outside Reading, and could well omit an important part of their intended trip. The Herbarium in Kew is easily accessible by public transport - unlikely if it is moved. The proposed move makes no sense whatsoever, and would remove a key part of Kew from the rest of its activities, at a time of increasing concern about the dire effects of global warming.”

We respectfully appeal to Isobel Hooker to consider contacting us by email at savekewherbarium@gmail.com so that we can publicise her message further with her permission.

Thank you all for your continued support!