Catalogue description British Museum (Natural History): Department of Botany: Exhibitions in the Botany Gallery

This series contains the correspondence and papers raised by John F M Cannon (b 1930) during the renewal of the Botany Gallery, between 1956 and 1962.

Associated papers are in the Exhibition Officer's Project Files.

Access conditions: Subject to 30 year closure unless otherwise stated

Transferred by Dr Cannon from the Keeper's Office in 1990.

'The new botanical exhibition gallery at the British Museum (Natural History)', JFM Cannon, Curator, 5: 26-35 (1962)

• People: John Francis Michael Cannon (1930-)
• Mary Rosalie Jane Edwards (1902-1994)

The old Botany gallery, together with the general herbarium, was badly damaged by bombs on the night of 9 September 1940. After the war, the general herbarium and library moved to the west wing, and a mezzanine was inserted to take a new exhibition gallery above the new cryptogamic herbarium. Cannon joined the Department in 1952, and was put in charge of the project the following year.

The Gallery was the first to be planned and built in the Museum after the War, and it represented a new attempt to make natural history accessible to the general public. Design and production was entrusted to a small firm called Preview, which was led by H R Allen. Miss M R J Edwards, the Museum Exhibition Officer, was also involved in both planning and production. The gallery was opened by Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother on 31 October 1962 and was dismantled in 1982.