Hookathon: hacking the Herbarium

For the first time, Kew Gardens are offering historical datasets and images relating to Joseph Hooker, inviting you to explore imaginative ways in which digital tools can be used to experiment with these sources and provide new ways of understanding this historical data.

Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817 – 1911) was a trailblazing botanist and explorer. Detailing plant diversity and economic botany throughout his many expeditions, he remains an influential figure to modern botanical science. The legacy of Hooker’s work can be seen throughout Kew: from the new plant specimens he introduced to Kew, as most notably seen within the Rhododendron Dell, to the dried specimens, museums objects, publications and illustrations which are housed within Kew Gardens. 

Many parts of these valuable collections have been digitised by the respective departments in Kew which house these collections to improve access to these resources.  The challenge for this Hackathon is to use digital humanities tools to explore the Hooker related data, primarily relating to his collecting trip to India, at Kew. Participants will work together in teams to find diverse ways to connect, analyse, visualise and interpret the data, and at the end of the day will present their ideas in a ‘show and tell session’.