John Templeton’s (1766–1825) ‘Hibernian Flora’ and the Emergence of Irish Botany

This project examines the scientific archive and legacy of one of Ireland’s most pioneering yet under-researched botanists, John Templeton. The Ulster Museum holds a nationally important collection of manuscripts, journals, drawings, correspondence, and specimens belonging to Templeton, including his unpublished five-volume manuscript known as the Hibernian Flora. No in-depth study of these manuscripts has ever been undertaken, and it will be the focal point of this research. The project comprises a multidisciplinary combination of digital and historiographical methods. Templeton’s Hibernian Flora will be digitised as both a research resource and the core data for an online edition. The text and illustrations will then be critically interrogated to mark-up important botanical and historical data, linked via a custom metadata schema to other archival material, enabling a reconstruction of his discoveries, collecting activities and networks. This will generate chronological, spatial, and contextual analysis, not only highlighting Templeton’s botanical contributions but also situating them within the political and cultural contexts of Protestant ascendancy, Irish rebellion, and the Acts of Union. Templeton’s Hibernian Flora was no isolated endeavour. His pioneering study of Irish plant biodiversity was achieved during a time in which ‘national’ Floras became an established botanical genre. The Hibernian Flora presents an opportunity to investigate inter-related questions around the formation of Irish national identity and advances in ‘scientific’ botany. The project will deepen our understanding of the Templeton collection held by the Ulster Museum, enabling enhanced curation, interpretation, and communication of this important collection for a range of publics.