"Throughout the journey, whenever rains and swollen streams combined to overwhelm me with chagrin, I found reason to thank heaven which had enabled me to forget for the moment all my troubles in the contemplation of a simple moss."
About the Project
The Adventures of Richard Spruce is a highly innovative and evocative piece which tells a truly remarkable story about a little known botanical explorer Richard Spruce . This intrepid explorer made huge leaps in the botanical understanding
of the Amazon region collecting over 7000 new species and made a key contribution in cultivating the quinine bark in the Amazon which was the first antidote in the prevention and cure of malaria.
Told in the first person from original quotes from Spruce’s journals and letters, the story recounts how he endured impossible conditions, narrowly avoided civil war and struggled with a series of illnesses both real and imagined.
Audiences can explore Spruce’s findings in a visual and experiential journey of this determined hypochondriac whose obsessional eye for detail, passion for botany made him one of the largest contributors towards 19th Century Pharmacy and the botanical sciences.
The Adventures of Richard Spruce is available as a downloadable ebook or electronic accompaniment for related exhibitions and events.
Story Outline: The story outline loosely follows the life story of this incredible botanist from his early explorations in his own village to the expansive landscape of the Andes.
Early scenes of the novel describe the childhood of Spruce and his avid interest in the minutiae, while his peers are playing, Spruce is studying the tiny details of mosses and beginning to list the different types he has found. By 16 he has listed the 403 different species of plant found in his home town of Ganthorpe. As his passion grows, so does the length of his lists, at 19 he is on to flowering plants of the Malton district and within 10 years he has collected 30, 000 specimens from the Pyrenees. His eagle eye for detail enabled him to distinguish minute differences in plants bumping up the range of different flora and fauna from a previously thought 169 to 478 along the French/Spanish border.
Botanical mania was hitting Victorian Britain and the thirst for new land went hand in hand for the desire to discover and own new tropical plants from the territories. Spruce’s talents were duly noted by William Hooker, the director of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew who invited him on a collecting tour of the Andes. Spruce felt this was an opportunity not to be missed despite the fact he certainly did not resemble the adventurous type with his shy demeanour, week health and slight frame but sold off a range of specimens to rich collectors to fund the trip and sailed the dangerous voyage to South America.
Here his adventures and obsessive list making continued in Brazil, Venezuela and Ecuador where he lived amongst several groups of indigenous people learning over 21 different languages. It was with these people that Spruce discovered the healing properties of plants including the cinchona tree. Spruce was responsible for providing seeds of the tree from which antimalarial drug quinine was made and establish plantations from the malaria ridden colonies.
Richard spent a year cultivated and nurturing almost 700 seedlings which were carefully wrapped in his beloved moss and sent to England tended to by their own private gardener. From these survivors, hundreds and thousands of these plants were sent to be grown around the colonies saving many lives.
By the end of his expedition Richard could hardly move. He was deaf in one ear, partly paralysed with suspected tuberculosis and weakened by a bout of malaria which he had self-cured using his own discovery. From studying the tiniest of details in his surrounding environment this unlikely hero made a massive connection in the stepping stone of scientific exploration by following what started off as an obsessive hobby.
Early scenes of the novel describe the childhood of Spruce and his avid interest in the minutiae, while his peers are playing, Spruce is studying the tiny details of mosses and beginning to list the different types he has found. By 16 he has listed the 403 different species of plant found in his home town of Ganthorpe. As his passion grows, so does the length of his lists, at 19 he is on to flowering plants of the Malton district and within 10 years he has collected 30, 000 specimens from the Pyrenees. His eagle eye for detail enabled him to distinguish minute differences in plants bumping up the range of different flora and fauna from a previously thought 169 to 478 along the French/Spanish border.
Botanical mania was hitting Victorian Britain and the thirst for new land went hand in hand for the desire to discover and own new tropical plants from the territories. Spruce’s talents were duly noted by William Hooker, the director of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew who invited him on a collecting tour of the Andes. Spruce felt this was an opportunity not to be missed despite the fact he certainly did not resemble the adventurous type with his shy demeanour, week health and slight frame but sold off a range of specimens to rich collectors to fund the trip and sailed the dangerous voyage to South America.
Here his adventures and obsessive list making continued in Brazil, Venezuela and Ecuador where he lived amongst several groups of indigenous people learning over 21 different languages. It was with these people that Spruce discovered the healing properties of plants including the cinchona tree. Spruce was responsible for providing seeds of the tree from which antimalarial drug quinine was made and establish plantations from the malaria ridden colonies.
Richard spent a year cultivated and nurturing almost 700 seedlings which were carefully wrapped in his beloved moss and sent to England tended to by their own private gardener. From these survivors, hundreds and thousands of these plants were sent to be grown around the colonies saving many lives.
By the end of his expedition Richard could hardly move. He was deaf in one ear, partly paralysed with suspected tuberculosis and weakened by a bout of malaria which he had self-cured using his own discovery. From studying the tiniest of details in his surrounding environment this unlikely hero made a massive connection in the stepping stone of scientific exploration by following what started off as an obsessive hobby.