Insights into our collections
Valerie Finnis’ photographs in the RHS Lindley Library collections
An introduction to the RHS Lindley Library's collection of photographs taken by the horticulturalist Valerie Finnis
Valerie Finnis at Waterperry Horticultural School, c.1950s. Reference: P/FIN/1/172. CC BY-SA 4.0
Who was Valerie Finnis?
Valerie Finnis was a horticultural photographer and expert in alpine plants. She attended Waterperry Horticultural School for Women from 1942, and received a thorough education in theoretical and practical horticulture. After she gained the Waterperry diploma, Finnis stayed on as an instructor until 1970, teaching trainee gardeners and developing the alpine collection.
In the 1950s Finnis’ career diversified. She continued to teach at Waterperry but was able to leave from time to time to deliver lectures and help people with their gardens. She met and became good friends with lots of people from the world of horticulture – plant collectors, botanists, nurserymen and women, garden designers and some people that just had great gardens.
In 1955 Finnis was given her first camera – a Rolleiflex - by Wilhelm Schacht, friend and curator of the Munich Botanical Garden. Here began a lifelong passion for horticultural photography. Finnis’ collection of photographs comprises several thousand mostly unmounted 120mm colour transparencies taken with her Rolleiflex camera.
People and plants: Finnis’ subject matter
The collection shows photographs of plants, gardens and still life, but perhaps the most interesting and unique parts of this collection are Finnis’ photographs of horticultural people, often friends she photographed while visiting their gardens. Finnis’ style of photography was more candid than formal, and she usually captured her subjects engaged in an activity like digging, planting or just relaxing in the garden. Amongst Finnis’ subjects are important names and gardens in twentieth-century horticulture, for example: Vita Sackville-West at Sissinghurst Castle, Margery Fish at East Lambrook Manor, Alan Bloom at Bressingham Gardens, Lady Rhoda Birley at Charleston Manor, Nancy Lancaster Haseley Court, Chris Brickell and Frank Knight at Waterperry, David Shackleton at Beech Park in Clonsilla and many more.
Valerie Finnis, R.B. Cooke at Kilbryde in Corbridge, c.1969. Reference: P/FIN/1/169. CC BY-SA 4.0
However, many of the photographs also show people and places that are lesser known or unknown in the history of horticulture. For example, nurseryman Arthur Branch of Shipton-on-Cherwel in Oxfordshire and Connie Greenfield, a plantswoman from Surrey and member of the Alpine Garden Society.
In 1970 Valerie Finnis married Sir David Scott, the nephew of the Duke of Buccleuch, and moved into his home, The Dower House, part of Boughton House in Northamptonshire. David was also a keen gardener, particularly of trees and old roses, and there are many photographs in the collection of Finnis and Scott in the garden together, often accompanied by their favourite pet pugs, Kate and Sophie. One photograph in the collection shows Finnis and Scott weeding in the garden together, only a few hours after their wedding! A year later, Waterperry Horticultural School closed and Finnis had her collection of several thousand alpines transferred to The Dower House.
Finnis’ collection was bequeathed to RHS Lindley Library following her death in 2006, and most of these transparencies are still housed in the original sleeves they arrived in. Some of these sleeves include an address label either from her time at Waterperry or later at The Dower House and handwritten inscriptions detailing the subject matter and number allocated by Finnis.
Links
Author
Nicola Mayer, Photography Cataloguer, RHS Lindley Library
Insight type
Short read