Orchid Mania: The Victorian Obsession that Changed the World

In the nineteenth century, a single exotic orchid bloom appearing in one of the auction houses of London could command a price greater than a lifetime of wages for an average laborer, as such mysterious and rare beauties became a symbol of status and wealth among the aristocracy. Richly illustrated, Orchid Mania explores the botanical fever that swept Britain, Europe, and later the United States, set against the backdrop of the Victorian zeitgeist of world conquest and exploration. This was an era unique in history that led to the establishment of powerful commercial orchid dynasties. These enterprises employed numerous intrepid collectors who braved shipwrecks, violence, and countless hardships, in order to satisfy the insatiable demand of their wealthy British and European patrons, as well as the burgeoning middle class. The book explores the famous collections of the era, both private and public, together with the great glasshouses and conservatories that housed these exotic treasures from the Far East and the Americas. Moreover, as this was a period of ground-breaking science, the book addresses many taxonomic issues and those of botanists faced with describing the thousands of new orchid species that had never been seen before. Stoking the frenzy in orchid growing was the appearance of numerous publications that filled their pages with the new arrivals, often in lavish color, as well as providing extensive notes on the specific needs of their cultivation. These publications could not have survived without the assistance of the unsung artists who made the meticulous color illustrations, many of which were done by women who defied the restrictive gender norms of their ‘Ruskinesque’ milieu. As the century progressed the discoveries from the wild were given an additional impetus with the creation of man-made hybrids never before conceived by Nature. Although the enthusiasm for orchids carried on in a somewhat more subdued note into the Edwardian period, it was the advent of World War I that put a bracket around the Orchid Mania era. Yet the orchid’s mystery and exotic legacy lingers on to the present day.