Marcus Bicknell announced today that the Catalogue of Clarence Bicknell items in the Bicknell family collection has been made public online. Since Marcus was given the collection by his Cambridge uncle Peter Bicknell (who had been given them by Clarence’s niece Margaret Berry in the 1950s), Marcus kept the Excel spreadsheet listing everything passworded, i.e. anyone wanting to access it had to know the password. Recently Clarence’s work, and public interest in him, has outweighed the need for security. It is apparent that there is little monetary value to the watercolours and books so a list of them is not a theft risk.
The list is published in Microsoft Excel today at Catalogue_of_Clarence_Bicknell_items
Interest by researchers into Clarence’s work increases year by year and a comprehensive list of what is available to consult is considered useful. Luca Barale, senior researcher at the National Research Council of Italy, Institute of Geosciences, Via Valperga Caluso 35, 10125 Torino in Italy has recently been working on geological samples given by Clarence to Bari and Turino universities. Having seen the complete list of items he found several which were relevant to research projects by colleagues and his own so he asked for image e-copies. This is an example of the need for us, and for Clarence’s sake, to publish the list in full so that it is available on the internet. We will publish his new works when they are available. His 2024 paper is among those at https://clarencebicknell.com/documents/
The internet search engine is a wonderful tool. Graham Avery’s interest in Clarence and his research into Reginald Farrer (1880 –1920), traveller and plant collector brought him in 2012 to Clarence’s Casa Fontanalba Visitors’ Book, which I had published online in 2005, and the realisation that Farrer and Bicknell had met there. Graham fell in love with Clarence and his circle of botanists, was a founder member of the Clarence Bicknell Association, its Vice-Chairman for life and a wonderful friend. I am sure there will be other examples of great research and new friendships thanks to publishing everything we do on the internet where it can be found.
Marcus Bicknell, 31 Oct 2026