New exhibition celebrates the local origins of artificial silk

On Thursday 22 June 2023, the Museum of Richmond was delighted to welcome Richard Deverell, Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, to open its new special exhibition Artificial Silk: From Kew to the World.

The exhibition explores a little-known local scientific invention with a huge global impact: the development of artificial silk.

Invented in Kew at the turn of the twentieth century, viscose rayon is a soft, silky textile made from wood pulp which is still one of the most widely produced fibres in the world today.

Garments, fabric samples and archival materials are displayed in the exhibition and help to tell a fascinating story which touches on chemistry, invention, fashion, consumption, globalisation, the environment and more.

Working with the Museum on an accompanying education project were a group of Art and Design students from Richmond upon Thames College, who produced 27 individual artworks in response to themes from the exhibition. Photographs of pieces for their Final Projects inspired by the word 'transformation' are showcased in the display at the Museum.

Artificial Silk: From Kew to the World  is free to visit during usual Museum opening hours and will run until March 2024.

The Museum is very grateful to its Benefactors, in addition to The Royal Society, The Textile Society and Antony Roberts for supporting the project and enabling it to share this significant local case study with a wider audience.