The collection was deposited with the Borthwick Institute in 2016, by descendants of James Hornby's niece. 

The  archive contains correspondence, photographs, and artefacts collected throughout the career of James Hornby and by his wife after his death. 

The archive is accessible by appointment in our reading room.

The collection deepens our institutional understanding of the landscape we're in, giving context and background to buildings and green spaces now owned by the University of York. 

The herbarium of ferns, gifted to the Hornby family from Chatsworth, contains collected specimens from all over the world and connects the family to a wider Victorian horticultural network.

The 'Diary of Operations' documents in detail the temperature fluctuations, weather conditions and success of a variety of cultivars planted in the gardens at Heslington Hall, as well as illustrating connections between seed merchants, other aristocratic gardens and the work and life of a gardener at a large house.