Jim Endersby published the aptly titled Imperial Nature in 2008. The book is an absolute delight to read which is one of the reason it has taken so long to get a post up. It is a book that is so interesting that you simply cannot scan through for the high points. My penchant for word play heightens the enjoyment of the title. At first glance it may mean simply nature that belongs to the Empire, but deeper within you will find that this type of botanizing (and science methodology, actually) is part of the nature of the Empire as well.
Since the beginning of the year I have been involved in a project of more or less my own design. I have been digitizing and curating a collection of photos at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History here at OU. They are mostly records of paleontology projects undertaken at some point with WPA funds. Some were already working before the WPA projects, others were opened with the funding, others still were either, neither, or both.
copyright Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, the University of Oklahoma
David Elliston Allen’s 1976 social history of the naturalist in Britain is by all accounts “a classic.” Interestingly enough it was republished in 1994 by Princeton University Press from its original Penguin Books which brings into the question the relationship of popular press vs rigorous (inflated pricing) of university presses, but you can take that up on your own.
Plants and Empire (and abortion) by Londa Schiebinger
This is a book about abortion. That is to say that this work is about plants used to induce an abortion in the early modern period. Deep in the heart of the book it is also about abortions as political economy against slave-owners. Thankfully for the publisher, it is also a book about “indigenous knowledge” and the transfer of knowledge through trade routes and from colonies/territories to the imperial possessors. In fact, it is more about the nontransfer of knowledge in the case of a particular plant used as abortifacients (a word you will truly get sick of seeing in not because of its connotations, but simply for the repeated use). You wouldn’t get the sense that “abortion as resistance” is a major theme in Schiebinger’s work from the title of the subtitle. I believe this is a calculated move on the part of Harvard University Press to allow this book to appeal to more than academics, which is should because Schiebinger is a fantastic author and the book can be easily taken up by non-specialists and it should be.
The discipline of History of Science, Technology, and Medicine has began to pride itself on the inclusion of non-western narratives in their classical antiquity sector. By this I mean to say the inclusion of Arabic sources and Islamic scientists. Some of those same people still completely ignore 1/3 of the European continent when they shift to the categorical “Early Modern” period. By extension this oversight leaves out an enormous wealth of source material dealing with the western hemisphere and the landholdings of the Iberian empire (I am using this term to include Spain and Portugal as a single unit).
This past week’s study was a foray into the Jardin du Roi and how it, and many of its staff, managed to weather the French Revolution and come out as the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle. E.C. Spary’s 2000 work is highly developed and pretty involved with the politics and poetics of natural history from Count Buffon and the Old Regime into the Republic, the Terror, and the annoying redating of things during the period that make it more difficult to follow the historical narrative. Thankfully Spary gives the regular dates in parenthesis. I will also give an early warning that there are sentences in here that have higher word counts than some of my students’ essays.
As a trudge steadily onward towards the completion of a PhD, and comprehensive exams in a few months I will be topping off my reading with some curated history of biology-esque works that will provide a bit or mortar to hold my foray into field science post Darwin to the premodern foundations and their recourse of shaking off the prefix. The first in (what I hope to be) a long line of reviews, overviews, notes, and general idiosyncratic fancies (more for myself to study for comps than anything) is Richard Holmes’ 2012 book The Age of Wonder.
It has always seemed odd to me how people can feel the impact of a person’s death if they had no immediate relationship or contact with that person. I suppose that passive relationships in the case of listening to someone’s music counts as much as anything because I find myself more saddened than usual on hearing of the death of Joe Cocker. It is always sad when someone dies and you feel some empathy for their family losing a husband or a father, or whatever, but the news today spun me into some ultra reflection of the music that shaped my life. Many (and there are many) obituaries talk about how unique Joe was as a person, and how humble he remained even after years of celebrity. NPR rescored the interview when he talked about his drinking and drug problems and his long climb back to sobriety. I knew none of that growing up in the 80s while my dad played his studio albums. (Once I figured out how to work the stereo I played it a LOT. This and Kris Krisstofferson’s Jesus was a Capricorn album, but that is another story.)
In the year since I posted last, I have not only outfitted an more than modest sized traveling museum and finished a second MA, but was able to squeeze in a few shows for students as well. The greatest highlight to share is that in a couple weeks I will be presenting Paleo Porch at the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Conference in Berlin, Germany. My abstract was accepted in the “Education and Outreach” session which is all poster format, but I will be going to discuss not only the outreach with traveling artifacts (in this case casts) but also how successful using the humanities to teach science outreach can be.
If you ever make it to Oklahoma City make it a point to visit the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. Formerly the Cowboy Hall of Fame don’t let its name and location fool you, there is something for everyone inside the gates.
