| American Curiosity: Cultures of Natural History in the Colonial British Atlantic World Contributor(s): Parrish, Susan Scott (Author) |
|
 |
ISBN: 0807856789 ISBN-13: 9780807856789 Publisher: Omohundro Institute and University of North C OUR PRICE: $35.63 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: February 2006 Annotation: Colonial America presented a new world of natural curiosities for settlers as well as the London-based scientific community. Parrish examines how various peoples in the British colonies understood and represented the natural world around them from the late 16th century through the 18th. Rather than flowing strictly from metropole to colony, scientific knowledge about America emerged from a horizontal exchange of information across the Atlantic. Parrish finds that Anglo-American nonelites, women, Indians, and enslaved Africans all played crucial roles in gathering and relaying new information to Europe. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | United States - Colonial Period (1600-1775) - History | Expeditions & Discoveries |
| Dewey: 508.097 |
| LCCN: 2005022337 |
| Series: Published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American Histo |
| Physical Information: 0.81" H x 6.06" W x 9.24" (1.10 lbs) 344 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Colonial America presented a new world of natural curiosities for settlers as well as the London-based scientific community. In American Curiosity, Susan Scott Parrish examines how various peoples in the British colonies understood and represented the natural world around them from the late sixteenth century through the eighteenth. Parrish shows how scientific knowledge about America, rather than flowing strictly from metropole to colony, emerged from a horizontal exchange of information across the Atlantic. Delving into an understudied archive of letters, Parrish uncovers early descriptions of American natural phenomena as well as clues to how people in the colonies construed their own identities through the natural world. Although hierarchies of gender, class, institutional learning, place of birth or residence, and race persisted within the natural history community, the contributions of any participant were considered valuable as long as they supplied novel data or specimens from the American side of the Atlantic. Thus Anglo-American nonelites, women, Indians, and enslaved Africans all played crucial roles in gathering and relaying new information to Europe. Recognizing a significant tradition of nature writing and representation in North America well before the Transcendentalists, American Curiosity also enlarges our notions of the scientific Enlightenment by looking beyond European centers to find a socially inclusive American base to a true transatlantic expansion of knowledge. |
Contributor Bio(s): Parrish, Susan Scott: - Susan Scott Parrish is associate professor of English at the University of Michigan. |