Imperial Intervention: Botanic Gardens, Science, and Colonial Administration in the British Empire, Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries
Williams, J'Nese Nicole
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2018-07-31
Abstract
Many works on the history of science and the British empire, including histories of botanic gardens in the British colonies, focus on the motivations and actions of people and institutions in metropolitan centers for organizing activities in the colonies. Less is known about the colonial experience of increasing attention from imperial government, or more specifically, the way that botanic gardens in the empire related to their local communities. This dissertation uses case studies of British botanic gardens in India, Australia, and the Caribbean to examine imperial intervention and the pursuit of colonial botany and agricultural improvement from the perspective of people in the empire. The trajectories of the botanic gardens at these sites demonstrate that garden policy grew out of competing desires of elite patrons, garden superintendents, enslaved and free laborers, agricultural societies, colonial governors, and other government officials. Existing regional styles of governance and attitudes toward the governed shaped the approaches that the botanic garden staff took to develop the plant wealth of each colony. The garden superintendents’ scientific expertise was scarce and valuable in the colonies, allowing them to develop a degree of local importance. However, they had to ingratiate themselves with local elites in order to create administrative and scientific authority. Ultimately, this project reveals the local accommodation that was necessary to increase imperial oversight though new government institutions and resident specialists. This study also demonstrates how garden workers challenged social and racial codes to gain recognition for their knowledge, and in some cases, push the boundaries of who could have a scientific reputation.