American Curiosity

Cultures of Natural History in the Colonial British Atlantic World

Nonfiction, History, Americas, United States, Colonial Period (1600-1775)
Cover of the book American Curiosity by Susan Scott Parrish, Omohundro Institute and University of North Carolina Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Susan Scott Parrish ISBN: 9780807838891
Publisher: Omohundro Institute and University of North Carolina Press Publication: December 1, 2012
Imprint: Omohundro Institute and University of North Carolina Press Language: English
Author: Susan Scott Parrish
ISBN: 9780807838891
Publisher: Omohundro Institute and University of North Carolina Press
Publication: December 1, 2012
Imprint: Omohundro Institute and University of North Carolina Press
Language: English

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.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

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.

More books from Omohundro Institute and University of North Carolina Press

Cover of the book The Old Dominion in the Seventeenth Century by Susan Scott Parrish
Cover of the book Notes on the State of Virginia by Susan Scott Parrish
Cover of the book The Ordeal of the Longhouse by Susan Scott Parrish
Cover of the book Moral Capital by Susan Scott Parrish
Cover of the book The Devil and Doctor Dwight by Susan Scott Parrish
Cover of the book Winthrop's Boston by Susan Scott Parrish
Cover of the book The Power of Objects in Eighteenth-Century British America by Susan Scott Parrish
Cover of the book The Indians’ New World by Susan Scott Parrish
Cover of the book Through a Glass Darkly by Susan Scott Parrish
Cover of the book The Democratic Republicans of New York by Susan Scott Parrish
Cover of the book The Practice of Piety by Susan Scott Parrish
Cover of the book The Elusive Republic by Susan Scott Parrish
Cover of the book The Science of the Soul in Colonial New England by Susan Scott Parrish
Cover of the book Strangers Within the Realm by Susan Scott Parrish
Cover of the book Tobacco and Slaves by Susan Scott Parrish
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy