Raf de Bont
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780226141879
- eISBN:
- 9780226141909
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226141909.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter presents a historical overview of the rise of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century station movement in Europe. It sketches the movement’s major developments and puts these in ...
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This chapter presents a historical overview of the rise of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century station movement in Europe. It sketches the movement’s major developments and puts these in a wider context. It does so by exploring how turn-of-the-century biological stations related to the other scientific workplaces of the time. The hybrid character of the biological stations is addressed by discussing their relation with university laboratories, public aquariums and natural history museums and by comparing their practices with the excursions of naturalist societies and large-scale state-sponsored surveys. Obviously the ways in which these different influences were integrated highly varied from station to station. The diversity indeed ranges from highly technological and indoor-oriented marine laboratories to poorly equipped wooden cabins in the woods.Less
This chapter presents a historical overview of the rise of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century station movement in Europe. It sketches the movement’s major developments and puts these in a wider context. It does so by exploring how turn-of-the-century biological stations related to the other scientific workplaces of the time. The hybrid character of the biological stations is addressed by discussing their relation with university laboratories, public aquariums and natural history museums and by comparing their practices with the excursions of naturalist societies and large-scale state-sponsored surveys. Obviously the ways in which these different influences were integrated highly varied from station to station. The diversity indeed ranges from highly technological and indoor-oriented marine laboratories to poorly equipped wooden cabins in the woods.
Raf De Bont
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780226141879
- eISBN:
- 9780226141909
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226141909.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This book studies the early history of field stations and the role these played in the rise of zoological place-based research in the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century. It explores the ...
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This book studies the early history of field stations and the role these played in the rise of zoological place-based research in the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century. It explores the material and social context in which field stations arose, the actual research that was produced in these places, the epistemic claims that were developed there, and the rhetoric strategies that were deployed to convince others these claims made sense. In short, it analyses the intricate activities that enabled the zoologist to perform science in the animal’s natural habitat. The case studies of the book bring a heterogeneous (and understudied) scientific landscape to light that included university professors, science entrepreneurs, journalists, schoolteachers and even pastors. These researchers turned field stations into instruments to understand, amongst others, the life of parasitic invertebrates in northern France, freshwater plankton in Schleswig-Holstein, migratory birds in East-Prussia and pest insects in Belgium. The comparative and long-term studies necessary to appreciate the ways in which these animals interacted with their environment necessitated the zoologists to become residents in the field. It is the consequences of the choice to study nature in nature that are explored in this book.Less
This book studies the early history of field stations and the role these played in the rise of zoological place-based research in the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century. It explores the material and social context in which field stations arose, the actual research that was produced in these places, the epistemic claims that were developed there, and the rhetoric strategies that were deployed to convince others these claims made sense. In short, it analyses the intricate activities that enabled the zoologist to perform science in the animal’s natural habitat. The case studies of the book bring a heterogeneous (and understudied) scientific landscape to light that included university professors, science entrepreneurs, journalists, schoolteachers and even pastors. These researchers turned field stations into instruments to understand, amongst others, the life of parasitic invertebrates in northern France, freshwater plankton in Schleswig-Holstein, migratory birds in East-Prussia and pest insects in Belgium. The comparative and long-term studies necessary to appreciate the ways in which these animals interacted with their environment necessitated the zoologists to become residents in the field. It is the consequences of the choice to study nature in nature that are explored in this book.
Megan Raby
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781469635606
- eISBN:
- 9781469635613
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469635606.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Environmental History
Consciousness of tropical biodiversity exploded onto the scene in the 1980s following the 1986 National Forum on BioDiversity. Biodiversity was not a new concept to biologists, however. U.S. ...
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Consciousness of tropical biodiversity exploded onto the scene in the 1980s following the 1986 National Forum on BioDiversity. Biodiversity was not a new concept to biologists, however. U.S. scientists’ engagement with life in the tropics already stretched back a century. During this time, scientists had struggled with questions of the biological differences of the tropics—especially its richness in species—and at the same time entangled themselves in U.S. corporate and government efforts to exploit tropical resources. American Tropics argues that both the key scientific concepts and the values embedded in the modern biodiversity discourse had significant precedents in biologists’ involvement in U.S. encounters with the tropical world over the course of the twentieth century, centered on the circumCaribbean region. This book argues that the ideas, attitudes, and institutions forged at field sites in the colonies and neocolonies of the circumCaribbean are crucial for understanding the emergence of this new paradigm in biology and conservation at the end of the century. Long before the BioDiversity Forum extended such ideas to the globe, U.S. biologists had begun both to articulate fundamental biological questions raised by the diversity of tropical life and to argue for its potential as a natural resource.Less
Consciousness of tropical biodiversity exploded onto the scene in the 1980s following the 1986 National Forum on BioDiversity. Biodiversity was not a new concept to biologists, however. U.S. scientists’ engagement with life in the tropics already stretched back a century. During this time, scientists had struggled with questions of the biological differences of the tropics—especially its richness in species—and at the same time entangled themselves in U.S. corporate and government efforts to exploit tropical resources. American Tropics argues that both the key scientific concepts and the values embedded in the modern biodiversity discourse had significant precedents in biologists’ involvement in U.S. encounters with the tropical world over the course of the twentieth century, centered on the circumCaribbean region. This book argues that the ideas, attitudes, and institutions forged at field sites in the colonies and neocolonies of the circumCaribbean are crucial for understanding the emergence of this new paradigm in biology and conservation at the end of the century. Long before the BioDiversity Forum extended such ideas to the globe, U.S. biologists had begun both to articulate fundamental biological questions raised by the diversity of tropical life and to argue for its potential as a natural resource.
Megan Raby
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781469635606
- eISBN:
- 9781469635613
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469635606.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Environmental History
During the lead-up to the Spanish-American War, U.S. botanists looked with envy at the progress of European scientists, who had access to tropical colonies. They pushed for the creation of their own ...
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During the lead-up to the Spanish-American War, U.S. botanists looked with envy at the progress of European scientists, who had access to tropical colonies. They pushed for the creation of their own “American tropical laboratory.” Chapter 1 traces the origins of the U.S. tropical laboratory movement; the resulting rental of the station at Cinchona, Jamaica; and the first decade of research there by members of the founding generation of U.S. ecologists. This history reveals their range of motivations for engaging in tropical research, from the 1890s through the outbreak of World War I and the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914. The study of tropical organisms—with their diversity of forms and adaptations so foreign to those familiar with temperate flora and fauna—seemed to offer a path to a truly general understanding of living things. At the same time, U.S. botanists saw tropical research as the key to a place on the international scientific stage. U.S. botanists did not wait for statesponsored colonial science. Driven by a distinct set of intellectual, cultural, and professional concerns, they were ready to filibuster for science to acquire an outpost for research in the Caribbean.Less
During the lead-up to the Spanish-American War, U.S. botanists looked with envy at the progress of European scientists, who had access to tropical colonies. They pushed for the creation of their own “American tropical laboratory.” Chapter 1 traces the origins of the U.S. tropical laboratory movement; the resulting rental of the station at Cinchona, Jamaica; and the first decade of research there by members of the founding generation of U.S. ecologists. This history reveals their range of motivations for engaging in tropical research, from the 1890s through the outbreak of World War I and the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914. The study of tropical organisms—with their diversity of forms and adaptations so foreign to those familiar with temperate flora and fauna—seemed to offer a path to a truly general understanding of living things. At the same time, U.S. botanists saw tropical research as the key to a place on the international scientific stage. U.S. botanists did not wait for statesponsored colonial science. Driven by a distinct set of intellectual, cultural, and professional concerns, they were ready to filibuster for science to acquire an outpost for research in the Caribbean.
Megan Raby
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781469635606
- eISBN:
- 9781469635613
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469635606.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, Environmental History
American Tropics closes with an examination of the postcolonial situation of tropical research in the circumCaribbean. Today, the institutions that are the most important and heavily used by U.S. ...
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American Tropics closes with an examination of the postcolonial situation of tropical research in the circumCaribbean. Today, the institutions that are the most important and heavily used by U.S. biologists for tropical research and teaching are located in independent republics: the Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS) in Costa Rica and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI)—since the 1979 dissolution of the Canal Zone—in Panama. Key players in the move to bring “biodiversity” to the public stage in the 1980s were tropical biologists who had deep connections to OTS and STRI during the previous two decades of transition. The emergence of the modern biodiversity discourse, this book argues, is a direct product of the intellectual and political ferment of tropical biology during that revolutionary period. The significance of that moment, in turn, can be understood only in the context of the full twentieth century and its mixed legacies for tropical biology—the development of placebased research practices and a longstanding dependence on institutions supported by U.S. corporations and government agencies.Less
American Tropics closes with an examination of the postcolonial situation of tropical research in the circumCaribbean. Today, the institutions that are the most important and heavily used by U.S. biologists for tropical research and teaching are located in independent republics: the Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS) in Costa Rica and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI)—since the 1979 dissolution of the Canal Zone—in Panama. Key players in the move to bring “biodiversity” to the public stage in the 1980s were tropical biologists who had deep connections to OTS and STRI during the previous two decades of transition. The emergence of the modern biodiversity discourse, this book argues, is a direct product of the intellectual and political ferment of tropical biology during that revolutionary period. The significance of that moment, in turn, can be understood only in the context of the full twentieth century and its mixed legacies for tropical biology—the development of placebased research practices and a longstanding dependence on institutions supported by U.S. corporations and government agencies.
Megan Raby
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781469635606
- eISBN:
- 9781469635613
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469635606.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Environmental History
Biodiversity has been a key concept in international conservation since the 1980s, yet historians have paid little attention to its origins. Uncovering its roots in tropical fieldwork and the ...
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Biodiversity has been a key concept in international conservation since the 1980s, yet historians have paid little attention to its origins. Uncovering its roots in tropical fieldwork and the southward expansion of U.S. empire at the turn of the twentieth century, Megan Raby details how ecologists took advantage of growing U.S. landholdings in the circum-Caribbean by establishing permanent field stations for long-term, basic tropical research. From these outposts of U.S. science, a growing community of American "tropical biologists" developed both the key scientific concepts and the values embedded in the modern discourse of biodiversity. Considering U.S. biological fieldwork from the era of the Spanish-American War through the anticolonial movements of the 1960s and 1970s, this study combines the history of science, environmental history, and the history of U.S.–Caribbean and Latin American relations. In doing so, Raby sheds new light on the origins of contemporary scientific and environmentalist thought and brings to the forefront a surprisingly neglected history of twentieth-century U.S. science and empire.Less
Biodiversity has been a key concept in international conservation since the 1980s, yet historians have paid little attention to its origins. Uncovering its roots in tropical fieldwork and the southward expansion of U.S. empire at the turn of the twentieth century, Megan Raby details how ecologists took advantage of growing U.S. landholdings in the circum-Caribbean by establishing permanent field stations for long-term, basic tropical research. From these outposts of U.S. science, a growing community of American "tropical biologists" developed both the key scientific concepts and the values embedded in the modern discourse of biodiversity. Considering U.S. biological fieldwork from the era of the Spanish-American War through the anticolonial movements of the 1960s and 1970s, this study combines the history of science, environmental history, and the history of U.S.–Caribbean and Latin American relations. In doing so, Raby sheds new light on the origins of contemporary scientific and environmentalist thought and brings to the forefront a surprisingly neglected history of twentieth-century U.S. science and empire.
John Seibert Farnsworth
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781501747281
- eISBN:
- 9781501747298
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501747281.001.0001
- Subject:
- Information Science, Information Science
The field notes taken for this book are not only about nature, but from nature as well. The book lets the reader peer over the author'shoulder as he takes his notes. The reader follows him to a ...
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The field notes taken for this book are not only about nature, but from nature as well. The book lets the reader peer over the author'shoulder as he takes his notes. The reader follows him to a series of field stations where he teams up with scientists, citizen scientists, rangers, stewards, and graduate students engaged in long-term ecological study, all the while scribbling down what he sees, hears, and feels in the moment. The field stations are located at Hastings Natural History Reservation, studying acorn woodpeckers; Santa Cruz Island Reserve, studying island foxes; Golden Gate Raptor Observatory, hawkwatching; H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest, recording a forest log for two weeks through the Spring Creek Project; and North Cascades Environmental Learning Center, which was built as mitigation for the environmental harm caused by the hydroelectric dam. The book explores how communal experiences of nature might ultimately provide greater depths of appreciation for the natural world.Less
The field notes taken for this book are not only about nature, but from nature as well. The book lets the reader peer over the author'shoulder as he takes his notes. The reader follows him to a series of field stations where he teams up with scientists, citizen scientists, rangers, stewards, and graduate students engaged in long-term ecological study, all the while scribbling down what he sees, hears, and feels in the moment. The field stations are located at Hastings Natural History Reservation, studying acorn woodpeckers; Santa Cruz Island Reserve, studying island foxes; Golden Gate Raptor Observatory, hawkwatching; H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest, recording a forest log for two weeks through the Spring Creek Project; and North Cascades Environmental Learning Center, which was built as mitigation for the environmental harm caused by the hydroelectric dam. The book explores how communal experiences of nature might ultimately provide greater depths of appreciation for the natural world.