Objects, Histories and Encounters

Balata or bullet tree of Guiana was known as one of the finest forest trees of British Guiana. This paper is based on reports from the 19th and 20th centuries (mainly from George Jenman and Everard im Thurn), publications, newspapers, and correspondence on British Guiana’s balata, a rubber-like material. These references were cross-referenced with objects related to balata that are now preserved at the collection of Economic Botany, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, as well as with contemporary reports from Guyanese Amerindian. By doing this, a more precise image of this less known rubber material from Guyana came forth, as well as the issues and histories behind it, namely the cross-cultural encounters, the objects significance and their context, and how the colony was managed. Despite the fact that balata was seen, during the last years of the 19th century, as an alternative commodity and a possible answer to the sugar crisis, not much was done to improve its trade.A árvore da balata foi conhecida como sendo uma das melhores árvores florestais da Guiana Britânica. Este artigo baseia-se em relatos dos séculos XIX e XX, publicações, jornais e correspondência sobre a balata da Guiana Britânica, um material semelhante à borracha. Estas referências foram cruzadas com objectos relacionados com a balata que se encontram na colecção de Botânica Económica, nos Jardins de Kew, e relatórios contemporâneos de ameríndios guianenses. Ao se cruzar estas informações, surgiu uma imagem mais clara da balata, bem como das histórias por detrás desta matéria-prima, nomeadamente: os encontros interculturais, o significado dos objectos e seu contexto, e como a colónia estava a ser gerida na época. Também se chegou à conclusão de que, apesar de a balata ter sido vista, durante os últimos anos do século XIX, como uma comodidade alternativa e uma possível resposta à crise do açúcar, não houve grande investimento para melhorar o seu comércio

Objects, Histories and Encounters: British Guiana Seen Through Balata

Balata or bullet tree of Guiana was known as one of the finest forest trees of British Guiana. This paper is based on reports from the 19th and 20th centuries (mainly from George Jenman and Everard im Thurn), publications, newspapers, and correspondence on British Guiana’s balata, a rubber-like material. These references were cross-referenced with objects related to balata that are now preserved at the collection of Economic Botany, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, as well as with contemporary reports from Guyanese Amerindian. By doing this, a more precise image of this less known rubber material from Guyana came forth, as well as the issues and histories behind it, namely the cross-cultural encounters, the objects significance and their context, and how the colony was managed. Despite the fact that balata was seen, during the last years of the 19th century, as an alternative commodity and a possible answer to the sugar crisis, not much was done to improve its trade.The present article was financed by FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, ref. ref. SFRH / BPD / 108236 / 2015 and SFRH/BD/45965/2008, Portugal) and by the AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council, UK)

Exploring tropical nature in British Guiana : RBG, Kew's collections revisited

This thesis explores the collected materials associated with Everard im Thurn (1852-1932) gathered during the late nineteenth century in British Guiana, especially held by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, but also in the Pitt Rivers Museum (Oxford), the British Museum, the Royal Anthropological Institute and the Royal Geographical Society, using meticulous archival research and specific objects in the collection as a way into finding the histories and stories which contributed to the making of the collection. Thus, this thesis provides a historical reconstruction of the collection, which traces objects through time and space, discussing their changing meanings. The sources used here include not only materials from the archives, but also published works, the herbarium specimens, objects and raw materials themselves, photographs and secondary sources. This involves a methodological challenge of tracing the trajectories of particular objects and cross-referencing them with several sources. In addition, this thesis also contributes to the history of a neglected are of the British Empire, which was in fact neglected even in im Thurn’s time: British Guiana. This thesis seeks to locate im Thurn and his collection within an imperial framework, including collaboration with colleagues in British Guiana and Britain, in order to show the multi-faceted work and collection over time. Following a contextualization of the present work in terms of the academic literature and a brief biography of im Thurn, Chapter 1 sets up the methodological approach, including the chosen manner of understanding the collections: ‘object biographies’. Chapter 2 turns to specific objects, setting them in historical and contemporary context, using both archival sources and recent trip to Guyana, discussing aspects of im Thurn’s collecting practices, and seeking o restore the ‘cross-cultural histories’ which these objects represent. Chapter 3 uses the Colonial and Indian Exhibition of 1886 as a case study to demonstrate how British Guiana was represented in Britain at the time, and also how im Thurn sought to manoeuvre that representation. Hitherto unknown photographs held by Kew are considered in Chapter 4, including not only the ones taken by im Thurn, but also those taken by the Norton Brothers and George Samuel Jenman. Chapter 5 discusses the role of im Thurn’s wife, Hannah, in her husband’s work as well as her contribution towards the making of his collections. The thesis concludes with an overview of the Amerindian objects through time and space, as well as a summary of the thesis and its contribution