The Botanizers: Amateur Scientists in Nineteenth-Century America

by Elizabeth B. Keeney

Overview

Keeney examines the role of botany in the lives of nineteenth-century 'botanizers,' amateur scientists who collected, identified, and preserved plant specimens as a pastime. Using popular magazines, fiction, and autobiographies of the day, she explores the popular culture of this avocation, which attracted both men and women by the thousands.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807872055
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	02/01/2011
Edition description:	1
Pages:	220
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.80(d)
Lexile:	1610L (what's this?)

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Substantial. . . . A good reminder of how much natural history has both reflected and contributed to the American psyche.—Natural History

Keeney's thoroughly researched study offers a rare view of science that incorporates the enthusiastic public as well as the systematists who engaged in and supported botany during the nineteenth century. Like the botanists she studies, Keeney relishes the small details and makes them part of a larger story. . . . The amateur tradition here is credited for its role both in creating new outdoor leisure activity and in contributing to the effort to document the natural history of North America. The book's well-collected illustrations are a bonus.—Sally Gregory Kohlstedt, University of Minnesota

Editorial Reviews

Drawing on popular magazines, textbooks, letters, diaries, fiction and autobiographies, charts the rise of botany as the most popular science in America for recreational and pedagogical purposes during the 1820s. Illuminates the surprising cooperation between amateurs and trained professionals until the end of the century. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

Substantial. . . . A good reminder of how much natural history has both reflected and contributed to the American psyche.

Natural History

Like the botanists she studies, Keeney relishes the small details and makes them part of a larger story.

Sally Gregory Kohlstedt, University of Minnesota

From the Publisher