Posted: 08 Oct 2011 10:59 PM PDT
Wellesley, Massachusetts.- The Davis Museum at Wellesley College is proud to present "Global Flora: Botanical Imagery and Exploration", an exhibition linking the history of botanical imagery with the adventure of exploration and effects of globalization on our contemporary world. On view from October 19th through January 15th 2012 in the Morelle Lasky Levine '56 Works on Paper Gallery, the exhibition is free and open to the public. The publications on view in this exhibition hint at the links between botany, climate, geography, culture, economy, and history.” Botanical imagery reveals several centuries of change in the world, reflecting a journey through exploration to knowledge, and from isolation to globalization. The natural world has changed considerably due to the acquisitive nature of human beings with an attraction to the exotic. In the process of collecting and recording specimens from distant parts of the globe, botanists contributed to the international dispersal of flora. Transferring or propagating plants in botanical gardens back home naturally led to the spreadof species, while publishing books on a region’s plants provided a means of organizing, simplifying, and containing the life of that place. Naming was another means of claiming, with native plants being labeled for foreign naturalists. Colonial gardens and colonial floras, or botanical books, were powerful symbols of imperialism and control.
No comments:
Post a Comment