Shaping Natural History and Settler Society Mary Elizabeth Barber and the Nineteenth-Century Cape

• Format: eBook
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer Nature 2019
• Series: Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies Series
• Subjects: African history; Colonialism and imperialism; Gender studies, gender groups; History of science; Africa, Sub-Saharan-History; Gender identity; History; Imperialism; thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBS Social groups, communities and identities::JBSF Gender studies, gender groups; thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHH African history; thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHT History: specific events and topics::NHTQ Colonialism and imperialism; thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PD Science: general issues::PDX History of science
• Online Access: Open Access: DOAB: description of the publication; Open Access: DOAB, download the publication

 This book explores the life and work of Mary Elizabeth Barber, a British-born settler scientist who lived in the Cape during the nineteenth century. It provides a lens into a range of subjects within the history of knowledge and science, gender and social history, postcolonial, critical heritage and archival studies. The book examines the international importance of the life and works of a marginalized scientist, the instrumentalisation of science to settlers' political concerns and reveals the pivotal but largely silenced contribution of indigenous African experts. Including a variety of material, visual and textual sources, this study explores how these artefacts are archived and displayed in museums and critically analyses their content and silences. The book traces Barber's legacy across three continents in collections and archives, offering insights into the politics of memory and history-making. At the same time, it forges a nuanced argument, incorporating study of the North and South, the history of science and social history, and the past and the present.