The Colonial Commodity of Knock-Off Cashmere
The import and mass-market replicas of the Kashmiri shawl highlighted Victorian anxieties about empire and its role in industrial modernity.
Cerbera odollam: “The Suicide Tree” That Harms and Heals
Even before The White Lotus, people feared the poisonous pong-pong tree, Cerbera odollam. But there's another way to look at the plant and its effects.
Transatlantic Studies: A Reading List
Using the Atlantic Ocean as a guiding metaphor, transatlanticism emphasizes the fluid nature of contrived national boundaries and identities.
A Most Opportunistic Colonizer
Poa annua is a unique grass species now thriving on every continent—including Antarctica. Wherefore its wanderlust?
Annotations: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Scrooge became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world.
Camellia sinensis: Labor and the Tea Plant
Consumed as tea around the world, Camellia sinensis raises questions about plantation labor practices and the environmental impact of monocultures.
The Fungi-Mad Ladies of Long Ago
In mycology’s early days, botanical drawing was, for some women, a calling. Their mushroom renderings were key to establishing this new field.
Victorians Mourned with Vulcanized Rubber Jewelry
Nineteenth-century Anglo-American mourning rituals called for a period of sentimental sadness, but they also demanded an investment in clothing and jewelry.
Mermaids: Myth, Kith and Kin
Ariel epitomizes mermaids now, but these beguiling creatures precede her by millennia, sparking imaginations the world over with a hearty embrace of otherness.
One Name, Two Writers: The Story of Michael Field
Katherine Bradley and Edith Cooper worked within the constraints of Victorian society, building a writing career and a relationship under an assumed name.