A Historical Geography of People and Plants in Florida

本研究将探讨如何十九世纪末和二十世纪初的热带植物的探索和实验进行了美国农业部（USDA）有关美国的外交政策目标，以及它如何有助于塑造佛罗里达州的边境解决的理想。 该项目将有助于对科学如何塑造以及如何被更大的国家政治和经济举措塑造的一般性理解。 该项目包括综合教育活动，如开发一个公共展览;创建一个基于网络的学习模块，供任何对这一材料感兴趣的人使用;对本科生和研究生进行历史地理研究的培训;以及社区参与。 这些项目的社会成果包括为少数民族学生在农业和其他科学领域的职业生涯提供教育和培训，并促进公众更广泛地了解少数民族对美国科学和技术的贡献。以美国农业部（USDA）早期热带植物探索和实验为例，本研究将美国热带地区纳入科学、外交政策和美国边境定居的分析中。该项目将从理论和经验上推进几个调查领域，包括科学地理，黑人地理，政治生态和历史地理。它将产生关于非洲移民对农业和植物科学的贡献以及关于种族陈规定型观念对历史农业发展的影响的新知识。 本研究的目的是：1）回顾和分析美国农业部科学家在热带植物采集、试验和引种方面的实践; 2）了解美国农业部热带植物的探索和引种工作在建设佛罗里达热带地区作为白色定居点方面的作用; 3）分析19世纪和20世纪初种族、美国帝国和科学知识的相互联系的思想是如何形成的，以及美国农业部的热带植物项目是如何形成的。使用存档的材料和出版的历史文件，调查员将分析关键个人的代表性和具体的做法，以及他们相关机构的政策和政治。所调查的历史时期始于1890年左右美国农业部向海外勘探和植物进口的转变，并于1945年结束，当时美国外交政策的地缘政治背景发生了重大变化。来自各种公共和私人馆藏的存档材料将成为数据的主要来源，包括野外收集期刊、科学日记、官方报告、信件、照片、草图、地图、政府政策、备忘录和指令。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

This study will investigate how late nineteenth and early twentieth century tropical plant exploration and experimentation undertaken by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) related to U.S. foreign policy goals, and how it contributed to shaping ideals about Florida's frontier settlement. The project will contribute to a general understanding of how science shapes and is shaped by larger national political and economic initiatives. The project includes integrated educational activities such as the development of a public exhibit; the creation of a web-based learning module available to anyone interested in this material; the training of undergraduate and graduate students in conducting historic-geographic research; and community engagement. Societal outcomes from these projects include contributing to the education and training of minority students for careers in agriculture and other sciences, and promoting broader public understanding of the contributions of racial and ethnic minorities to U.S. science and technology.Using the case of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)'s early tropical plant exploration and experimentation, this study brings the American tropics into the analyses of science, foreign policy, and American frontier settlement. The project will theoretically and empirically advance several fields of inquiry including geographies of science, black geographies, political ecology, and historical geography. It will produce new knowledge about African Diasporic contributions to agricultural and botanical sciences and about the influences of racial stereotypes on historical agricultural development. Specifically the study's objectives are: 1) to review and analyze USDA scientists' practices of tropical plant collection, experimentation, and introduction; 2) to understand the role of the USDA's tropical plant exploration and introduction efforts in constructing Florida's tropical region as a desirable space for white settlement; and 3) to analyze how nineteenth and early twentieth-century interlinked ideas of race, U.S. empire, and scientific knowledge shaped and were shaped by the USDA's tropical plant projects. Using both archived materials and published historical documents the investigator will analyze the representational and embodied practices of key individuals and the policies and politics of their associated institutions. The historical period under investigation begins with the USDA's move toward overseas exploration and plant importation, around 1890, and ends in 1945 when the geopolitical context of US foreign policy shifted significantly. Archived materials from a variety of public and private holdings will be a primary source of data, including field collecting journals, scientific diaries, official reports, correspondence, photographs, sketches, maps, government policies, memoranda, and directives.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.