Objects, Histories and Encounters
British Guiana Seen Through Balata
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21664/2238-8869.2018v7i1.p124-141Keywords:
Balata, Guiana Britânica, Everard im Thurn (1852-1932), George Samuel Jenman (1845-1902)Abstract
Balata or bullet tree of Guiana was known as one of the finest forest trees of British Guiana. This paper is based on reports from the 19th and 20th centuries (mainly from George Jenman and Everard im Thurn), publications, newspapers, and correspondence on British Guiana’s balata, a rubber-like material. These references were cross-referenced with objects related to balata that are now preserved at the collection of Economic Botany, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, as well as with contemporary reports from Guyanese Amerindian. By doing this, a more precise image of this less known rubber material from Guyana came forth, as well as the issues and histories behind it, namely the cross-cultural encounters, the objects significance and their context, and how the colony was managed. Despite the fact that balata was seen, during the last years of the 19th century, as an alternative commodity and a possible answer to the sugar crisis, not much was done to improve its trade.
References
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Albuquerque S 2016. Glimpses of British Guiana at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition, 1886. Culture & History Digital Journal, 5(June), p.e010.
Anonymous 1885. Balata. Scientific American, 53(9):133.
Anonymous, 1886. The Colonial and Indian Exhibition: British Guiana. The Times, p.13.
Bleekrode S 1857. Gutta Percha of Surinam. Journal of the Society for Arts, 5(255):625–627.
Brannt WT 1900. India rubber, gutta-percha, and balata: occurrence, geographical distribution, and cultivation of rubber plants; manner of obtaining and preparing the raw material, modes of working and utilizing them, and statistics of commerce, Lancaster: Wickersham Printing Company.
Chambers DW, Gillespie R 2001. Locality in the History of Science: Colonial Science, Technoscience, and Indigenous Knowledge. Osiris, 15:221–240.
Cornish C 2013. Curating Science in an Age of Empire: Kew’s Museum of Economic Botany, PhD Thesis, Royal Holloway, University of London.
Dean JN 1939. Gutta-Percha and Balata in Submarine Cable Insulation. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry, 31(6):699–704.
Endersby J 2008. Imperial Nature: Joseph Hooker and the Practices of Victorian Science, Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.
Fanshawe DB 1948. Forest products of British Guiana, part II. Minor Forest Products. In Forestry Bulletin No.2. British Guiana: Forestry Department.
Govaerts R, Barker C et al. 2014a. Euphorbiaceae. World Checklist of Selected Families, p.Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Available at: http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/home.do.
Govaerts R, Harvey Y et al. 2014b. Sapotaceae. World Checklist of Selected Families, p.Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Available at: http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/home.do.
Holmes W 1864. Substitutes For Gutta-Percha. Journal of the Society for Arts, 12(589):245.
im Thurn EF 1883. Between the Pomeroon and the Orinoco. Timehri, The Journal of the Royal Agricultural & Commercial Society of British Guiana, 2:211–239.
Jenman GS 1882. India-Rubber and Gutta-Percha. Timehri, The Journal of the Royal Agricultural & Commercial Society of British Guiana, 1:44–82.
Jenman GS 1883. India-Rubber and Gutta-Percha Trees of British Guiana. Timehri, The Journal of the Royal Agricultural & Commercial Society of British Guiana, 2:12–32.
Jenman GS 1885. Balata and the Balata Industry. Timehri, The Journal of the Royal Agricultural & Commercial Society of British Guiana, 4:153–233.
Kaur A 1998. A History of Forestry in Sarawak. Modern Asian Studies, 32(1):124.
Kemp AR 1931. Paragutta, A New Insulating Material for Submarine Cables. Bell System Technical Journal, 10(1):132–148.
Mangar TC 2009. Guiana: história e desenvolvimento econômico. Diplomacia, Estratégia & Política, (10):149–161.
Nesbitt M, Cornish C 2016. Seeds of Industry and Empire: Economic Botany Collections Between Nature and Culture. Journal of Museum Ethnography, (29):53–70.
Rodney W 1981. Plantation Society in Guyana. Review (Fernand Braudel Center), 4(4):643–666.
Ross C 2017. Colonialism, Rubber, and the Rainforest. In Ecology and Power in the Age of Empire. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 99–130.
Royal Botanic Gardens Kew [homepage on the Internet]. ‘Collections’. [cited 2012 Sep 13]. Available form: http://www.kew.org/collections/index.htm.
Terry HL 1907. India-Rubber and its Manufacture. With Chapters on Gutta-Percha and Balata, London: Archibald Constable & Co. Ltd.
The Ministry of Amerindian Affairs Guyana, 2009. Amerindian Act 2005. Legislation. Available at: http://amerindian.gov.gy.
The Plant List, 2013a. Ficus elastica Roxb. ex Hornem. The Plant List, p.Version 1.1. Available at: http://www.theplantlist.org/.
The Plant List, 2013b. Mimusops globosa C.F.Gaertn. The Plant List, p.Version 1.1. Available at: http://www.theplantlist.org/.
Tully J 2009. A Victorian Ecological Disaster: Imperialism, the Telegraph, and Gutta-Percha. Journal of World History, 20(4):559–579.
Tully J 2011. The Devil’s Milk: A Social History of Rubber, New York: Monthly Review Press.
van Andel T 2000. Non-timber Forest products of the North-West District of Guyana Part II: A field guide, Georgetown, Guyana: Tropenbos-Guyana series 8B.
MANUSCRIPTS
RBG, Kew, Directors Correspondence, KLDC11683, Letter from G.S. [George Samuel] Jenman to [Sir William Thiselton-Dyer], from Government Botanist’s Office, Georgetown, British Guiana [Guyana], 4 June 1884, folios 446-447.
RBG, Kew, Directors Correspondence, KLDC11684, Letter from G.S. [George Samuel] Jenman to Sir William Thiselton-Dyer, from Government Botanist’s Office, Georgetown, British Guiana [Guyana], 5 June 1884, folio 448.
RBG, Kew, Directors Correspondence, KLDC11685, Letter from G.S. [George Samuel] Jenman to Sir William Thiselton-Dyer, from Government Botanist’s Office, Georgetown, British Guiana [Guyana], 25 June 1884, folio 449.
RBG, Kew, Directors Correspondence, KLDC11687, Letter from G.S. [George Samuel] Jenman to [Sir William Thiselton-Dyer], from Government Botanist’s Office, Georgetown, British Guiana [Guyana], 25 August, folios 451-452.
RBG, Kew, Directors Correspondence, KLDC11693, Letter from G.S. [George Samuel] Jenman to The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, from 12 Panton Street, Cambridge [England], 2 May 1885, folio 458.
RBG, Kew, Directors Correspondence, KLDC11703, Letter from G.S. [George Samuel] Jenman to The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, from Government Botanist's Office, Georgetown, Demerara [Guyana], 19 February 1886, folio 469.
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London, UK [RBG, Kew], Directors Correspondence, KLDC11582, Letter from Everard F. [Ferdinand] im Thurn to [Sir William Thiselton-Dyer], from Georgetown [Guyana], 25 May 1882, folio 301.
Albuquerque S 2016. Glimpses of British Guiana at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition, 1886. Culture & History Digital Journal, 5(June), p.e010.
Anonymous 1885. Balata. Scientific American, 53(9):133.
Anonymous, 1886. The Colonial and Indian Exhibition: British Guiana. The Times, p.13.
Bleekrode S 1857. Gutta Percha of Surinam. Journal of the Society for Arts, 5(255):625–627.
Brannt WT 1900. India rubber, gutta-percha, and balata: occurrence, geographical distribution, and cultivation of rubber plants; manner of obtaining and preparing the raw material, modes of working and utilizing them, and statistics of commerce, Lancaster: Wickersham Printing Company.
Chambers DW, Gillespie R 2001. Locality in the History of Science: Colonial Science, Technoscience, and Indigenous Knowledge. Osiris, 15:221–240.
Cornish C 2013. Curating Science in an Age of Empire: Kew’s Museum of Economic Botany, PhD Thesis, Royal Holloway, University of London.
Dean JN 1939. Gutta-Percha and Balata in Submarine Cable Insulation. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry, 31(6):699–704.
Endersby J 2008. Imperial Nature: Joseph Hooker and the Practices of Victorian Science, Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.
Fanshawe DB 1948. Forest products of British Guiana, part II. Minor Forest Products. In Forestry Bulletin No.2. British Guiana: Forestry Department.
Govaerts R, Barker C et al. 2014a. Euphorbiaceae. World Checklist of Selected Families, p.Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Available at: http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/home.do.
Govaerts R, Harvey Y et al. 2014b. Sapotaceae. World Checklist of Selected Families, p.Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Available at: http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/home.do.
Holmes W 1864. Substitutes For Gutta-Percha. Journal of the Society for Arts, 12(589):245.
im Thurn EF 1883. Between the Pomeroon and the Orinoco. Timehri, The Journal of the Royal Agricultural & Commercial Society of British Guiana, 2:211–239.
Jenman GS 1882. India-Rubber and Gutta-Percha. Timehri, The Journal of the Royal Agricultural & Commercial Society of British Guiana, 1:44–82.
Jenman GS 1883. India-Rubber and Gutta-Percha Trees of British Guiana. Timehri, The Journal of the Royal Agricultural & Commercial Society of British Guiana, 2:12–32.
Jenman GS 1885. Balata and the Balata Industry. Timehri, The Journal of the Royal Agricultural & Commercial Society of British Guiana, 4:153–233.
Kaur A 1998. A History of Forestry in Sarawak. Modern Asian Studies, 32(1):124.
Kemp AR 1931. Paragutta, A New Insulating Material for Submarine Cables. Bell System Technical Journal, 10(1):132–148.
Mangar TC 2009. Guiana: história e desenvolvimento econômico. Diplomacia, Estratégia & Política, (10):149–161.
Nesbitt M, Cornish C 2016. Seeds of Industry and Empire: Economic Botany Collections Between Nature and Culture. Journal of Museum Ethnography, (29):53–70.
Rodney W 1981. Plantation Society in Guyana. Review (Fernand Braudel Center), 4(4):643–666.
Ross C 2017. Colonialism, Rubber, and the Rainforest. In Ecology and Power in the Age of Empire. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 99–130.
Royal Botanic Gardens Kew [homepage on the Internet]. ‘Collections’. [cited 2012 Sep 13]. Available form: http://www.kew.org/collections/index.htm.
Terry HL 1907. India-Rubber and its Manufacture. With Chapters on Gutta-Percha and Balata, London: Archibald Constable & Co. Ltd.
The Ministry of Amerindian Affairs Guyana, 2009. Amerindian Act 2005. Legislation. Available at: http://amerindian.gov.gy.
The Plant List, 2013a. Ficus elastica Roxb. ex Hornem. The Plant List, p.Version 1.1. Available at: http://www.theplantlist.org/.
The Plant List, 2013b. Mimusops globosa C.F.Gaertn. The Plant List, p.Version 1.1. Available at: http://www.theplantlist.org/.
Tully J 2009. A Victorian Ecological Disaster: Imperialism, the Telegraph, and Gutta-Percha. Journal of World History, 20(4):559–579.
Tully J 2011. The Devil’s Milk: A Social History of Rubber, New York: Monthly Review Press.
van Andel T 2000. Non-timber Forest products of the North-West District of Guyana Part II: A field guide, Georgetown, Guyana: Tropenbos-Guyana series 8B.
MANUSCRIPTS
RBG, Kew, Directors Correspondence, KLDC11683, Letter from G.S. [George Samuel] Jenman to [Sir William Thiselton-Dyer], from Government Botanist’s Office, Georgetown, British Guiana [Guyana], 4 June 1884, folios 446-447.
RBG, Kew, Directors Correspondence, KLDC11684, Letter from G.S. [George Samuel] Jenman to Sir William Thiselton-Dyer, from Government Botanist’s Office, Georgetown, British Guiana [Guyana], 5 June 1884, folio 448.
RBG, Kew, Directors Correspondence, KLDC11685, Letter from G.S. [George Samuel] Jenman to Sir William Thiselton-Dyer, from Government Botanist’s Office, Georgetown, British Guiana [Guyana], 25 June 1884, folio 449.
RBG, Kew, Directors Correspondence, KLDC11687, Letter from G.S. [George Samuel] Jenman to [Sir William Thiselton-Dyer], from Government Botanist’s Office, Georgetown, British Guiana [Guyana], 25 August, folios 451-452.
RBG, Kew, Directors Correspondence, KLDC11693, Letter from G.S. [George Samuel] Jenman to The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, from 12 Panton Street, Cambridge [England], 2 May 1885, folio 458.
RBG, Kew, Directors Correspondence, KLDC11703, Letter from G.S. [George Samuel] Jenman to The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, from Government Botanist's Office, Georgetown, Demerara [Guyana], 19 February 1886, folio 469.
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London, UK [RBG, Kew], Directors Correspondence, KLDC11582, Letter from Everard F. [Ferdinand] im Thurn to [Sir William Thiselton-Dyer], from Georgetown [Guyana], 25 May 1882, folio 301.
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Published
2018-05-11
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ALBUQUERQUE, Sara. Objects, Histories and Encounters: British Guiana Seen Through Balata. Fronteiras - Journal of Social, Technological and Environmental Science, [S. l.], v. 7, n. 1, p. 124–141, 2018. DOI: 10.21664/2238-8869.2018v7i1.p124-141. Disponível em: https://periodicos.unievangelica.edu.br/index.php/fronteiras/article/view/2753. Acesso em: 21 nov. 2024.
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