The Death of Botany

This project investigates investigates the radical restructuring of botanical inquiry that took place in the wake of the rediscovery of Mendelian genetics in the early twentieth century.

Taking the gendered history of botany seriously, from visions of nature as feminized and needing to be controlled, to hierarchies in the sciences that relegate the study of plants to ‘women’s work’, The Death of Botany uses the history of visualisation as a lens through which the changes in the production of knowledge about plants can be understood.