The botanical network of Nathaniel Wallich between Copenhagen, Calcutta and Kew during the first half of the nineteenth century

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Martin Krieger
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: from 2015 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 275318084

The project investigates global transfers of knowledge and institutionalization of botanical research during the first half of the 19th century with a special focus on colonial India. The Danish botanist Nathaniel Wallich (1786-1854) serves as an example. The project rests on current methodological and theoretical approaches of environmental history and history of science/botany. Initially, Wallich had served as a royal surgeon in the Danish colony Serampore in Bengal. During the Napoleonic Wars, he became prisoner of war finally to be released by the British and to find his way to Calcutta. He became firmly integrated into the colonial networks of Calcutta and gained reputation as a talented botanist. From 1815 to 1846 he served as superintendent of the Botanic Garden of Calcutta. During this period, he established a tremendously far-reaching network on natural history and beyond. The most relevant source will be Wallichs written estate at Calcutta in its broader context. The Wallich-records will serve as a firm basis to identify the creation of global networks of communication and academic exchange. In detail it will be asked: How significant were such networks for enhancing individual careers as well as for the dispersal of current academic knowledge and imperial discourses with a special focus on botany? Furthermore, profession-alism and institutionalization of academic research in the colonial context will be studied. Did such processes take place notably during the first half of the 19th century? Practical aspects of research (collecting, transporting and exchanging natural specimen, etc.) will be studied as well. It is intended to contribute new evidence and aspects to the present debate on centre and periphery and on the idea of a Green imperialism. In detail, the Wallich-records will be analyzed with respect to structure and contents. Wallichs personal endeavors to promote his career, his serving as royal surgeon, his endeavors to collect, preserve and distribute plants and his contributions to reforestation and tea-cultivation as well as his activities regarding the Asiatick Museum and his library will be studied. The project has an interdisciplinary approach, however, with a special focus on historical as-pects. The applicant has gathered an interdisciplinary and international research group comprising historians, medical historians and botanists.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants