Thursday 4th, October at 3:30pm in Washington 315
Throughout the eighteenth century, trees stood at the intersection of numerous and often competing discourses of value. Across Europe and North America, they were viewed both as precious commodities and as ‘the true monuments of nations’, as Bernardin de Saint-Pierre noted in 1784,underscoring the imposing and inescapable materiality of these plants, their cultural significance, and their political value in the project of modern nation-building.
Trees could also be appreciated as charismatic objects of personal desire and of intellectual fascination, just as they were at the heart of Enlightenment discussions on environmental management and sustainability.