Nature's Diplomats: Science, Internationalism, and Preservation, 1920-1960

384 Pages·2021·60.035 MB·English

by  Raf De Bont

NATURE’S DIPLOMATS
� �
INTERSECTIONS
Histories of Environment, Science, and Technology
in the Anthropocene
Sarah Elkind & Finn Arne Jørgensen, Editors
NATURE’S
DIPLOM ATS
� �
Science, Internationalism, & Preservation, 1920–1960
RAF DE BONT
� �
University of Pittsburgh Press
Published by the University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, Pa., 15260
Copyright © 2021, University of Pittsburgh Press
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Printed on acid-free paper
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Cataloging-in-Publication data is available from the Library of Congress
ISBN 13: 978-0-8229-4661-8
ISBN 10: 0-8229-4661-0
cover art: The cover image, taken during the George Vanderbilt Africa Expedition of
1934, shows the hand of a shot western gorilla and the hand of an expedition member. The
gorilla was referred to as “specimen 16982.” Harold Coolidge would use the same specimen
for a morphological study published in the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of
Philadelphia in 1936. Courtesy Miles Coolidge.
cover design: Alex Wolfe
To Nand and Linus

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 3
1 “Great Pioneers” 23
2 Van Tienhoven’s Address Book 45
3 Birds of a Feather? 85
4 Breeding Wisents 113
5 The National Park as a Laboratory 135
6 New Institutions, Old Networks 169
7 Man against Nature 207
Epilogue: Reverberations 239
Notes 269
Bibliography 315
Index 361

Acknowledgments
acknowledgment sections often start by stressing how, against
appearances, books are never really written in solitude. Although this particular
acknowledgment section is written during a period when COVID-19 has led to
worldwide measures of social distancing, I can only reiterate this point. While
physically distant, colleagues and friends have remained socially close.
This book was written as part of a larger project, funded by a Vidi grant of
the Dutch Research Council (grant number 276-69-002), that involved vari-
ous people. Within the project, I was fortunate to work with Ernst Homburg,
Simone Schleper, and Hans Schouwenburg, who each taught me a lot—about
the history of conservation, but also about much more. Notably, the epilogue
of this book leans heavily on Simone’s and Hans’s research. In setting up and
managing the project, I received invaluable support from Merle Achten and
Sanne Winkens-Gärtener. The Research Program Maastricht University—
Science, Technology & Society Studies (MUSTS) offered the institutional home
of the project, and the extraordinary members of this program provided a great
sounding board. Apart from my colleagues at Maastricht University, I would
like to thank the equally wonderful people at the Research Group Cultural His-
tory since 1750 at the University of Leuven, where I benefited from a research
fellowship.
When starting off with the research of this book, the world of environmental
history was relatively new to me. The environmental history crowd, however,
proved to be welcoming and kind. I am particularly indebted to Bernhard
Gissibl, Jeff Sauer, and Anna-Katharina Wöbse for their judicious feedback on
individual chapters. William Adams, Mark Barrow, Etienne Benson, Thomas
Bohn, Iris Borowy, Jane Carruthers, Helen Curry, Anastasia Fedatova, Nils
Güttler, Liesbeth van de Grift, Patrick Kupper, Jens Lachmund, Daisy Larios,
Vincent Lagendijk, Claudia Leal, Cyrus Mody, Stephen Macekura, Esther Mar-
ijnen, Pim Martens, Cyrus Mody, Ilja Nieuwland, Zoe Nyssa, Kiran Patel, Evert
ix