REPORT - Global History and Culture Centre Research Fund
1 September 2012
Kirsten Greer
Activities: Keynote Speaker and Travelling Exhibition – “Marine Zoogeographies: British Navy and
Military Cultures of Natural Science in the Nineteenth-Century North Atlantic”
The GHCC Research Fund allowed me to fund a keynote speaker, Dr. Sandra Swart, for the Being Human
workshop, “The Human Animal? Investigating the Boundaries of Being Human,” 30 May 2012. Dr. Swart
is Professor of History at Stellenbosch University, who focuses on social and environmental history. Her
talk, “‘Its hour come round at last’: animal agency and social history,” explored the new ways to write
history that engages with the lives of animals. It offered a discussion of how social history can be
enriched by focusing on history from an animal perspective – and how the tools provided by social
history reveals the historicity of animals.
In July, I travelled to the east coast of Canada to research and foster networks for the travelling
exhibition idea. At the Public Archives and Records Office in Charlottetown, PEI, I uncovered a
manuscript “Memoirs of Fred W. Hyndman, R.N. from 1856 to 1871,” detailing the experiences of RN
officer Hyndman on the North America and West Indies Station at Halifax and Bermuda. At this
institution, I also photocopied HM Custom Records for trade between PEI and Bermuda ca.1818s and
1860s.
In Halifax, I spent most of my time at the Nova Scotia Archives. I examined over 100 photographs taken
by the Royal Engineers when stationed in Halifax ca. 1870-1880. These photographs represented the
imperial infrastructure of Nova Scotia, including fortifications and the naval dockyard, as well as many
images of women and children. I also photocopied a paper by Lieutenant Francis I.W. Jones on “The
Removal of the Halifax dockyard to Bermuda in 1819” (n.d.).
At the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, I focused on the watercolours and sketches by British military and
Royal Navy officers who were stationed in both Halifax and Bermuda. These individuals included Sir
Michael Seymour and Gaspard Le Marchant Tupper, both of whom painted military landscapes of
Bermuda. Fortunately, I viewed their works at the Bermuda Archives in November 2011.
On July 9th, I met formally with David Christianson (Manager of Collections), Andrew Hebda (Zoology
Curator), and John Kemp (Exhibit Designer) at the Nova Scotia Museum to discuss the possibility of
creating a travelling-exhibition between Halifax and Bermuda. They expressed an interest and drafted a
list of potential institutions for collaboration, including the National Bermuda Museum, the Art Gallery
of Nova Scotia, Parks Canada, and the National Maritime Museum in the UK. I continue to maintain
contact with these individuals and will re-apply to their research scheme this upcoming January 2013.
I would like to thank the Global History and Culture Centre Research Fund for providing me with this
exciting opportunity.
Sincerely,
Kirsten Greer