Seed Lists: Information Maintenance and a Woman's Work in Early Modern Global Exchanges

Abstract:

As Europe saw an increase in newly known plants, the seed list format was employed to make specimens legible across an informal network for botanical exchange. This article explores the medium specifications of the format and a rich repository of these lists, compiled by the English aristocrat Mary Somerset (bap. 1630–1715), who dedicated much of her time to maintaining the flows of information that seed lists mediated. This will show the work required to make exchanges meaningful and useful, the credibility and authority this could grant to a woman like Somerset, and, significantly, the importance of maintenance in transforming mobile units of information scattered across the world into something we call knowledge.