Helen Anne Curry
Biographic Data
| ID | 224263 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Helen Anne Curry |
| GIVEN NAMES | Helen Anne |
| FAMILY NAME | Curry |
| SIGNATURE | CURRY H A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Cambridge |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9474-1528 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 36 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Stalking Wild Maize
In the twentieth century, plant explorers in many countries were enlisted in the assembly of seed and plant collections that brought together hundreds and sometimes thousands of varieties of the same crop species. These collections were, and are, understood chiefly as the foundations for effective plant breeding. Crop seed collections, like other biological collections, were also essential tools of taxonomy; their study was both conditioned by an…
Diversifying Description
The organization of sweet potato research across global regions began in earnest in the 1980s. Leading international institutions, notably the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, recognized the potential for science-driven development of a “neglected” crop. Sweet potato was second only to potato in root crop cultivation worldwide and the top tuber in Asia yet had not been subject to the internationally coordinated research …
The Globalization of Wheat
Breeding confusion
Since the 1970s 'hybrid seeds' have been linked to many perceived perils of industrialized agriculture. This essay revisits the scholarship that helped produce a dominant critical assessment of hybrid seeds, situating its emergence in a series of events and interventions of the late twentieth century. It explores how the singular history of F1 hybrid corn inflected understandings of crop breeding and seed production in general, contributing to ef…
The history of seed banking and the hazards of backup
Seeds and other plant materials in seed and gene bank collections are rarely considered adequately conserved today unless genetically identical duplicate samples have been created and safely stored elsewhere. This paper explores the history of seed banking to understand how, why and with what consequences copying collections came to occupy this central place. It highlights a shift in the guiding metaphor for long-term preservation of seed collect…
Hybrid Seeds in History and Historiography
Accounts of twentieth-century agricultural industrialization in the United States and beyond often center the production and distribution of commercial F1 hybrid seed as a pivotal development. The commercialization of hybrid corn seed in the 1930s was initially heralded as a science-driven advance in agricultural productivity. However, since the 1970s "hybrid seed" has been linked to many perceived perils attendant on industrialized agriculture, …
Taxonomy, Race Science, and Mexican Maize
This paper explores the intersection of race science and plant taxonomy in the creation of evolutionary taxonomies (phylogenies) of populations of Zea mays, also known as maize or corn. Following recent work in the history and sociology of race, it analyzes maize taxonomy as technology. Through an analysis of successive attempts to classify diverse maize varieties, especially those originating in Mexico, it shows that taxonomy created possibiliti…
Why Save a Seed
This essay takes as its central explanandum the survival of an unusual personal seed collection within a larger government institution, ultimately asking why individuals and institutions save seeds. To answer this question, it considers the cultures of seed collecting and preservation among amateurs, enthusiasts, and others without professional status in botanical or agricultural research and, simultaneously, among professional breeders, genetici…
Introduction
The articles in this special issue contribute to our understanding of the historical emergences and present-day functioning of various modes of conserving plant genetic diversity in seed banks. Exploring both crop plant and wild species conservation at different times and scales, the papers examine how various actors articulate their role in stewarding plant life for the future as seeds. They reveal seed banking and its corollary, seed saving, as…
Gene Banks, Seed Libraries, and Vegetable Sanctuaries
Individual seed saving and exchange are considered important components of contemporary efforts to conserve crop genetic diversity that ramify at local, regional, and global scales. Yet the very fact that the contributions of these activities to conservation need to be made explicit by seed savers and those who study them indicates that the practices of seed saving and exchange may not immediately be recognized as conservation-oriented activities…
Worlds of Natural History
Breeding uniformity and banking diversity
In the mid-twentieth century, American agriculturists began to fret about a growing threat to key economic crops: the loss or extinction of manifold local varieties, or landraces, resulting from the displacement of these in cultivation by recently introduced varieties that were better suited for industrial-style agriculture. Many breeders considered diverse landraces to be a valuable, and indeed essential, source of genetic material for their cro…
Extension and experiment
From working collections to the World Germplasm Project
This paper charts the history of the Rockefeller Foundation's participation in the collection and long-term preservation of genetic diversity in crop plants from the 1940s through the 1970s. In the decades following the launch of its agricultural program in Mexico in 1943, the Rockefeller Foundation figured prominently in the creation of world collections of key economic crops. Through the efforts of its administrators and staff, the foundation s…
Radiation and Restoration; or, How Best to Make a Blight-Resistant Chestnut Tree
This article charts the history of an unusual approach taken to restoring the American chestnut to its native range between 1955 and 1980. The chestnut, once abundant in the eastern United States, had been nearly wiped out by a blight to which it had little resistance. In 1955 the geneticist W. Ralph Singleton proposed that exposing chestnuts to radiation might produce trees carrying a genetic mutation for blight resistance. These could then be u…
From garden biotech to garage biotech
This paper describes the activities of amateur plant breeders and their application of various methods and technologies derived from genetics research over the course of the twentieth century. These ranged from selection and hybridization to more interventionist approaches such as radiation treatment to induce genetic mutations and chemical manipulation of chromosomes. I argue that these activities share characteristics with twenty-first-century …
Industrial Evolution
This paper explores the history of attempts to apply x-ray radiation as a tool of plant breeding through a case study of a short-lived research program at the General Electric Research Laboratory in the 1930s. As I show, the goal of this program was to turn the appearance of genetic variation into an efficient, predictable process-in other words, it was an effort to create a precision tool for altering genes. I further argue that in the context o…
Naturalising the Exotic and Exoticising the Naturalised
The rosy periwinkle, a plant originating in the rainforest of Madagascar, is best known for its use in modern biomedicine as a cancer therapy and as a symbol of the importance of biodiversity conservation. Yet images of the plant as a novel therapeutic and an endangered exotic obscure its commonness, for it is both naturalised in many parts of the world as a weed and has long been used as an ornamental plant in greenhouses and gardens. This seemi…
Taxonomy, Race Science, and Mexican Maize
This paper explores the intersection of race science and plant taxonomy in the creation of evolutionary taxonomies (phylogenies) of populations of Zea mays, also known as maize or corn. Following recent work in the history and sociology of race, it analyzes maize taxonomy as technology. Through an analysis of successive attempts to classify diverse maize varieties, especially those originating in Mexico, it shows that taxonomy created possibiliti…
Breeding confusion
Since the 1970s 'hybrid seeds' have been linked to many perceived perils of industrialized agriculture. This essay revisits the scholarship that helped produce a dominant critical assessment of hybrid seeds, situating its emergence in a series of events and interventions of the late twentieth century. It explores how the singular history of F1 hybrid corn inflected understandings of crop breeding and seed production in general, contributing to ef…
Breeding uniformity and banking diversity
In the mid-twentieth century, American agriculturists began to fret about a growing threat to key economic crops: the loss or extinction of manifold local varieties, or landraces, resulting from the displacement of these in cultivation by recently introduced varieties that were better suited for industrial-style agriculture. Many breeders considered diverse landraces to be a valuable, and indeed essential, source of genetic material for their cro…
The history of seed banking and the hazards of backup
Seeds and other plant materials in seed and gene bank collections are rarely considered adequately conserved today unless genetically identical duplicate samples have been created and safely stored elsewhere. This paper explores the history of seed banking to understand how, why and with what consequences copying collections came to occupy this central place. It highlights a shift in the guiding metaphor for long-term preservation of seed collect…
From working collections to the World Germplasm Project
This paper charts the history of the Rockefeller Foundation's participation in the collection and long-term preservation of genetic diversity in crop plants from the 1940s through the 1970s. In the decades following the launch of its agricultural program in Mexico in 1943, the Rockefeller Foundation figured prominently in the creation of world collections of key economic crops. Through the efforts of its administrators and staff, the foundation s…
Introduction
The articles in this special issue contribute to our understanding of the historical emergences and present-day functioning of various modes of conserving plant genetic diversity in seed banks. Exploring both crop plant and wild species conservation at different times and scales, the papers examine how various actors articulate their role in stewarding plant life for the future as seeds. They reveal seed banking and its corollary, seed saving, as…
Gene Banks, Seed Libraries, and Vegetable Sanctuaries
Individual seed saving and exchange are considered important components of contemporary efforts to conserve crop genetic diversity that ramify at local, regional, and global scales. Yet the very fact that the contributions of these activities to conservation need to be made explicit by seed savers and those who study them indicates that the practices of seed saving and exchange may not immediately be recognized as conservation-oriented activities…
From garden biotech to garage biotech
This paper describes the activities of amateur plant breeders and their application of various methods and technologies derived from genetics research over the course of the twentieth century. These ranged from selection and hybridization to more interventionist approaches such as radiation treatment to induce genetic mutations and chemical manipulation of chromosomes. I argue that these activities share characteristics with twenty-first-century …
Naturalising the Exotic and Exoticising the Naturalised
The rosy periwinkle, a plant originating in the rainforest of Madagascar, is best known for its use in modern biomedicine as a cancer therapy and as a symbol of the importance of biodiversity conservation. Yet images of the plant as a novel therapeutic and an endangered exotic obscure its commonness, for it is both naturalised in many parts of the world as a weed and has long been used as an ornamental plant in greenhouses and gardens. This seemi…
Diversifying Description
The organization of sweet potato research across global regions began in earnest in the 1980s. Leading international institutions, notably the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, recognized the potential for science-driven development of a “neglected” crop. Sweet potato was second only to potato in root crop cultivation worldwide and the top tuber in Asia yet had not been subject to the internationally coordinated research …
Hybrid Seeds in History and Historiography
Accounts of twentieth-century agricultural industrialization in the United States and beyond often center the production and distribution of commercial F1 hybrid seed as a pivotal development. The commercialization of hybrid corn seed in the 1930s was initially heralded as a science-driven advance in agricultural productivity. However, since the 1970s "hybrid seed" has been linked to many perceived perils attendant on industrialized agriculture, …
Why Save a Seed
This essay takes as its central explanandum the survival of an unusual personal seed collection within a larger government institution, ultimately asking why individuals and institutions save seeds. To answer this question, it considers the cultures of seed collecting and preservation among amateurs, enthusiasts, and others without professional status in botanical or agricultural research and, simultaneously, among professional breeders, genetici…
Radiation and Restoration; or, How Best to Make a Blight-Resistant Chestnut Tree
This article charts the history of an unusual approach taken to restoring the American chestnut to its native range between 1955 and 1980. The chestnut, once abundant in the eastern United States, had been nearly wiped out by a blight to which it had little resistance. In 1955 the geneticist W. Ralph Singleton proposed that exposing chestnuts to radiation might produce trees carrying a genetic mutation for blight resistance. These could then be u…
Naturalising the Exotic and Exoticising the Naturalised
The rosy periwinkle, a plant originating in the rainforest of Madagascar, is best known for its use in modern biomedicine as a cancer therapy and as a symbol of the importance of biodiversity conservation. Yet images of the plant as a novel therapeutic and an endangered exotic obscure its commonness, for it is both naturalised in many parts of the world as a weed and has long been used as an ornamental plant in greenhouses and gardens. This seemi…
Industrial Evolution
This paper explores the history of attempts to apply x-ray radiation as a tool of plant breeding through a case study of a short-lived research program at the General Electric Research Laboratory in the 1930s. As I show, the goal of this program was to turn the appearance of genetic variation into an efficient, predictable process-in other words, it was an effort to create a precision tool for altering genes. I further argue that in the context o…
Radiation and Restoration; or, How Best to Make a Blight-Resistant Chestnut Tree
This article charts the history of an unusual approach taken to restoring the American chestnut to its native range between 1955 and 1980. The chestnut, once abundant in the eastern United States, had been nearly wiped out by a blight to which it had little resistance. In 1955 the geneticist W. Ralph Singleton proposed that exposing chestnuts to radiation might produce trees carrying a genetic mutation for blight resistance. These could then be u…
From garden biotech to garage biotech
This paper describes the activities of amateur plant breeders and their application of various methods and technologies derived from genetics research over the course of the twentieth century. These ranged from selection and hybridization to more interventionist approaches such as radiation treatment to induce genetic mutations and chemical manipulation of chromosomes. I argue that these activities share characteristics with twenty-first-century …
Breeding uniformity and banking diversity
In the mid-twentieth century, American agriculturists began to fret about a growing threat to key economic crops: the loss or extinction of manifold local varieties, or landraces, resulting from the displacement of these in cultivation by recently introduced varieties that were better suited for industrial-style agriculture. Many breeders considered diverse landraces to be a valuable, and indeed essential, source of genetic material for their cro…
Extension and experiment
From working collections to the World Germplasm Project
This paper charts the history of the Rockefeller Foundation's participation in the collection and long-term preservation of genetic diversity in crop plants from the 1940s through the 1970s. In the decades following the launch of its agricultural program in Mexico in 1943, the Rockefeller Foundation figured prominently in the creation of world collections of key economic crops. Through the efforts of its administrators and staff, the foundation s…
Worlds of Natural History
Why Save a Seed
This essay takes as its central explanandum the survival of an unusual personal seed collection within a larger government institution, ultimately asking why individuals and institutions save seeds. To answer this question, it considers the cultures of seed collecting and preservation among amateurs, enthusiasts, and others without professional status in botanical or agricultural research and, simultaneously, among professional breeders, genetici…
Introduction
The articles in this special issue contribute to our understanding of the historical emergences and present-day functioning of various modes of conserving plant genetic diversity in seed banks. Exploring both crop plant and wild species conservation at different times and scales, the papers examine how various actors articulate their role in stewarding plant life for the future as seeds. They reveal seed banking and its corollary, seed saving, as…
Gene Banks, Seed Libraries, and Vegetable Sanctuaries
Individual seed saving and exchange are considered important components of contemporary efforts to conserve crop genetic diversity that ramify at local, regional, and global scales. Yet the very fact that the contributions of these activities to conservation need to be made explicit by seed savers and those who study them indicates that the practices of seed saving and exchange may not immediately be recognized as conservation-oriented activities…
Taxonomy, Race Science, and Mexican Maize
This paper explores the intersection of race science and plant taxonomy in the creation of evolutionary taxonomies (phylogenies) of populations of Zea mays, also known as maize or corn. Following recent work in the history and sociology of race, it analyzes maize taxonomy as technology. Through an analysis of successive attempts to classify diverse maize varieties, especially those originating in Mexico, it shows that taxonomy created possibiliti…
The history of seed banking and the hazards of backup
Seeds and other plant materials in seed and gene bank collections are rarely considered adequately conserved today unless genetically identical duplicate samples have been created and safely stored elsewhere. This paper explores the history of seed banking to understand how, why and with what consequences copying collections came to occupy this central place. It highlights a shift in the guiding metaphor for long-term preservation of seed collect…
Hybrid Seeds in History and Historiography
Accounts of twentieth-century agricultural industrialization in the United States and beyond often center the production and distribution of commercial F1 hybrid seed as a pivotal development. The commercialization of hybrid corn seed in the 1930s was initially heralded as a science-driven advance in agricultural productivity. However, since the 1970s "hybrid seed" has been linked to many perceived perils attendant on industrialized agriculture, …
Diversifying Description
The organization of sweet potato research across global regions began in earnest in the 1980s. Leading international institutions, notably the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, recognized the potential for science-driven development of a “neglected” crop. Sweet potato was second only to potato in root crop cultivation worldwide and the top tuber in Asia yet had not been subject to the internationally coordinated research …
The Globalization of Wheat
Breeding confusion
Since the 1970s 'hybrid seeds' have been linked to many perceived perils of industrialized agriculture. This essay revisits the scholarship that helped produce a dominant critical assessment of hybrid seeds, situating its emergence in a series of events and interventions of the late twentieth century. It explores how the singular history of F1 hybrid corn inflected understandings of crop breeding and seed production in general, contributing to ef…
Stalking Wild Maize
In the twentieth century, plant explorers in many countries were enlisted in the assembly of seed and plant collections that brought together hundreds and sometimes thousands of varieties of the same crop species. These collections were, and are, understood chiefly as the foundations for effective plant breeding. Crop seed collections, like other biological collections, were also essential tools of taxonomy; their study was both conditioned by an…
Biology (14 works) · Political science (11 works) · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development (10 works) · Law (9 works) · Agriculture (7 works) · Ecology (7 works) · Law (7 works) · Agronomy (6 works) · Computer Science (6 works) · Philosophy (6 works)