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Appendix B- Historical References

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    29106
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    It is important to recognize that it wasn’t just white male colonizers that innovated beekeeping in North America. There were many people who worked with bees and generated new innovations in beekeeping that were in alignment with natural cycles of the honey bee hive. For example, Charles Henry Turner’s discovery of color and pattern vision in honey bees.

    Often the voices of people of color and women are erased from history because they were not in positions of power or did not have networks to get information out to broader networks. Latinx beekeepers have been working with bees since the 1950s, though we don’t have documentation of what was happening before then. Many Indigenous communities harvest honey using pre-Hispanic techniques, such as clay pots. African-American and Indigenous populations in the US were honey hunters, farmers and gardeners as Tammy Horn references in her book, Bees in America: How the Honey Bee Shaped A Nation.

    Below are some resources to learn more on the “forgotten” contributors to beekeeping history.

    Beekeeping and African-Americans

    Annotated bibliography on Beekeeping and African Americans

    Charles Henry Turner

    Black and white portrait of Charles Henry Turner
    Figure B.1 Charles Henry Turner

    Charles Henry Turner and investigations into color vision and pattern vision in honey bees – follow link to download full text PDF for free (another online version is available if your institution has a subscription to Annual Reviews in Entomology.)

    Short bibliography on Charles Henry Turner

    Booker T. Washington, Margaret Murray Washington, and Black Lady Beekeepers of the Tuskegee Institute, Alabama

    Portrait of Booker T. Washington and his family, Margaret Murray Washington to his right
    Figure B.2 Booker T. Washington and his family, Margaret Murray Washington to his right

    A.I. Root tribute to Booker T Washington after his death

    Magazine page of Margaret Murray Washington in Gleanings in bee culture from 1874
    Figure B.3 Margaret Murray Washington mention in Gleanings in Bee Culture, 1874
    Right side profile photograph of Margaret Murray Washington in Gleanings in bee culture from 1874
    Figure B.4 Margaret Murray Washington
    Magazine page of Margaret Murray Washington from Gleanings in bee culture: Class of girls learning bee-keeping
    Figure B.5 Class of girls learning bee-keeping, Gleanings in Bee Culture

    Six African American women are standing around a beehive and lifting up the cover. A man with a hat, who is presumed to be the teacher, is standing in the center
    Figure B.6 Black women beekeepers

    A.I. Root writing about Margaret Murray Washington and lady beekeepers

    Digitized excerpt of Bees in America by Tammy Horn that talks about A.I. Root writing about lady beekeepers and getting some flack for that

    George Washington Carver

    Black and white head on portrait of George Washington Carver circa 1910
    Figure B.7 George Washington Carver circa 1910
    George Washington Carver standing in field, probably at Tuskegee, holding piece of soil
    Figure B.8 George Washington Carver, probably at Tuskegee

    Excerpt on George Washington Carver and beekeeping

    Francis Huber and Marie Lullin

    Black and white illustrated portrait of Francis Huber from American bee journal 1861
    Figure B.10 Francis Huber, American Bee Journal, 1861
    Illustration of bees in red, black, and yellow against black and white forage
    Figure B.11 Frontispiece from The Naturalist’s Library Volume VI. Bees by William Jardine, 1840

    Excerpt on Francis Huber and illustration of bees, including up-close drawings of anatomy, and lots of info on queen bees

    Francis Huber’s wife, Marie-Aimee Lullin: “Mdlle. Lullin…During the forty years of their married life, her tenderness and devotion toward her husband were unfailing. She was his reader, his secretary, his observer; he said of her, in his old age: “As long as she lived I was not sensible of the misfortune of being blind.”

    Media Attributions

    • Charles Henry Turner © Wikimedia Commons is licensed under a Public Domain license
    • Booker T. Washington © Wikimedia Commons is licensed under a Public Domain license
    • Margaret Murray Washington Gleanings in bee culture 1874 is licensed under a Public Domain license
    • Margaret Murray Washington © C. M. Battey is licensed under a Public Domain license
    • Margaret Murray Washington Gleanings in bee culture Class of girls learning bee-keeping is licensed under a Public Domain license
    • Black women beekeepers is licensed under a Public Domain license
    • George Washington Carver c1910 © Wikimedia Commons is licensed under a Public Domain license
    • George Washington Carver standing in field © Wikimedia Commons is licensed under a Public Domain license
    • Leung Chung is licensed under a Public Domain license
    • Francis Huber is licensed under a Public Domain license
    • Naturalist’s Library Volume VI. Bees frontispiece is licensed under a Public Domain license
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