Temperate Clime and Place

By mid-eighteenth century, the concept of climate had come into being as an empirically quantifiable aggregate of things like temperature, humidity, altitude, ocean currents and air pressure. The perception and experience of climate, however, remained inexorably subjective, hinged on a constellation of personal factors: body mass, health, mood and biology, not to mention experience and cultural background. Bringing the history of the senses to bear on the histories of science and empire, this project plumbs the cannon of nineteenth and early twentieth century works in plant and animal geography to reconstruct the geographic and sensory coalescence of what European and Euro-American naturalists deemed the world’s “temperate” regions, and how these evolved in relation to to imperial aspirations and engagements of the time.