Haunted Botany: A Performance for a Forgotten Forest
When:
Saturday, Sep 06, 2025 1:00p -
2:30p
Saturday, Sep 06, 2025 1:00p -
2:30p
Where:
Arnold Arboretum - Peters Hill Gate
243 Walter Street
Jamaica Plain, MA 02130
Admission:
FREE
Hosted by:
Categories:
Art, Good for Groups, History, Nature
Event website:
https://arboretum.harvard.edu/events/haunted-botany-unveiling-the-colonial-ghosts-of-eastern-white-pine/?occurrence=2025-09-06
The towering Eastern White Pine once dominated New England forests and served as an important symbol for Indigenous peoples, but the British Royal Navy’s thirst for tall, straight, trees to use as ship masts eventually led to the destruction of the vast majority of old growth pines in Massachusetts. Join Gwyneth Shanks and AB Brown for a performance piece highlighting Pinus strobus’s dramatic colonial history in which American settlers fought back against King George’s large-scale destruction of their forests, leading to direct resistance, riots, and eventually to the Boston Tea Party itself.
The event will begin with a participatory procession through the pines on Peters Hill and up to the Peters Hill summit, where the performers will unroll a 1200 square foot sail pre-retreated with cyanotype dye, and arrange archival objects, texts, and images on the sail that illustrate the properties and colonial histories of the eastern white pine. At the end of the event, a large cyanotype print will be revealed which represents the complicated history of this important tree.
This program begins at Peters Hill Gate on Flora Way.
Gwyneth Shanks and AB Brown are Assistant Professors of Performance, Theater, and Dance at Colby College in Maine.
Accessibility: This event involves walking a short distance over mulch paths and ascending the summit of Peters Hill, which is a short but steep slope.
Audience: This event is appropriate for ages 12+.
