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Earthrise, fotografiert von der Apollo 8
  • Vortrag

Montagskolloquium im Sommersemester 2022

Elephants and Keyboards

Montagskolloquium

John R. McNeill (Georgetown University):

African Elephants and Connecticut Keyboards: An Ecological Teleconnection of the Industrial Revolution

Digitaler Veranstaltungsort: https://meet.google.com/exu-ddbt-twq

John R. McNeill (Georgetown University):

African Elephants and Connecticut Keyboards: An Ecological Teleconnection of the Industrial Revolution


I will explain the link between piano keyboard manufacturers in the Connecticut River Valley, ca. 1840-1930, and the ecology of the East African savannas and woodlands.  New technologies of ivory-cutting, first developed in Connecticut, created intense pressure on East African elephant populations after 1840.  Piano keyboard manufacture in Connecticut, by some estimates, accounted for half of the world's ivory trade for several decades in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  Elephant hunting, and the reduction of elephant numbers, generated several ecological alterations because elephants serve as a "keystone species" that regulates the savanna environment.

Über John R. McNeill:
https://gufaculty360.georgetown.edu/s/contact/00336000014Ri2hAAC/john-mc-neill

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