Tag: Discovery Fellowships

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What’s the Use? pt. II

Binding detail from John Muir's The mountains of California, showing a scence of mountain and a forest surrounded by a pine wreath.

This post comes to us from Discovery Fellow Natalie Triana

The time I have spent as a Discovery Research Fellow this semester has been nothing short of fulfilling. I was able to dive into the history of the conservation movement, explore new questions about people’s environmental values, and gained an even greater motivation for pursuing these topics in the future. As a bonus, I was able to spend my time in the Special & Area Studies Collection reading room in Smathers Library –– UF’s most stunning library (in my personal opinion, at least).

As I read books from early environmentalists, such as William Bartram, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and John Muir, I noticed differing perspectives regarding the value of nature in relation to humans. Authors like Thoreau and Emerson argue for nature’s intrinsic value, whereas others discuss the “uses” nature provides to human beings. These contrasting ideologies reaffirm the concepts I was learning in one of my academic classes this semester, which questions why humans act (or don’t act) on their environmental values.

  • John Muir inscribed this copy of the mountains of California to a woman he met in Cedar Key, Florida
    UF’s copy of John Muir’s The Mountains of California (1894) is inscribed to Sarah Ann Hodgson of Cedar Key, FL, who helped Muir recover from illness during his travels through the state.
  • The volume also contains clippings about Muir, the national parts, and nature books, ranging from the 1890s to the 1980s

In this class, I learned that many people are incentivized to act sustainably because nature serves a function to us (food, recreation, economic prosperity, etc.). Unfortunately, the downside to this thought process is that our emphasis on nature’s “use” perpetuates the notion that it is inferior to humans and therefore must benefit us to be valued. This causes many people to overlook endangered species and ecosystems that may appear useless or unattractive to the human eye. By examining how different authors view nature’s value, I hope to reexamine the way environmentalists communicate the need for climate action to a general audience. In the future, I would like to see environmentalism shift from an egocentric perspective to a biocentric perspective, where people can appreciate the environment not only for its services but for its mere existence.

Poster presentation at the UF Undergraduate Research Symposium
Research from the CURE class was presented at UF’s Undergraduate Research Symposium in April 2022

Overall, this research fellowship has inspired, intrigued, and informed me beyond what I expected. In the future, I will take the skills that I learned, such as conducting individual research, exploring areas of interest, and knowing how to find materials in a library collection, with me to law school and beyond. This opportunity has allowed me to become more well-versed in environmental literature and in archival research as a whole.

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The Strongest Element, pt. II

Proof from Byrne's Elements of Euclid

This post comes from Discovery Fellow Christian Harris

In continuation of my research, I first observed current trends in Geometry education. While understanding that visual stimulus is appreciated in modern math education, I wanted to look at specific findings surrounding the use of diagrams, such as Byrne’s Elements. Overall, it seems that diagrams are becoming an increasingly popular tool for math education. As programming and digital tools have developed, our ability to visually demonstrate “difficult” math concepts has increased dramatically since Byrne’s writing. These visual tools can help increase math comprehension, especially in young learners. As well, visual modeling, and a slight stray from Euclidian based proofs, have contributed to the growth of other forms of math (such as Hyperbolic and Spherical geometry). However, it has also been shown that visual components can have no impact on exam performance, and if a student is not experienced with specific forms of visual media, that media can actually become a hindrance to student comprehension. Overall, visual media has become a near-necessary aspect of math education, boosting student comprehension. However, this is given that the student has been allowed to understand and gain experience with the formatting of the visual media.

Use of 3D modeling techniques in 7th grade advanced math textbook (Burger et. al, 2015)

These findings are quite evident when observing geometry textbooks throughout different levels of education. For students who are younger or have little experience with geometric concepts, Euclidean proofs are not presented. Instead, there are findings, absent of proofs, followed by computation and many visual components to help students understand what exactly they are reading. If proofs are presented, they do not reflect the Euclidean style, but are instead simplified and backed by visual/ computational components. However, once you reach college level Geometry (where a student is expected to have experience with geometric concepts), textbooks still reflect pure Euclidean-styled proofs. In many ways, college level geometry textbooks reflect Euclid’s Elements, with minimal edits to diction, syntax, and classifications. Of course, there is variance in textbook content dependent on the publisher, different levels of government, and the standards of each university, so these results are generalized to an extent.

Standard proof from college level Geometry textbook (Venema, 2012)

While post-secondary geometry education has remained largely unchanged, it seems that the use of visual media (such as colors, diagrams, etc.) has flourished in middle/ high school geometry education. What does this say about Byrne? Well, there are many different possibilities for how these changes to education came to fruition. Perhaps it is due to Byrne, who argued that his work was revolutionary (and was later praised by education research). Possibly, changes in legislation surrounding public education enforced changes in curriculum. As well, it could be due to advancements in education research, which prompts change in academic textbooks. More probable, these changes are due to an amalgamation of different trends, both in math education and academia. While I was not able to uncover the direct influence of the implementation of visual media in geometry education, I believe a future path for this research is clear. To continue this research, one would have to specify the causes of changes to U.S. geometry education, specifically looking at how visual media worked its way into middle/ high school curriculum.

Sadly, it is improbable that Byrne is solely responsible for changes to geometry education. However, it is incredible to think that Byrne’s Elements, despite its failure, offered a new perspective into geometry education. The book reformulated the rigid, yet beloved Euclid and showed mathematicians that adaptation is not only possible, but beneficial in cases.

Figure 4: Colors used in 6th grade advanced math textbook (Burger et. al, 2015)
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The Limits of Whiteness

School Photo from the Jacksonville Jewish Center - 1931

This post comes to us from Discovery Fellow Meir Schochet

The place of Jews in relation to definitions such as “the white person” has long been a topic of discussion. It became so for me in my senior Jewish history seminar in high school, when my professor presented us this very same question: are Jews white? It has also recently become a topic of much debate considering the comments of Whoopi Goldberg earlier this year. Throughout the course of my research in UF’s Price Library of Judaica, I have been pondering this question and trying to see what others say on the subject so I could broaden my perspective.

I have focused my research on two main areas up to this point. First, I have looked at the writings of antisemites and other bigoted people, and I have also looked at the works of academics and marginalized groups to get a wide perspective of how different groups view the Jewish experience. This post will deal specifically with the academic approach. 

In White Jews: an Intersectional Approach, David Schraub presents an interesting idea, that is “there is the matter of particular persons who, but for their Jewishness, would be (in the American context) unambiguously White.” This is a fascinating idea that has really been the main one that I have been coming back to in the context of my research. This idea is as follows: in the Americanized definition of whiteness, most Jews have conditional passing whiteness which concatenates them into the class of white people. This allows for most Jews to experience a degree of whiteness, if they so please, simply by dressing themselves and presenting themselves as an average white American. 

German/Jew: An artist's book by Karen Baldner composed of multiple paper casts of the artist's head
“German/Jew” by Karen Baldner (2003). The overlapping words “German” and “Jew” show different layers of identity using paper moulds of the artist’s head.

This point above has some interesting complexities to it, however. Specifically, “What counts as a “Jewish problem” or a “Jewish experience” or a “Jewish history” is often, in fact, particular and partial to the specific problems and experiences of the Jews described in the first paragraph: the White Jews” (Schraub). It is true essentially that the large history of the “Jewish experience” often focuses on those experiences of the stereotypical white-passing Jew and ignores the Jews of marginalized groups who do not possess the ability to be white-passing.

In relation to the anti-Semitica that I have been both privileged and pained to read, it seems that most Jew-hating peoples felt the way they did about Jews regardless of their skin color. This is to say, the experience of marginalized Jews has been disregarded largely due to the overwhelming amount of white-passing Jews compared to others, however, those hateful people who believe they can define the word “whiteness” would largely still exclude Jews from that word.

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Koreshanity: A Look into Florida’s Utopian Communities

Cellular Cosmogony Cover - Diagram of a Concave Earth

This post comes to us from Discovery Fellow Chrishann Walcott

Entering the Discovery Fellowship, I definitely knew that I was inclined towards exploring the diversity of religion and religious communities in the landscape of American culture in the 19th and 20th centuries. Having access to Special Collections gifted me with the opportunity to navigate the many avenues through which I can foster this interest. 

I had first decided to trace the development of different religious communities in Florida, diving into a few sources from the P.K Yonge Library of Florida History, as well as the Rare Book Collection. It is here that I came across a multitude of books that documented the rise and decline of utopian societies in Florida, as well as biographical materials that discuss the people behind these unique communities. It is important to note that many of the earlier utopian communities of the mid-19th century were religious in nature, however, there were a variety of successful secular and social utopian communities that persisted throughout the 20th century. 

Lyn Millner’s The Allure of Immortality (2015) introduced me to the story of the Koreshans⁠, a utopian community established in Estero, Florida, by Dr. Cyrus Teed. Teed was an eccentric apocalyptic hailing from Utica, New York who believed himself to be a divine messenger sent to warn of the Second Coming of Christ, thus abandoning his pursuit of eclectic medicine. Teed renamed himself “Koresh”, the Hebrew transliteration of Cyrus (referring to Cyrus the Great). One of the most distinctive beliefs that characterized the Koreshan faith was the rejection of the Copernican model and instead brought a new principle that the Earth is a concave sphere, as explained in The Cellular Cosmogony.

Optical diagrams from the Cellular Cosmogony

One of the most interesting aspects of Teed’s religion was his integration of science and “alchemy” in consolidating a belief system that would reconcile the laws of the natural world with God’s will. The Koreshans illustrated their theories and tried to evangelize new members in various materials, from pamphlets to monthly-issued journals. 

I continued to look through other materials that gave an in-depth description of the activities and social systems that became central to members of the Koreshan Unity. Notably, the Koreshans were a self-sufficient community that included recreational buildings, gardens, dining areas, and other complexes. Teed’s permanent settlement in Estero mirrored that of the Harmonists, a Pennsylvanian communal society founded by Johann Georg Rapp in 1804. Like Rapp, Teed had taught his followers about celibacy—even claiming celibacy allowed Koreshans to connect with divinity and thus achieve immortality. 

The Koreshan Unity commissioned editions of its own works form a Chicago printing company in the early twentieth century.

Learning more about the Koreshans has allowed me to understand more of the contextual basis behind why utopian communities were created, and how they reflect the shifting socioeconomic dynamics and the desire to retain both cultural and religious identity in an increasingly urbanizing landscape. As of now, I am exploring other utopian communities that no longer exist, but have been etched into Floridian history, such as the Yamato colony and Moses Levy’s Jewish utopia.

A copy of a pamphlet with magazine advertisements, now part of the collection at Koreshan State Park.
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What’s the Use?

View of the Hudson River from Picturesque America (1874)

This post comes to us from Discovery Fellow Natalie Triana

As I delve through the books, magazines, and drawings within the Rare Books Collection, I am actively exploring the way environmental values have transformed throughout time, as well as how these values are manifested within literature and language. Although many policy scholars debate the importance of attitudes in predicting environmental behavior (also known as the value-action gap), I believe there is a stark contrast between our conceptual values and embodied ones.

            For instance, at a conceptual level, most of us care about the environment and hope to protect it –– however, protecting the environment may not trump the value of protecting friends and family, whom we perceive to have a far more direct relationship to us. In fact, protecting the environment may even fall second to saving our cell phone from damage. Evidently, values matter, and so do our perceptions of people and things. As we continue to perceive the environment as increasingly separate from us, we feel far less affected by its degradation, which is evident within the literature that sparked the U.S. conservation movement.

William Bartram’s Travels (1791) set the tone for a generation of writers and scientists that would follow.

            In William Bartram’s Travels through North and South Carolina, East and West Florida, he describes his love for Florida’s wildlife as he accompanies his father on a botanical expedition. Although Bartram proclaims that “men and manners undoubtedly hold the first rank,” he follows this idea by insisting that “whatever may contribute to our existence is also of equal importance.” Bartram possesses an inherent love for nature because, as a botanist, he embodies environmental values on a daily basis and perceives the planet as inextricably linked with his identity. However, Bartram’s writings highlight how society views man as separate from nature, only caring about the planet when it serves as a commodity for human use.

Ralph Waldo Emerson illustrates similar themes within his book Miscellanies: Embracing Nature, Addresses, and Lectures. Emerson actually addresses the concept that nature should be more than just a commodity for people, rather an extension of our own human nature.

Emerson writes that
“nature never became a toy to a wise spirit.”

He also explains how we have been educated with a “doctrine of Use.” Ironically, Emerson structures his essay through the uses for nature, such as commodity, beauty, language, and discipline.

            Overall, it appears that both writers feel as though they are connected to nature, but insist on persuading their audience to agree by listing how the environment benefits humans. Perhaps, our values are derived from the things or people we need in our lives (family, friends, career, etc.). Since Emerson and Bartram both need nature to inspire their professional work, they embody environmental values on a daily basis. Others, however, must be reminded of nature’s contributions to the things they explicitly enjoy (food, recreation, etc.). As I continue this research, I would like to consider how we can embody environmental values in our daily lives, despite living in a highly industrialized world.

Advertisement for Emerson’s writings on the back cover of the Atlantic Monthly. Ticknor & Fields also published the Atlantic.
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The Strongest Element

Elements of Euclid 1661 - Title Page and Engraving of Euclid

This post comes to us from Discovery Fellow Christian Harris

Around 300 B.C.E., a man named Euclid worked and taught at the Library of Alexandria. While almost nothing more is known about Euclid himself, his name spread far and wide as the author of a series of books which became known as “The Elements.” These books provided formal proofs which laid the ground for teaching modern mathematics. While we do not have the completed work of Euclid, the majority of the Elements still live through various historical prints. Most prints of Euclid take on very small changes, such as translations, adapting syntax, or an addition of commentary. Since 1482, it has become standard to print Euclid with illustrations of the proofs as well.

I was able to view copies of Euclid from the 1600s through the 1800s, many intended for school or college use. These editions, and many others, are relatively smaller with only small differences between. While some variations of Euclid have been more eclectic (more on that below), history has not favored those who stray too far from Euclid’s traditional format.

While we have been able to use Euclid throughout history to teach math, there are still practical contributions that have not yet been explored or realized. At the beginning of my research experience, I used various editions of Euclid’s Elements to learn more about one such famous problem, called the Perfect Cuboid Problem.

The Perfect Cuboid Problem simply asks if there exists a cuboid (a rectangular prism) such that each side can be divided into two “Pythagorean triple” triangles. A Pythagorean triple is a set of three integers such that the sum of the squares of two integers is equal to the third integer squared (e.g., 3, 4, and 5 are a Pythagorean triple because 32+42=52).

Once you understand what the question asks, it feels almost intuitive that it is impossible for such a cuboid to exist.

However, while no has ever found an example of a “perfect cuboid,” no one has been able to prove it is impossible either. In my research so far, I observed various proofs of the Pythagorean Theorem, attempting to use such information to gain any insight into the Perfect Cuboid Problem.

The title page of Oliver Byrne’s “First Six Books of the Elements of Euclid”

While maneuvering through different variations of the Elements, I spent a lot of time with one of the most unconventional editions ever produced: Oliver Byrne’s “The First Six Books of the Elements of Euclid: In which Coloured Diagrams and Symbols are Used Instead of Letters for the Greater Ease of Learners,” (1847). This edition does exactly as the title claims, rewriting the first six books of the Elements in a completely different format, using color and diagrams instead of words to convey its proofs.

The Pythagorean Theorem illustrated in Oliver Byrne’s Elements (1847)

While this book was not well received at its time of release, it has received a lot of contemporary praise for its progressive nature and efforts to improve comprehension. As I have continued to work with this book, my research has shifted towards its failure at the time of its release, and the steady influence it had on future math education. As contemporary research promotes the use of diagrams and visuals in geometry education, it seems that Byrne had a level of impact on modern education. I wish to now explore what level of influence, if any, that Byrne had on math literature and education, and when this influence began to show.

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Welcome to our 2022 Discovery Fellows

We’re pleased to welcome our second-ever cohort of Undergraduate Discovery Fellows to the collections this semester. This year, we’ve had the good fortune to grow the program to five fellowships. You’ll hear more about these projects over the coming weeks, but we’re looking forward to seeing what they discover.  

Christian Harris, Undergraduate Discovery Fellow

Christian Harris (’24)

is a mathematics major who is interested in the ways that geometry is (and has been taught). He’ll be looking through the Rare Book Collection and the Baldwin Library for different approaches to illustrating and explaining Euclid’s Elements of Geometry.

Allyson Maldonado, Undergraduate Discovery Fellow

Allyson Maldonado (’24)

is pursuing her love of all things theater in the Popular Culture Collections. This semester she’ll be looking at the evolving portrayals of Asians on Broadway and in other aspects of American musicals.

Meir Schochet, Undergraduate Discovery Fellow

Meir Schochet (’25)

will be investigating the place of whiteness in Jewish identity, as well as how non-Jews have sought to exclude them from this category. He will be using the published texts and ephemera from the Price Library of Judaica.

Natalie Triana, Undergraduate Discovery Fellow

Natalie Triana (’25)

is eager to explore the ways that naturalism, transcendentalism, and policy combined in the beginnings of the American conservation movements of the nineteenth century. She’ll be starting her search in Rare Book Collection as well as the PK Yonge Library of Florida History.

Chrishann Walcott (’25)

wants to explore the ways that religious traditions assume other portions of national, social, and communal identities by looking at the growth of religious communities in the modern US and the Caribbean.

A warm welcome to them all!

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Nature’s Wonders

This post comes to us from Discovery Fellow Hannah Whitaker

Through my Discovery Fellowship I have accessed dozens of unique and beautiful pieces of literature. My focus has primarily been on natural history; I am interested to see how natural history texts have evolved over time. I began in the Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature, reading books about insects and animals written for children in the Victorian Era.

My favorite was Birds and Insects by Jane Bragg, which features a young girl with boundless curiosity waltzing through her garden and conversing with each critter she finds.

The creatures speak back, of course, responding with factual information about themselves in an almost Lewis-Carrollian way. This ability to freely converse with animals is pervasive in Victorian Children’s literature, I have found, and while less common in 20th century American literature, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings maintained this magical ability in her posthumously released children’s story The Secret River.

Cover of the book The Look About Club

These natural history books emphasize the intrinsic value of each creature,

whether written primarily for pleasure or education. Thomas Say’s reference book, American Entomology, is inscribed with the Stillingfleet poem “Each moss/ Each shell, each crawling insect, holds a rank/ Important in the plan of Him who fram’d/ This scale of beings.” This poem illustrates the author’s fondness for all creatures, regardless of shape, size, or species. Birds and Insects (1844) and The Look-About Club (1887) each highlight the importance and value of each animal. In Birds and Insects, the animals are imbued with feelings, begging the reader to discontinue hunting. The father in The Look-About Club beseeches his children to be gentle with the animals they study.

Despite evolution in writing styles, authors recognized the fragility and beauty of the natural world nearly two centuries ago; a haunting and timely warning to modern-day readers. More recent texts, such as Forest in the Sand by Marjory Bartlett Sanger (1983) and Voices of the Earth: Florida’s Environmental Storybook with Pictures to Color by Kristin Farquhar (1992) also detail the necessity of maintaining the balance of the ecosystem.

Marjory Bartlett Sanger, Forest in the Sand (1983) , from the PK Yonge Library of Florida History

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