Reading Ramie from Plant to Fabric: Knowledge and Representation in Botanical Drawings

Abstract

Focusing on ramie, a fiber plant widely grown in the history of Asia, and its illustrations (from plant to fabric) produced in Asia and Europe, this essay compares knowledge in historical imagery with twenty-first-century botanical knowledge to show how botanical artists and early observers understood this understudied yet important fiber plant. These drawings in many ways correlate with modern botanical knowledge, but they also differ in distinctive ways. How illustrators chose to represent the plant and the fiber extraction process indicates not only their perception of the plant and the industry but also their aims-scientific, political, and commercial-in producing the illustrations.

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Publication Date

9-17-2026

Publication Title

American Historical Review

Department

History

Additional Department

East Asian Studies

Document Type

Article

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhag325

Notes

Issue Section: AHR History Lab > Reading Nature's Archive

Keywords

Ramie, Botanical drawings, Knowledge representation

Language

English

Format

text

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