Anna Toledano (Los Altos History Museum), "Black and native laborers at the Viceregal Botanical Garden in late 18th-century Mexico City"

Spanish naturalists established the Viceregal Botanical Garden of New Spain in Mexico City in 1788 to advance agriculture, manufacturing, and medicine, while also cultivating agents of empire. Rather than build on the robust tradition of American botany, the Spanish appropriated this space, employing Creole students and servant workers to Europeanize local botanical knowledge. This talk revisits archival materials and methodologies used to uncover the contributions of Black and Indigenous laborers, whose roles remain obscured in official accounts. I will apply these techniques to examples from my current work with a small local history museum collection, demonstrating practical approaches for recovering marginalized voices. Attendees are invited to share their own experiences and methods to foster a collaborative dialogue on how such approaches can illuminate the contested legacies of colonial institutions and their labor histories.