A Black Scientist Was An Early Cicada Researcher. His Work Has Been Mostly Overlooked.

[elleng]

'Benjamin Banneker – a free Black man born in 1731 – is best known for a land survey that established the original borders of Washington, D.C. But the naturalist also broke ground in another field: cicada research.

Banneker first observed the cicadas at his Maryland home as a teenager in 1740s. He spent the next 50 years documenting their unique life cycles — the bugs come out of the ground for only a few weeks every 17 years. His observations were among the earliest known to be documented.

Janet Barber and her husband, Asamoah Nkwanta, researched his handwritten notes from 1800 on the insects. Barber is an independent researcher and Nkwanta is with Morgan State University in Baltimore.

"He had not really had a formal education in the sciences," Barber told NPR. "Yet he was just very brilliant to understand that something very different and phenomenal is going on."

But his work documenting the cicadas has been largely overlooked because of his race, say Barber and Nkwanta.

"There's a lot of stories about the cicada, but very seldom do you hear any mention of Benjamin Banneker connected to the discovery of the 17 year periodic cycle," Nkwanta said.

Banneker's notes are housed at the Maryland Center for History and Culture, and the Baltimore Sun recently featured Barber and Nkwanta's 2014 paper about them.'>>>

https://www.npr.org/2021/05/11/995898681/a-black-scientist-was-an-early-cicada-researcher-his-work-has-been-mostly-overlo?

[LunaSea]

1. Wasn't Banneker the fellow who

built a wooden clock after only examining a brass clockwork for a short period of time?
An astonishing story. And no, I'd never heard about his insect research.

Thought I'd share a portrait done by an artist I know for a historical card game series-

[Warpy]

2. You can buy copies of his clocks

https://www.bannekerstore.com/3500-bc-burgundy-cherry-wood/

Clockmaking, like entomology, was a sideline. He was a landowner, farmer, surveyor and kept up a brisk correspondence with Thomas Jefferson. He published almanacs until 8 years before his death.

He surveyed the boundaries and streets of what was to become Washington, DC, although Ellicot, who also worked on the project, has taken all the credit. That is likely because Banneker was black.

The real tragedy is that most of his papers were destroyed in a fire a day after his death. His almanacs, journals, and clocks remain.

I recognized the name but couldn't remember how. It was the clocks, I think.

[LunaSea]

3. Cool!

From bannekerstore.com-

When arsonists burned down his home while his funeral was going on just a few hundred yards away, surely they thought they could erase Benjamin Banneker from history. His clock, his writings, his telescope, musical instruments, and virtually all of his lifelong work and possessions disappeared or were destroyed. Through the passionate support and effort of Historians over the years, much has been learned about Benjamin Banneker and his contributions to the history of this country. Surprisingly though, many people are still not familiar with Banneker and are always amazed when they learn what he somehow managed to achieve.

Lots more-
https://www.bannekerstore.com/benjamin-banneker/