Today in Smithsonian History: February 15, 1992
A sugar mill in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, pre-1900 via Wikimedia Commons.
February 15, 1992 “Sugar and Spice,” a free festival held in conjunction with the “Seeds of Change” exhibition at the National Museum of Natural History, features demonstrations, food, and music illustrating the impact of the Caribbean sugar industry on Europeans, African slaves, and indigenous Americans. Subsequent festivals feature potatoes and corn. The “Seeds of Change” exhibit commemorated the 500 years of cultural and biological exchanges since Christopher Columbus’s voyages to the Americas.
A 19th-century (1840 – 1860) lithograph by Theodore Bray showing a sugarcane plantation. On right is “white officer”, the European overseer. Slave workers toil during the harvest. To the left is a flat-bottomed vessel for cane transportation. Courtesy the Tropenmuseum, part of the National Museum of World Cultures, via Wikimedia Commons.
A sugar plantation on the island of Réunion in the late 19th century. Photo created by Henri Georgi (1853-1891) between 1879 – 1891.
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Posted: 15 February 2019
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