Mahogany tree, Flatt's Village before 1884

This is a photograph of a mahogany tree in Flatt's Village, Bermuda, and it appears in a book called "Stark's Illustrated Bermuda." What's striking here is the way that a seemingly straightforward image of nature is actually embedded in a very particular cultural and institutional context. The book itself, "Stark's Illustrated Bermuda," suggests a desire to document and promote the island's natural beauty, likely for tourism purposes. The choice of a mahogany tree is also significant. Mahogany was a valuable commodity in the colonial era, and its presence in Bermuda speaks to the island's history of trade and exploitation. This image, then, isn't just a picture of a tree, but a window into Bermuda's complex social and economic past. To understand this image fully, we'd need to research the history of tourism in Bermuda, the role of mahogany in the island's economy, and the broader context of colonial imagery.