ABSTRACT
This case study uses the commemorative medal of Agnes Block on which she appears as Flora Batava—with a tulip in one hand and a pineapple at her feet—as a lens through which to examine the role of collecting in Block’s self-definition and self-representation. As an uneducated woman who could not rise above the rank of amateur botanist or to that of scholar, the medal is a material and visual manifestation of Block’s use and reliance on networks of learned men, collectors, naturalists, and artists in the formation of her collections of exotic plants, insects, and rarities and, ultimately, her persona.
