Environmental History

Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring catalogues the environmental impact of the indiscriminate use of DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) in the US and questions the logic of releasing large amounts of chemicals into the environment without fully understanding their effects on ecology or human…

This description from the National Park Service describes Theodore Roosevelt's conservation legacy and efforts as the 26th President of the United States. He is known as the "conservationist president" and successfully preserved millions of acres of public lands.

In this article from March 31st, 1931, The Townsville Daily Bulletin reported on a blizzard that stranded five children and resulted in the death of twelve children in Denver, CO. The article also discusses the mobilization of different charity agencies in the area to respond to the tragedy as well…

In this article from March 30th, 1931, the author reports on a blizzard in Colorado that resulted in 11 deaths in Denver, CO. The article recounts the harrowing story of the children stuck on the bus and the experiences of survivors of the tragedy.

<p><span class="deck"> In a mere three hundred years we have despoiled a rich continent and seriously disturbed its balance of life. Nature may not let us escape the consequences much longer</span> </p>

<p><span class="deck"> From a way Down East came a stench of politics and potatoes, and news of a border incident that true patriots will long remember as</span> </p>

<p>The shore line of Pyramid Lake, one of the West's great natural wonders, is steadily receding, robbed of the water it needs by a Bureau of Reclamation irrigation project.</p>

<p><span class="deck"> The Rough Rider rode roughshod over writers who took liberties with Mother Nature’s children</span> </p>

<p><span class="deck"> CONSERVATION</span> </p>

<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> Pilgrims and Puritans, naturally, hated the water, but by the turn of the century certain pleasures had been rediscovered</span> </span></p>

<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> The old gray mare was not the ecological marvel, in American cities, that horse lovers like to believe</span> </span></p>

<p><span class="deck"> CUMBERLAND ISLAND AND HOW MODERN TIMES AT LAST HAVE REACHED IT</span> </p>

<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> Riding to hounds has been as much of a sport among well-to-do Americans as among the British gentry</span> </span></p>

<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> A Welsh waif adopted a new country and a new name and then became—thanks to a New York newspaper—the most famous African explorer of his time</span> </span></p>

<p>These hardy Texas beasts with “too much legs, horns, and speed” had long since been replaced by stodgier breeds. Now they were facing extinction… </p>

<p><span class="deck"><span class="typestyle">OR</span> HOW THE BOY SCOUTS CAME TO AMERICA </span></p>

<p><span class="deck"> IN THE DELTA</span> </p>

<p><span class="deck"> THE AMERICAN BALD EAGLE</span> </p>

<p><span class="deck"> A trip to the Ozarks in 1910 has left us a unique record of a people by-passed by progress</span> </p>

<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> Our Frontier Heritage of Waste</span> </span></p>

<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle">The Seasons of Man in the Ozarks</span> </span></p>

<p>Why have Americans perceived nature as something to be conquered?</p>

<p>In southern California the orange found a home. </p>

<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> Man, Land, and History in the Deepest Gorge on Earth</span> </span></p>

<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> A Last Link with the Living Frontier</span> </span></p>

<p><span class="deck"><span class="typestyle">The Last Stand of King Grizzly</span> </span></p>

<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> The Colonial Status—Past and Present—of the Great American West</span> </span></p>

<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> The Garden Club of America-once the diversion of leisured ladies—is now a vigorous environmental league</span> </span></p>

<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> The quietly compelling legend of America’s gentlest pioneer</span> </span></p>

<p>One hundred years ago, Congress created two agencies—the U.S. Geological Survey and the Bureau of Ethnology. Both, according to the author, have since “given direction, form, and stimulation to the science of earth and the science of man, and in so doing have touched millions of lives.”</p>

<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> He was the first Englishman to give a detailed description of the North American wilderness. Was it a pack of lies?</span> </span></p>

<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> Peale’s Greatest Triumph</span> </span></p>

<p><span class="deck"> So read a welcoming sign over the door of Charles Willson Peale’s great ill-fated museum</span> </p>

<p><span class="deck"> Piskiou,Vaches Sauvages, Buffler, Prairie Beeves—</span> </p>

<p><span class="deck">It’s our most important, profitable, and adaptable crop—the true American staple. But where did it come from?</span> </p>

<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> Banished from public view in our cities, this two-hundred-year-old import is alive and well behind the scenes</span> </span></p>

<p><span class="deck">We talk about it constantly and we arrange our lives around it. So did our parents; and so did the very first colonists. But it took Americans a long time to understand their weather, and we still have trouble getting it right.</span></p>

<p><span class="deck">Did the Indians have a special, almost noble, affinity with the American environment, or were they despoilers of it? Two historians of the environment explain the profound clash of cultures between Indians and whites that has made each group almost incomprehensible to the other.</span></p>

<p><span class="deck"> Since 1930, more than half of America’s splendid elm trees have succumbed to disease. But science is now fighting back and gaining ground. </span></p>

<p><span class="deck">150 years ago, a sea of grass spread from the Ohio to the Rockies. Now, only bits and pieces of that awesome wilderness remain for the traveler to discover.</span></p>

<p><span class="deck">Ninety years ago, a high-born zealot named Gifford Pinchot knew more about woodlands than any man in America. What he <span class="typestyle"> did</span> about them changed the country we live in and helped define environmentalism. </span></p>

<p><span class="deck">For more than a century now, American homeowners have been struggling to remake their small patch of the environment into a soft, green carpet just like the neighbor’s. Who told us this was the way a lawn had to be?</span></p>

<p><span class="deck">THE PICTURE IS MORE HEARTENING THAN ALL THE LITTLE ONES.</span></p>

<p><span class="deck">American attitudes toward wetlands have taken a 180-degree turn over the last century, and so have the battles they provoke.</span></p>

<p><span class="deck">The naturalist Aldo Leopold not only gave the wilderness idea its most persuasive articulation; he offered a way of thinking that turned the entire history of land use on its head.</span></p>

<p><span class="deck">Skirmishing about environmentalism may well continue forever, but the major war is over. It lasted far longer than most people realize.</span></p>