Incorporating 20th Century US Environmental History in the K-5 Classroom

Introduction: How to Use this Guide

Organization

• Sources are sorted into four thematic sections, arranged chronologically.
• Each section begins with an overview and index of sources.
• Primary sources are curated alongside questions, videos, and podcasts to help contextualize each source.

Links

• Many sources are linked to their hosting websites (external to this site).

 

Environmentalism in the Progressive Era & WWI, c. 1890-1920

Overview

The primary source documents and videos in this section illustrate the growing environmental ethos evident in the early twentieth century, from the Progressive Era through Wold War I.

The Progressive Era, spanning roughly from 1890-1920, can be understood as a period of reform movements formed in response to rapid industrialization, urbanization, and commercialization. Among these reform movements were two early environmental movements known as preservationism and conservationism. Preservationists believed that natural landscapes should be left exactly as they were, and conservationists sought to maintain natural resources in order for them to be best used and enjoyed. John Muir was known as the most prominent preservationist, whereas Gifford Pinchot was known as the most prominent conservationist.

This growing environmental ethos continued into World War I, as Americans conserved and rationed resources in order to support the war effort. Through their participation in garden clubs and local victory gardens, American women and children on the home front used agricultural practices to support soldiers abroad.

The sources in this section exemplify the many perspectives among Americans fostering connections to the environment in the early twentieth century.

Sources

• US Forest Service Video, "Gifford Pinchot Birthday Card"
• National Parks Service Video, "Happy Birthday National Park Service!" 
• National Parks Service Video, "Brigadier General Charles Young, Early Park Superintendent."  
• "Everybody Plant a Garden," Richmond Times Dispatch, April 22, 1917.
  • Political cartoon, J.N. Darling, in the New York Tribune, 1919.
• "Yule Exhibits in Portsmouth, Virginia Pilot, December 11, 1941.
  • Smithsonian Gardens Video.
• "Will you have a part in Victory?" 1918, poster.
• "The Gardens of Victory," poster.
  • Victory Gardens Video.

US Forest Service, "Gifford Pinchot Birthday Card" 

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgFlbQiG3j0.

Background:

• Gifford Pinchot (1865-1946) was known as the “father of American forestry.” He was an influential Progressive Era conservationist who advocated for the protection of natural resources in the United States.

Discussion Questions:

• The Grey Towers National Historic Site commemorates Pinchot. 
• What does commemorate mean?
• How might physical sites commemorate people?
• Why might the Forest service want to tell Pinchot’s story?
• What is scientific forestry?
• Why might Pinchot have wanted to bring forestry to the United States?
• What kinds of local and national political influence did Pinchot garner?

National Parks Service Video, "Happy Birthday National Park Service!" 

Link: https://www.nps.gov/media/video/view.htm?id=F4CA333A-E487-498D-BB0A-4E3D3729B9B7. 

Background:

• President Woodrow Wilson established the NPS into law through the 1916 “Organic Act.”
• Now, there are sixty-three National Parks across the country, serving millions of people each year. 

Discussion Questions 

• What do you think of when you hear “National Parks”?
• What is a Park Ranger?
  • Where do the Park Rangers in this video work?
• List some of the National Parks described by these Park Rangers.
  • Do any of these places surprise you?
• If you could make a site you know a National Park, which site would you choose? Why?

Brigadier General Charles Young, Early Park Superintendent

Link: https://home.nps.gov/seki/learn/historyculture/young.htm.

Background:

• Brigadier General Charles Young was the first Black National Park Superintendent of Sequoia National Park. He had a prolific military career despite segregation of US armed forces and the larger discrimination he faced in Jim Crow America.
• See the guide supplementary guide for more teaching resources: https://home.nps.gov/articles/000/-h-our-history-lesson-fit-for-service-colonel-charles-young-s-protest-ride.htm.

 

“Everybody Plant a Garden,” Richmond Times-Dispatch, April 22, 1917.

Background

• As a newspaper, this was intended for a wide audience and was published just weeks after the US declared war on Germany during WWI. Victory Gardens were encouraged as a way to help with food shortages and rations during the war. Gardening also gave people something to do and a way to participate that would ease anxieties about the war, food, and the threat of inflation.
• While Garden Clubs were primarily run by women, men and children were also encouraged to join so the whole family could be involved.
• War took millions of men away from their jobs which included agriculture and transportation. Imports of goods from other countries including fertilizer also slowed or stopped. With decreased home grown food and decreased imports of foreign food, shortages occurred which caused increased prices and hoarding.
• The bank invested in the Garden Club in support of the war effort and the local economy.

Political cartoon, J.N. Darling, in the New York Tribune, 1919

Link: https://virginiahistory.org/learn/victory-gardens.

Discussion Questions:

• What do you see?
• How might Cabbage Worms “enemy plotters” like our enemies in war?
• Who do you think this cartoon is for?

 

“Yule Exhibits in Portsmouth,” Virginian-Pilot, December 11, 1941. 

 

Background

• As a newspaper, this was intended for a wide public audience. The date reveals that this Yule Exhibit was held the weekend after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
• A Federation of Garden Clubs through the County indicates that Garden club work was important to the government. Even on the local level, there was institutional support of the war effort.
• This exhibit attempted to make conservation interesting to a wide audience by connecting it to Christmas, and hoped to encourage families to reduce waste and decorate using recycled materials at home. Reducing waste was important during war time when money and resources were scarce.
• All of the club’s leaders were women which shows that conservation was seen as a “women’s activity.” Garden Clubs provided women leadership opportunities. Also note that they were all listed by their husbands’ names.
• Garden Clubs were often made exclusive to only wealthy white women. This article shows that in spite of segregation, Black women organized their own Garden Clubs and advocated for conservation.

Smithsonian Gardens Video

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtrlcLslK5w. 

Discussion Questions

• Are the photos you see in this video in Black and White?
• What might that mean?
• What are some reasons people have gardens today?
• What are some reason why people had gardens back then?
• Why is gardening good?
• Why is reducing waste good?
• What did the women in Garden Clubs do besides garden?
• How might Garden Clubs have benefited communities?

 

Will you have a part in Victory? 1918

Link: https://www.loc.gov/item/2002712327/

Background

• This was published by the National War Garden Commission, a temporary department created to encourage gardening during WWI.
• Dressed in the American flag, this woman, beautiful and innocent looking, represents the country. She appears delicate and yet powerful, but ultimately worthy of
  protection. She walks with a purpose and sows seeds that presumably will allow the nation to win the war. This imagery is often used for America or American ideals (think Statue of Liberty). The image conjures an emotional attachment to the nation, but also inspires women to join her in the garden or farm fields.
• “Every Garden a Munition Plant” communicates that growing food is just as important as manufacturing guns and ammunition.

Discussion Questions:

• What do you see? What do you wonder about this image?
• Why is the woman dressed in an American flag?
• Is this similar to other propaganda images?
• Why was food important during the war?

 

The Gardens of Victory Video

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBg1ND5X3tA

Discussion Questions:

• What do you notice about this video?
• When do you think this video was made? Why?
• What are some reasons why people have gardens today?
• Why might people have had gardens back then?
• What is a ration?
• Do you have questions about the video?

 

The Great Depression and the New Deal (c. 1929-1945)

Overview

The sources in this section chronicle the environmental aspects of the Great Depression and the New Deal. This period can be studied for both its environmental disaster and federal initiatives toward conservation and reforestation.

In the early 1930s, as the Great Depression wreaked havoc on the economy, the Dust Bowl hit in the Great Plains and the eastern US. The Dust Bowl became known as the largest human caused environmental disaster in US history and is largely attributed to the poor use of agricultural lands as well that were intensified by a long drought in the region. The disaster would lead to mass migration from the Great Plains to Wester states, including California. Primary source photographs, an interview, and a PBS video illustrate the toll the Dust Bowl had on the environment and the people living there.

President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal ushered in a series of federally funded programs to alleviate financial burdens of the Great Depression, while also focusing on environmental projects. Notably, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) employed young men to work on conservation initiatives and reforestation projects. Their work would benefit the National Park Service, as well as State Parks around the country.

Sources

• The Dust Bowl & The Great Depression
  • Photo: Arthur Rothstein, “Abandoned farm in the dust bowl area, Oklahoma,” April 1936, Farm Security Administration.
  • Photo: Dorothea Lange, “Migrant Mother: Birth of an Icon,” Nipomo, 1936.
  • Video: A Man-Made Ecological Disaster
  • Interview with Flora Robertson, 1940
• Civilian Conservation Corps & the New Deal
  • Video: Zion National Park Ranger Minute
  • NPS, Civilian Conservation Corps Article
  • Video: Civilian Conservation Corps | Oregon Experience, Oregon Public Broadcasting

The Dust Bowl and the Great Depression

Background:

• In the early 1930s, extreme drought hit the Great Plains. For decades, farmers in the region had been over-plowing and depleting the soil through a lack of crop rotation.
• The drought, combined with high winds, caused massive
  dust storms that blew across the plains, further stripping topsoil.
• Along with environmental damage, the Dust Bowl caused
  further economic hardship and health issues.
• The Dust Bowl would also cause a mass migration of
  farmers out of states like Oklahoma, Texas, and Arkansas
  and to California as they searched for better opportunities.

Discussion Questions:

• What do you see in these photos?
• What people and objects do you see?
• When do you think these photos were taken?
• Why do you think the photo was taken?
• How might the Dust Bowl have affected women and children?
• How might the Dust Bowl have affected the environment?

Civilian Conservation Corps & the New Deal

National Park Service Ranger Minute Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPvnXG8qSTs

National Park Service CCC Article Link: https://www.nps.gov/articles/the-civilian-conservation-corps.htm

Oregon Public Broadcasting CCC Video (28 min) Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZArEDEVo4s

Analyzing Photographs & Discussion Questions:

• What do you see in these photos?
• What people and objects do you see?
• When do you think these photos were taken?
• Why do you think the photo was taken?
• How did the Civilian Conservation Corps help people? How did it help the earth?
• Would you join the CCC? Why or why not?

 

Segregation and Jim Crow in the Environment

Overview

In the early twentieth century, Jim Crow segregation relegated Black Americans to separate and often unequal environmental spaces. In spite of this, Black Americans had robust relationships to the environment through recreation, and commercial or personal ownership.

The sources in this section highlight the specific ways outdoor spaces were segregated through law and social custom. The sources also reveal how Black Americans maintained connection to the outdoors despite the segregation they actively fought, creating spaces of joy and environmental connection for their communities. By exploring these not so distant stories, students will also be able to consider what effects of environmental segregation and racism are still present today.

Sources

• Ownership and Segregation of Beaches
  • Photo: “YWCA camp for girls. Highland Beach, Maryland,” 1930, Scurlock Studio Records, Box 41, Archives Center, Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
  • Newspaper: “Police on Guard at Wade-In,” Chicago Tribune, July 9, 1961

Ownership and Segregation of Beaches

Annotation:

• Incorporated in 1922, Highland Beach was the first African American municipality in Maryland. It was also the first African American Summer Resort in the Country.
• Many very wealthy African Americans including Mary Church Terrell and Charles Douglass.
• In the late 1800s and early 1900s, most beaches and coastal properties were owned by Black people, particularly formerly enslaved folks and their descendants because the weather and sandy soil made the land less valuable. In the 20th century, predatory white land developers started trying to take these properties and monetize them as segregated beaches and resorts.
• The car and clothing hint at when this was taken, and reveal the presence of Black people in outdoor spaces, specifically beaches, long before desegregation.
• This photo is of a YWCA camp for girls. Recreation, specifically in the outdoors, was not limited to just boys.

Annotation:

• Wade-ins were just like sit-in protests happening at lunch
  counters during the civil rights movement. Instead of sitting down in restaurants, activists were visiting the beach and swimming in the ocean.
• Many of the beaches where wade-ins occurred, including Rainbow Beach, were not legally segregated, but were “segregated by custom,” meaning that only white people had been welcome there for many years, they were dangerous places for Black people to go.
• Wade-ins advocated for integration. Many communities ended up getting designated Black beaches rather than equal access to all beaches.
• The police are facing the group of protestors. This stance indicates that the protestors were seen as the threat of violence rather than the racist mob.
• Although no violence was reported, ten people were arrested for “unlawful assembly.” This charge is meant for people who enter a space illegally or who threaten public safety. Since there was no legal segregation of Rainbow Beach, neither one of these things was the case.

Discussion Questions:

• What or who do you see in these photos?
• When do you think these photos were taken?
• Why do you think the photos were taken?
• Did anything in the photos surprise you?
• What questions do you have for the photos?

The Environmental Movement of the 1960s and 1970s

Overview

By the 1960s, decades of industrialization, resource over-extraction, and use of harmful chemicals had taken a noticeable environmental toll. The sources in this section explore the environmental movements of the 1960s and 1970s and pieces of federal legislation passed in response to the growing popular movement to protect the environment.

By the early 1960s and 1970s, what had been a burgeoning environmental movement grew into the mainstream as activists and scholars alike noticed an intensifying environmental crisis. Some key issues included deforestation, air and water pollution, and species extinction. A few key moments in this growing environmental movement include: the fight against DDT, made popular by Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring; the first Earth Day in 1970; and the American Indian Movement’s March to Wounded Knee in 1973. Important pieces of legislation include the Wilderness Act (1964), Clean Air Act (1970), the Endangered Species Act (1973).

Sources

• “DDT is good for me-e-e” Advertisement, Time Magazine, June 30, 1947.
• Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring
  • Video: Rachel Carson and the Origin of Scientific Environmentalism
• Earth Day & March to Wounded Knee
  • Walter Cronkite, Earth Day CBS News Broadcast, April 22, 1970
  • “World Pilgrimage: Wounded Knee,” Poster, April 22, 1970.
  • Video: PBS, “All About Holidays: Earth Day”
• Environmental Movement: Legislation
  • Video: Endangered Species Act Overview, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

 

"DDT is good for me-e-e," Advertisement, Time Magazine, June 30, 1947

Link: https://digital.sciencehistory.org/works/1831ck18w

 

Background:

• Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT) was developed in the late nineteenth century, but became commercially available by the 1940s.
• The US military initially used DDT to stop the spread of diseases, like malaria, that spread through insects.
• DDT became commercially available in the 1940s as a pesticide that everyday Americans and famers could use to keep insects off of crops.
• Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring has been credited with exposing the harms of DDT on human, animal, and plant health.
• The movement against DDT can be seen as one of the main signifiers of the modern environmental movement, which had already started to take shape by the early 1960s.

Annotation:

• Created by the Penn Salt Chemicals company
• Published in Time Magazine, June 1947
• Touts the multiple uses and benefits of DDT for different audiences, including commercial farmers and in the home.

Discussion Questions:

• What kind of document is this? (Is it a newspaper article, an advertisement, a letter, etc.)
• Who created this document?
• Who might the intended audience be for this document?
• Choose three of the photographs and text blurbs. What do these sections argue?
• Taking the document as a whole, what do you think the argument of this document is?
• Given what has been discussed about DDT, how might this document be misleading?

 

Rachel Carson's Silent Spring

Rachel Carson and the Origin of Scientific Environmentalism Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCYEElzrK64

Discussion Questions:

• What were some of Carson’s “unique talents”?
• How did Carson communicate her findings to the public, and why might her message have been important?
• Why might Carson’s writings appeal to us today?

 

The First Earth Day & March to Wounded Knee, 1970 & 1973

Background:

• The growing popular movements aimed at environmental protection led to a major moment in 1970 with the first Earth Day.
• Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin is credited with organizing the first Earth Day, wherein activists from across the country, protested the environmental degradation caused by unchecked industrial pollution.
• The American Indian Movement (AIM) used Earth Day as a focal point of the 73-day Wounded Knee occupation in 1973.
  • AIM protested the US government’s broken promises and exploitation of American Indian land and human rights. Activists protested on the site of the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre.

Walter Cronkite, Earth Day, CBS News Broadcast, April 22,1970. Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbwC281uzUs

Discussion Questions:

• What are some of the environmental issues Earth Day might have remedied?
• Who participated in the first Earth Day?
  • Why might Kronkite have said Earth Day “failed?”
• What role do the media play in shaping public awareness and action on environmental issues?
• How do you think the environmental movement has evolved since 1970?
  • In what ways do you think it has succeeded, and where do challenges remain?

Discussion Questions:

• Who created this poster, and when?
• Why was this poster made?
• What is on the poster, and what might these symbols represent?
• How might the goals of Earth Day align with those of AIM?

PBS, All About Holidays: Earth Day Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuhpygdNmcQ&feature=youtu.be

Video: Endangered Species Act Overview, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OAIlM1EFHc.