FYI. X-posted from H-Environment. Apologies for any duplications. Stefanie Rixecker ECOFEM Coordinator
------- Forwarded message follows ------- Date sent: Mon, 10 Mar 2003 09:39:03 -0600 From: Melissa Wiedenfeld <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Book Review: Nunn on Kirk _Collecting Nature_ To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Send reply to: H-NET List for Environmental History <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [Editor's note: Nunn works in the CLC in the Denver Public Library, and offers a special perspective on this book.] Andrew Glenn Kirk. _Collecting Nature: The American Environmental Movement and the Conservation Library_. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 2001. 243 pages. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, and index. $35.00 (cloth), ISBN 0-7006-1123-1. Reviewed for H-Environment by Colleen Nunn ([EMAIL PROTECTED]), Western History/Genealogy Department, Denver Public Library. Published by H-Environment (March 2003). >From Conservation to Environmentalism: A Case Study of the Conservation Library Center-Clashing Values and Different Foci _Collecting Nature: The American Environmental Movement and the Conservation Library_ is a history of the Conservation Library Center (CLC), today known as the Conservation Collection at the Denver Public Library. It is a special collection of environmental manuscripts that was organized in 1960 and totals more than two hundred archives in 2002. _Collecting Nature_ is an in-depth treatment of an earlier sketch by the same author, titled _The Gentle Science: A History of the Conservation Library_. The first booklet outlined the cast and major events that channeled the library's development. The title at-hand elaborates on those basics, but more importantly, sets the story in its historical context, the years when conservation transitioned into environmentalism. The author's thesis is that the library's distinct changes in direction directly result from a national change in environmental thinking and from radically different cultural mores that arose in the 1960s. Andrew Kirk is a Denver native who speaks from years of acquaintance with the Denver Public Library. As an adult, he surprisingly finds himself writing a history of one of his childhood library's special collections. He is surprised by the famous history he finds there--Sigurd Olson, Horace Albright, David Brower, Aldo Leopold, Howard Zahniser, William Vogt, Rosalie Edge, Ira Gabrielson, Lois Crisler, Olaus Murie, and Velma Johnston (a.k.a. Wild Horse Annie)--all were either counselors of the CLC in the early days or are present 'voices' in the manuscripts. Kirk concentrates on the story of the CLC in its first twenty-two years. He lays out its promising and energetic conception in 1960 followed by the distinctly different path of development it took in the 1970s, charted by a new generation of activists. Kirk says that "given the significant transformations in environmental thinking" during the CLC's founding period, "it should come as no surprise that an institution like the Conservation Library might fail to weather the change" (p. 175). True enough, the CLC did close down in 1982 for thirteen years. Before the book ends, however, Kirk foretells 1995 where a resurgence took place due to interested donors and a sympathetic library administration. The CLC was conceived by landscape architect, recreational planner and author/conservationist Arthur Carhart. Though viewed today as a second tier conservationist, in his own times Carhart was well-connected and well-known in the environmental community. In opening chapters, Kirk successfully portrays the indefatigable spirit of this dedicated conservationist. As the first landscape architect and recreation engineer hired by the U.S. Forest Service, Carhart , in 1919, called for the first 'non-development' thinking in Forest Service management of public lands [Region 2, centered in Denver]. Though he platted cabin spots around a stunning lake in a Colorado forest, he strongly suggested and prevailed upon the agency to leave the 300 acres undeveloped. Thus came about the first setting-aside of national forest land for wilderness enjoyment. Carhart was not temperamentally in tune with slow-moving, treacherous bureaucracies, however, so his days in government employ were limited to four years. His next major venture was writing freelance for outdoor sportsmen and pulp fiction magazines. Carhart understood writing as a tool for reform, rather than as art. In his conservation-laced fiction, environmentally-astute forest rangers are lone heroes fighting greedy ranchers, ignorant developers, or bureaucrats, after his own personal experiences. Kirk says Carhart probably reached more Americans with conservation messages through his fiction than he did later through his serious treatises on forest health and land management. Carhart was always an activist. He weighed in on public lands issues with his writing--in one instance, fighting, along with Bernard DeVoto, the attempted "public land grabs" by western stockmen in the 1940s. In another instance, Carhart advocated saving the beautiful Echo Park canyon in Colorado from a dam. His last activist project was establishing the Conservation Library Center, creating an archive with the seed of his own lifetime of collected letters, photographs, books and reports. Of all biographical writings on Carhart and his accomplishments, Kirk's chapters are the most complete and most balanced. The chapters, in fact, beg to be drawn out in more detail by some future biographer. Kirk points out the interesting times Carhart lived through as a conservationist and his ambivalence about concepts like "nature", "wilderness", and "human nature", which classically represent the same ambivalent environmental thinking in Americans, making Carhart's life a perfect study for a larger societal analysis. Denver City Librarian John Eastlick shared Carhart's enthusiasm in 1960 for a special environmental library and he offered institutional support. Their original concept for the CLC was twofold. They wanted it to be an historical testament to the efforts of early conservationists and they wanted it to be a resource center, so that contemporary activists could be grounded in the past as they were working to save the environment. Carhart and his network of environmental compatriots steered hundreds of boxes to the Denver Public Library doorstep. The CLC first peaked in national popularity in 1968, just as Carhart and his conservationist friends had succeeded in establishing a significant foundation for the library. James Cagney arrived in Denver in 1968 to speak at the presentation of the American Motors Conservation Award to the CLC--a sign of its important mission as seen by conservationists of the times. Kirk can be a dramatic writer, starting out _Collecting Nature_ with Cagney stepping out of his car on a blustery winter day, facing "the freezing wind that swept through the high-rise canyons of downtown Denver" (p. 1). The epilogue is equally dramatic and personal, telling the story of the fatal climbing accident of a noted Colorado environmentalist and CLC counselor. These book ends neatly package the CLC story and make it more accessible to the general reading public, as some of the interior sections that offer analysis of intergenerational cultural conflict and change in environmental philosophy demand some prior theoretical knowledge. In 1968, the founders were needing to pass the torch. Carhart had had a stroke in 1966 and was not able to reliably oversee the daily operations anymore. Nor could he any longer envision grandiose schemes for CLC's scope, which at one time included a proposed 55,000 sq. ft. addition to Denver Public Library, with the requisite number of staff to answers questions from an international audience. The next influential person to run the CLC was Kay Collins, who was director for twelve years. Collins was the natural choice. She was the daughter of a well-known naturalist, forester and family friend of Carhart's. She was an environmentalist; had written a thesis on transmountain diversion of Colorado River water; had graduated from the University of Denver as their first conservation librarian--a program initiated by the CLC; and had already been working part-time with the CLC and knew its workings. Collins believed in the 'center of activism' idea of the original founders. As an environmentalist, she was already playing an organizer role in the Colorado scene. She did find it difficult, however, to be integrally involved in the community and simultaneously administer the CLC. In addition, funding stresses and a large daily volume of patrons and information requests inhibited the processing and cataloguing of the large volume of manuscripts Carhart had acquired. Exploring the differences in the CLC of the 1960s and that of the 1970s and examining the significance of those differences is the heart of Kirk's contribution in _Collecting Nature_. Kirk presents Collins as the antithesis of Carhart. Her leadership role in the CLC represented the "emerging feminism within American environmentalism" (p. 121). At the same time, her role as an environmentalist librarian made her one of the new social responsibilities librarians that appeared in the library world of the 1960s and 1970s. In both fields, she was one of the emerging women leaders, attuned to "the people". Kirk uses Collins' move of the CLC from the rarified research atmosphere of the library's fourth floor down to the open, public stacks of the second floor as an example of their stylistic differences. Collins never held back on stating her opinions about environmental problems and speaking to "the people", whereas Carhart in his later CLC years wouldn't take stands on controversial issues for fear of alienating the older, white male establishment to which he catered. Kirk's thesis, while reasonable and probable, would have carried more weight if he had given the reader more statements from the proponents themselves . . . statements by Carhart showing him to be part of the conservative environmental establishment and statements by Collins evidencing her as part of the countercultural, feminist, anti-establishment subgroup of American '60s culture. Given that these two people were avid writers and speakers, it is surprising there were no statements Kirk could have quoted that would have shown readers that indeed these two people belonged to contrary cultural groups and thus effected the CLC in contrary ways. Besides gender and conservation-vs.-environmentalism differences in the two proponents, Kirk's other main point about the different leaders of the CLC is that they represent the different poles of an intellectual change that took place in American environmental thinking from anti-technology to an embracing of technology. Kirk says Carhart's generation was anti-technology, with a strong fear of technocracy. Au contraire, Collins' generation embraced "soft path" technology, seeing it as part of the solution to environmental problems. Again, words from Carhart displaying a strong anti-technology stance would have been useful corroboration of Kirk's thesis. The CLC goes through a final phase of federal funding by the DOE wherein it was called the Regional Energy/Environment Information Center (REEIC). Despite the irony of accepting funds from the federal behemoth that the counterculture blamed for many environmental problems, Collins did accept the funds, partly because all other funding had dried up and partly because the federal monies were at least focused in the directions she cared about. The late 1970s is where the CLC experienced a second peak in prominence. Colorado was the national center for exploring alternative energy sources and CLC was integrally involved in communicating that revolution. CLC library-user figures were high. President Carter lauded the CLC in 1980 for leading the nation toward a sounder environmental future. The devolution of the CLC took place in the Reagan '80s. Federal funds were ended for programs like the REEIC and the city faced severe budget problems in the early 1980s. An unsympathetic library administration took the opportunity to rid themselves of this special library program with its hard-to-control activists. In sum, Kirk does a commendable job of showing how the history of the Conservation Library is "a case study of the changing ideologies and evolving philosophies of the American environmental movement" (p. 11). In doing so, he brings to bear works on women and environmental work, women and librarianship, gender inequality, and New Left politics--counterculture--and environmentalism. On a less theoretical level, Kirk brings alive Carhart, a lost-to-history conservationist who deserves to be known, and Collins, an environmentalist and activist librarian who is a model of 1960s counterculture politics. The role of libraries in the environmental movement is a unique slant in environmental history. Another research idea put forth by the book is that of writing a comparison of the Environmental Conservation Library (ECOL) in Minneapolis with the CLC. ECOL was a parallel public library program and they were the only two such programs in the country. Kirk's history of one special library collection sheds as much light on the transition from conservation to environmentalism as it does on activist library programs. As a librarian with the Conservation Collection today, I feel privileged to be working with a manuscript collection of such dignified stature that it warrants its own written history and grateful to Kirk for uncovering the story. Today, Carhart's manuscripts are rapidly being processed and catalogued by staff specifically hired to do the work. Thus, one of Carhart 's original visions for the CLC is coming to fruition - that of its being an historical testament to the early pioneers of the environmental movement. As Kirk eloquently says about the genealogists who just happen to work in the conveniently situated Conservation rare book room, "As they search for their roots," unbeknownst to them, "they are literally surrounded by an intellectual family tree of the American environmental movement." (p. 18). Copyright 2003 by H-Net, all rights reserved. H-Net permits the redistribution and reprinting of this work for nonprofit, educational purposes, with full and accurate attribution to the author, web location, date of publication, originating list, and H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online. For other uses contact the Reviews editorial staff: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------- End of forwarded message ------- ************************************ Dr. Stefanie S. Rixecker, Director Environment, Society and Design Division Lincoln University, Canterbury PO Box 84 Aotearoa New Zealand E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Ph: 03-325-2811, x8643 ************************************
