Presentation at the California Council for the Social Studies annual conference 2012. By Sherri Berger, California Digital Library, and Nicole Gilbertson, UC Irvine History Project.

1. Scientist, Writer, Activist:
Exploring John Muir’s Letters
Sherri Berger, California Digital Library - Calisphere
Nicole Gilbertson, UC Irvine History Project
California Council for the Social Studies, March 2, 2012

2. Overview
About Calisphere
John Muir correspondence
Scope of collection
How to find letters
Selections: Scientist, Writer, Activist
Analyzing primary sources
Your turn!

3. About Calisphere
Over 220,000 digital items
Images: photos, drawings, paintings,
murals, posters…
Texts: letters, oral histories, reports…
From more than 100 CA institutions
Collection strength: CA history
…but much more

6. search
browse

7. Images in context

9. Tools + definitions

10. content standards

11. eras

12. Themed Collection Eras
1780-1880: California in Transition
1848-1865: Gold Rush Era
1870-1900: Closing of the Frontier
1900-1940s: Emerging Industrial Order
1929-1939: The Great Depression
1939-1945: World War II
1950s-1970s: Social Reform

13. Closing of the Frontier

15. people

18. JARDA

20. Images on maps

21. Who was John Muir?
Born 1838
Writer and naturalist
5 years in Yosemite
Founded Sierra Club,
National Park advocate
Traveler, explorer

22. John Muir Correspondence
More than 6,000 letters
Both to and from Muir
Span much of his life: 1856-1914
Scanned – see the handwriting
Transcribed – easier reading, searching
Document travels, activism, family, etc.
Themed Collection Topic

25. America’s interest in science grows
8.12 Students analyze the transformation of the American economy
and the changing social and political conditions in the United States in
response to the Industrial Revolution.
1. Trace patterns of agricultural and industrial development as they
relate to climate, use of natural resources, markets, and trade and
locate such development on a map.
• Professionalization of science and growing
relevance in American life
– Mapping of the mountain ranges, identification of
glaciers, description of natural world in 1860s and 70s
– California State Geological Survey mandate to find
useful minerals, catalog plants, assess agriculture, and
describe topography

26. John Muir: Scientist
• 1871 Smithsonian requested that Muir send
reports on his mountain explorations
• Extensive experience as botanist
• Explorations in Alaska studying glaciers
– Muir Glacier

27. John Muir and Joseph LeConte
• Le Conte University of California Professor
– Studied glaciers and ice age
– Credited his knowledge of CA glaciers to Muir
• Muir argued that a glacier once existed in
Sierra Nevada
– “Yosemite Glaciers”
• Muir’s study was validated by U.S. Geological
Survey in late 19th century

28. John Muir and Joseph LeConte
December 17, 1871

29. John Muir: Writer
8.6 Students analyze the divergent paths of the American
people from 1800 to the mid-1800s and the challenges
they faced, with emphasis on the Northeast.
7. Identify common themes in American art as well as
transcendentalism and individualism (e.g., writings about
and by Ralph Waldo Emerson...)
• Trancendentalist?
• Ralph Waldo Emerson considered Muir
“one of his men.”

30. Muir to Emerson
March 26, 1872

31. John Muir: Activist
8.12.5. Examine the location and effects of urbanization,
renewed immigration, and industrialization (e.g., the effects on
social fabric of cities, wealth and economic opportunity, the
conservation movement).
• Robert Underwood Johnson provided Muir
with a national audience led to Yosemite as
national park in 1890
– The Century
• Preservationists vs. Conservationists
• Muir helped establish the Sierra Club in 1892
and was President

32. Muir to Johnson
March 4, 1890

33. Scientist, Writer, Activist: Exploring
John Muir’s Letters
• What kinds of arguments did Muir use in favor
of the preservation of the natural world?
• How did Muir emphasize different aspects of
nature for different audiences?
• What themes does Muir use to depict nature?

34. Supporting Lessons
• Education in the Environment Initiative
– EEI 8.12.5
http://www.calepa.ca.gov/education/eei/curriculum
/
• PBS Series National Parks: America’s Best Idea
– Interactive Timeline
http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/history/timeline/