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    All Featured Books
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Visit BHL
  • Home
  • News
  • Featured Books
    • All Featured Books
    • Book of the Month Series
  • User Stories
  • Campaigns
    • Fossil Stories
    • Garden Stories
    • Monsters Are Real
    • Page Frights
    • Her Natural History
    • Earth Optimism 2020
  • Tech Blog
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Biodiversity Heritage Library - Program news and collection highlights from BHL

All posts by Tomoko Steen

Blog Reel, Campaigns, Earth Optimism 2020

George Perkins Marsh: Man and Nature: Or, Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action

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George Perkins Marsh was a talented linguist, scholar, and diplomat. He served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Vermont’s 3rd district from 1843-1849, and, in 1850, went on to become United States Minister to the Ottoman Empire. In 1861 he was appointed by President Lincoln as the first Ambassador to the Kingdom of Italy, where he served until his death at Vallombrosa in 1882. A Vermonter raised close to the forests of the Adirondack Mountains, Marsh is remembered today chiefly for his role as an early and influential pioneer of the conservation movement in the United States. His book Man and Nature:Or, Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action, published in 1864, is recognized for his early recognition of the interdependency of the natural world, the effects that human actions can have upon it, and the responsibilities that humans bear for those actions.

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August 20, 2020byTomoko Steen and Alison Kelly
Blog Reel, Featured Books

Charles Lathrop Pack: Pioneering the Idea of the “Victory Garden” in the United States

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Charles Lathrop Pack was a principal organizer of the Victory Garden movement. Victory gardens, war gardens, or, as they were sometimes called, “food gardens for defense,” are gardens meant to be supplement and even improve upon the food supply in times of shortage and rationing due to war, providing a variety of home-grown vegetables, fruits, and herbs. Not limited to typical farming areas or countryside, Victory Gardens were planted in urban areas as well. They sprang up at private homes and in public parks and allotments in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and Germany during World War I and again in World War II.

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July 2, 2019byTomoko Steen and Alison Kelly
Blog Reel, Campaigns, Featured Books, Her Natural History

General Instructions for Rearing Silkworms: Louise Rienzi and California’s Silk Industry

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When Louise Rienzi wrote her guide on General Instructions for Rearing Silkworms, in 1887, she was part of a movement attempting to establish a viable silk industry for the United States. The epicenter of the new industry was California, where Louis Prevost, a French botanist, was the first to grow silkworms and produce cocoons, in 1860. The physical environment was favorable, and the industry saw some success before it eventually faded.

Several groups were formed to promote the industry, including the State Board of Silk Culture in San Jose. This organization was responsible for printing and distributing Louise Rienzi’s sericultural manual in the late 1880s. Louise Rienzi also served as Secretary of the State Board and issued official reports on the monthly and annual meetings as well as the contributions of various committees, such as the Committee on Mulberry Trees, Eggs and Cocoons.

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March 25, 2019byAlison Kelly and Tomoko Steen
Blog Reel, Featured Books

Galen Clark: The Guardian of Yosemite

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When Galen Clark’s The Big Trees of California, their History and Characteristics, was published, in 1907, he was 93 years old. It had been 50 years since he first came to live in the Mariposa Grove in Yosemite Valley. He had spent most of those years in the midst of the giant sequoias, serving as a guide and educator, and fighting for the protection of these natural wonders.

The noted naturalist and conservationist John Muir met Galen Clark on his first visit to Yosemite, and later, in his writing on The Yosemite, called him “the best mountaineer I ever met, and one or the kindest and most amiable of all my mountain friends.” Along with Muir, Clark was instrumental in Yosemite’s preservation and development as a national park.

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February 21, 2019byAlison Kelly and Tomoko Steen
Blog Reel, Featured Books

Do Birds and Mammals Destroy Fish Populations? One 19th Century Naturalist Was Commissioned to Find Out.

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In the wake of the Quakers’ immigration to North America, a taste for the study of nature came “quietly” into being among descendants from the “tolerant” zones, notably the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

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May 25, 2017byAmy Zhang and Tomoko Steen
Blog Reel, Featured Books

Nicolas-Edme Roret: Insects and Natural History Manuals

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Atlas des insectes, composé de 110 planches, représentant la plupart des insectes décrits dans le Manuel d’histoire naturelle et dans le Manuel d’entomologie [Translation: Atlas of insects, consisting of 110 plates, representing most of the insects described in the Natural History Manual and the Manual of Entomology] was digitized from the Library of Congress (LC)’s collection on May 1st, 2012 by the Internet Archive and included in the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL). One of the oldest publications scanned from the LC’s collections and added to BHL, this early natural history publication includes 110 plates of various insects.
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June 23, 2016byTomoko Steen

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