Spring Research Project:
Exploring Secondary Sources
Choosing a Primary Source
After finding the United States Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Library, and the Smokey Bear exhibit housed there, I have selected a primary source image that will be central to my research project.
The painting (right) is titled "Smokey says - Care will prevent 9 out of 10 forest fires!" and was created in 1945 by Albert Staehle. As one of the earliest Smokey Bear graphics, I selected this painting because of its simple and clear message.
This painting can be found in the U.S. Forest Service Graphics collection of the exhibit, and there any many other graphics and photographs in the remaining collections, which I'd encourage everyone to check out: the Ruby Wendelin Gallery and U.S. Forest Service Photos. There is also an Other Materials collection of items (photos, memorabilia, etc.) that aren't available online.
The next step in the research process after selecting a primary source is to explore secondary sources. Most of my search will be for scholarly journals and articles that relate to Smokey in any way: fire prevention, environmentalism, education, advertising campaigns, and more. I also expect there will be news articles about Smokey, so I'll keep an eye out for those as well. Below is a breakdown of sources found using various databases.
UCI Library Search
A quick search of "smokey bear" yields over 8,000 results, of which 5,000 are available online. The first resource that pops up is a map of the Smokey Bear Ranger District, which is a name of a district in the Lincoln National Forest. This is cool, but doesn't give me a lot of information besides the fact that a forest district has been named after Smokey. The second resource was much different -- a PSA video published in 1952 by the Ad Council. Like other Smokey Bear campaign videos, the quiet and serious tone captivates the audience and ends with a twist to implement a shock-factor.
Another interesting search result was the definition of "Smokey Bear" in the The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (2 ed.), because "Smokey Bear" came to be known in the U.S. as a term for a state policeman. This highlights Smokey's long-lasting presence in American culture.
The first journal publication result that peaked my curiosity is "Beyond Smokey Bear," written by an ex-firefighter and educator about incorporating emergency preparedness lessons into higher education, specifically in college curriculum. This article establishes a clear scholarly conversation (important!) around the effectiveness of using characters in fire-prevention education. Is Smokey only effective for a younger audience? This is something I could explore in my research paper.
A completely different and very interesting resource is a journal article titled "Smokey Bear and the pyropolitics of United States forest governance," and it delves into complex politics surrounding Smokey Bear and "state management of people, territory, and flammable landscapes" (Minor and Boyce). I think I'll need to read this article in-depth because it contains some very interesting information (ex: ads that likened Smokey to the founding fathers, posters which included Christian themes & morals) as well as some complicated jargon (Can anyone tell me what the phrase pyropolitical assemblage means?). I am definitely interested in the conversation that develops from this article, and what I will take away from it after reading.
Google Scholar
Next, I tried my luck in Google Scholar with a simple search of "smokey bear."
The first result is a daunting one: "Be Careful What You Wish For: the Legacy of Smokey Bear." This article discusses the ecological impact on forests caused by strict wildfire suppression policies, centered on the prolonged and "aggressive" Smokey Bear campaign. Authors Geoffrey Donovan and Thomas Brown suggest an alternative approach to wildfire management, which is yet another addition to the scholarly conversation surrounding Smokey Bear. Interestingly, it is another criticism of the campaign.
On a related note, "The death of Smokey Bear: The ecodisaster myth and forest management practices in prehistoric North America" continues the conversation of the ecological impact that fire suppression has had on American forests. Stating that "fire is an essential management tool, not an ecodisaster," Roberta Dods discusses new practices and criticizes the practices that were advertised in the Smokey Bear campaign.
I'd also like to mention "The Evolution of Smokey Bear: Environmental Education About Wildfire for Youth," in which the authors write about their results from examining and researching fifty wildfire education programs for youth, or WEY, in the United States. I'd like to dive deeper into this 15-page research article and discover how the authors are contributing to the scholarly conversation about Smokey Bear's involvement in education.
Lastly, I'll end my Google Scholar adventure with the article "JAMES G. LEWIS ON SMOKEY BEAR IN VIETNAM," which details the presence of Smokey Bear amongst American troops during the Vietnam War. In 1962, Smokey became the unofficial mascot of Operation Ranch Hand, which was the "military's largest defoliation project during the Vietnam War" (Lewis). Opening up forests made it easier to see enemy movements. Lewis states that it was probably a pilot who modified Smokey Bear posters to read "Only YOU can prevent a forest!". I'll definitely be taking the time to read deeper into this topic and the meaning of Smokey Bear in the Vietnam War.
Image: Slide VAS006661, Ranch Hand Association, Vietnam Collection, The Vietnam Archive, Texas Tech University
JSTOR
The first article that comes up in my search for "smokey bear" is actually an excerpt from a larger article. "Fire: Smokey Bear is Wrong," goes into detail about the effects of fire prevention on certain plant species. The excerpt itself is from the American Journal of Botany, and it is used in an article for the journal BioScience. Thus, the excerpt uses lots of scientific jargon, but also includes some graphical data that I might be able to understand. I could possibly include some information from this when considering the discussion about Smokey Bear's campaign and its ecological effects on American forests.
I knew I'd find at least one newspaper article! Well, technically this comes from a journal called Science News, but I think that counts. The article "Smokey Bear Dies; Buried in Own Park" gives a brief recount of the real-life Smokey Bear's history and some notes about his help in the fire prevention campaign. They also described how popular Smokey became, receiving 13,000 letters a week at one point in the campaign. People sent so many flowers to the U.S. Forest Service after his death that they didn't know what to with them.
The heartfelt tone of this article reminds me that despite the criticism Smokey's campaign may have received, the bear cub himself was well-loved by many. I think I could explore in my research about how differently the campaign was interpreted by different audiences.
I'll end my JSTOR exploration here with the twenty-five page article by Marguerite Helmers titled "Hybridity, Ethos, and Visual Representations of Smokey Bear." Even in just the first paragraphs I learned a new word, simulacrum (noun): A material image, made as a representation of some deity, person, or thing (Oxford English Dictionary). While I have not had time to fully read the article, it opens with a narrative about two "ecoterrorists" who deface a statue of Smokey. Helmers writes that the statue of Smokey is a "representation of a representation," and due to his role as a government symbol, he represents a controlling authority figure. I'd like to incorporate some of Helmer's points into my research paper and look into the conversation about the American peoples' visual interpretation of Smokey Bear.
Overall, I'm very excited about the overwhelming amount of scholarly sources I have been able to find about this topic. The articles I've discussed here are just the tip of the iceberg of what returned from my searches (and I only searched in three databases!). So far, it looks like I've identified scholarly conversations surrounding multiple topics:
- Smokey Bear's iconography in American culture
- the effectiveness of Smokey Bear in fire prevention education
- the ecological effects of such a campaign
- how Smokey was represented in Vietnam during the Vietnam War
- what the visual representation of Smokey Bear means to different people
When choosing Smokey Bear for my research project, I really had no idea that this could be such a multi-disciplinary topic, and I am interested to see where my further research takes me.