Class overview

Professor Len von Morzé

Leonard.vonMorze@umb.edu

https://sites.google.com/view/amstd-aas23/

Water, Land, and Ecology: Doing Environmental History in Early America

THEME

Drawing on the unparalleled collections of the American Antiquarian Society, this course will consider two intersections between book history and environmental history:

(1) We will consider this intersection in terms of book production, distribution, and use, looking closely at the history of a technology that used/uses and recycled/recycles organic material and natural resources, including a surprising amount of material from animals. We will explore the environmental constraints faced by the producers, distributors, and readers of books, constraints that may have become less visible to many of us in our current-day world of seemingly unrestricted communication networks. As we look at developments in the history of the book, we will think about the changes in the ecological availability of the materials that went into book production.

(2) We will think about the ways that book authors engaged with the environmental concerns of their period and place, especially those relating to water use. You will be invited to explore these concerns, which may include the construction of sewers, canals, and waterworks; forms of oceanic and riparian commerce such as the ice trade; the development of irrigation and river diversion; Indigenous perspectives on water rights; imaginative literature about islands; and the ocean’s economic importance as vehicle of transportation and eventually a source of energy. Materials studied will include illustrations such as harbor views and seafaring maps, but we will also look at travel writing, fiction, and children’s literature that reflect various kinds of ecological awareness. These topics may distance us from our present-day conception of shared national environmental concerns, suggesting that we should pay attention to issues faced by particular regions and peoples. In this seminar, we will look at prints, manuscripts, and illustrations from the early American colonies and early republic that articulate such a sense of place. Often such writing had only an indirect relation to political action, because writers at the beginnings of the Anthropocene had considerably less confidence in their ability to control their environments. Conditions of real scarcity meant that an environmental consciousness was often less the voluntaristic concern that it may seem today.

STRUCTURE OF CLASS

This course meets Friday afternoons, 2-4. We will follow a basic structure:

2-3pm mini-lecture / your presentations of readings and reading-room discoveries

3-3:30pm guided research task with selected primary materials

3:30-4 group discussion in classroom of what we found and what we want to learn more about

4-5pm independent research time in the reading room (not required every week but encouraged!)

ASSIGNMENTS 

1) Do the readings: These will all be posted on the "Schedule" page (see tab above or click here: https://sites.google.com/view/amstd-aas23/schedule)

2) Take leadership with the reading and the collections: sign up for two dates from Sept 9 to Nov 4

*1 - discussion leadership on one assigned reading; be prepared to speak on the texts, with reference to a specific quotation you find interesting or significant, and questions you would like us to pursue

*2 - discover one new text/figure/issue relevant to our discussion (but not necessarily directly related; your research should be guided by your interests) – 

be prepared to speak on it in the following class meeting, including an overview of the form and content, locating it in the context of our class discussions or readings, one detail to close read, and an image of the source if possible

3) Write one close description of an artifact: I will loan all of you an old book that I purchased for the specific purpose of this class. I picked cheap old books that happened to be on the shelves at the Brattle Bookstore in Boston, so they do not necessarily have any direct relevance to the class. The book is yours until Oct 20, when I will ask you to present a focused five-minute description of the artifact to the rest of the class, written from the perspective of book history and/or environmental history. This will be your chance to think like a bibliographer or librarian and to practice the art of description. The purpose of this assignment is to encourage close attention to the examples of the excellent models of descriptive bibliography in the AAS catalog as you look for materials in the reading room. You will then come up with your own specific information for the item you have on loan. Assignment guidelines will be on the website. Please note that you should NOT bring this artifact into the library. We will be discussing your artifact on October 20, when we will meet in the Goddard-Daniels House outside the library. None of these old books are expensive but I would like them back on that day.

4) Research essay: weekly deadlines from Nov 10 to Dec 9 (details to follow in class)

The main objective of the course is for you to develop an independent research project and to complete a 15-page essay that will be added to the bound volume that forms part of the library’s permanent collection. The backgrounds and interests that admitted you to the course mean that I am confident of your ability to make exciting and original contributions, and I feel privileged to guide you along your way to this important achievement.

*Essay proposal – 3-page overview identifying a topic and question; list of five primary sources with a substantive reading of one. We will talk before this time about defining an appropriately ambitious project as well as narrowing the focus so that it is manageable.

*Research report – List of five relevant secondary sources briefly annotated; substantive engagement with one. You should find your own sources, but the extensive Bibliography below may provide some starting points for possible sources.

*Draft – 7 pages with a working thesis, roadmap, and sources, making use of the 

writing strategies we have discussed

*Workshop – Be prepared to discuss your assigned classmate’s draft 

*Formal Presentation with accompanying materials – Five minutes and 1-3 slides. This presentation may be attended by friends and family as well as library staff.

*Final Essay – 15 pages

We will also have scheduled meetings with AAS staff and longer periods of guided and independent research in the final weeks of the semester. I’m available for one-on-one meetings on Fridays. 4-5 could be a good time to talk–but I should also be available earlier in the day as well, as I plan to be in residence most of every Friday.