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The "Anthropocene" is a proposed new geological era currently under consideration by the International Commission on Stratigraphy. Meaning the “Age of Humans,” it makes a bold claim that humans have become a geologically significant force in earth's history. The implications of this decision extend far beyond the limited confines of academic geology into the life sciences, social sciences, and the humanities. The Anthropocene concept exposes the profound degree to which people have affected the earth system, whether in terms of the composition of its atmosphere, its species diversity, or even the elemental cycles of nitrogen and phosphorus.

Ellis, Maslin, Boivin and Bauer “Involve social scientists in defining the Anthropocene,” Nature (13 January 2017)

The humanistic implications of these changes are equally significant and a variety of disciplines have begun exploring their social, cultural, and ethical implications. History, in particular environmental history, has taken a leading role in examining the meaning and significance of the Anthropocene and public history projects have begun to explore new ways of presenting and interpreting these findings. The project “Omaha in the Anthropocene” combines these two historical approaches to explore the meaning and relevance of the Anthropocene idea in the context of Omaha and the history of Nebraska.

“Omaha in the Anthropocene” is a collaborative project between The Durham Museum and the senior-level “Global Environmental History” course at Creighton University (EVS/HIS 488). Between 2017 and 2018, students in EVS/HIS 488 selected objects from the Durham collection as the basis for their final project research. They explored the significance of these everyday objects in local, global, and environmental history. They presented their findings in multiple public venues, including public lectures, poster presentations, and recorded "lightning talks." The centerpiece of the project is a public exhibit, which was installed at The Durham Museum in the spring of 2018 and runs through the Spring of 2019.

Students viewing the Omaha in the Anthropocene Exhibit in 2018

Students researched the provenance of the artifacts in the Durham’s collections, investigated their place in Omaha's local history, and made connections between the object and patterns of global social and environmental change. These connections took the form of discrete relationships between Omaha’s past and dramatic changes in global systems of commerce or communication (for instance, the transcontinental telegraph or railroad). They also addressed the material or biological history of the object itself. For example, students who selected coffee cans, pepper shakers and cloves – researched the nineteenth-century business history of Omaha companies and the impacts of their cultivation in tropical regions. In this way, students connected the local with the global. They connected their viewers' own everyday use of material “things” with the curated experience of museum exhibitions. Finally, they embedded the ostensibly global narrative of the Anthropocene within the material and environmental history of Nebraska and Omaha. This exhibit is both a pedagogical tool and an opportunity to view Nebraskan history through the lens of global, environmental change.