1 10 8 https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/fa0dec6e9ac02f64db6db4afbf4918fd.JPG 6b61cf5a3a123d53b7142cab00c30972 https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/115f3851f1a0644cd804810aeaef7101.jpg 4673516d342b81ac33bbef9ffe008103 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Interior of streetcar damaged in 1935 strikes Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Durham Museum Photo Archive Description An account of the resource Interior view of streetcar number 915. Heavily damaged by fire during the 1935 streetcar strikes. All the windows have been broken out and the roof is completely gone. All the seats and interior fixtures have been destroyed by the fire. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource From the Bostwick-Frohardt Collection, owned by KM3TV and on permanent loan to The Durham Museum. Commercial use or distribution of the image is not permitted without prior permission of the copyright holder. Please contact The Durham Museum for permission to use the digital image. https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/aad7af18e64ac947fe94024a534e0685.jpg ec9e349d019edbd004193ee4423630e3 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 16th and Douglas in 1916 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Durham Museum Photo Archive https://durhammuseum.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15426coll1/id/17927/rec/3 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Commercial use or distribution of the image is not permitted without prior permission of the copyright holder. Please contact The Durham Museum for permission to use the digital image. https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/20768e22998e209985384fcf6bfeba11.jpg f4d9d3de4004735b619314169523b7fd Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Streetcar in Downtown Omaha Description An account of the resource Streetcar # 1024 moving down 16th and Farnam streets. People walk along the streets, cars are also on the roads. Buildings include: Richman's, Union Pacific and the Henshaw Hotel. A banner running across the street reads: A Civic Achievement! Chicago Civic Opera with Mary Garden and Tito Schipa, Seats at Candyland, 1522 Farnam, AkSarBen Coliseum, March 26 & 27. Copy date of 1951-11-05 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1930 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource From the Bostwick-Frohardt Collection, owned by KM3TV and on permanent loan to The Durham Museum. Commercial use or distribution of the image is not permitted without prior permission of the copyright holder. Please contact The Durham Museum for permission to use the digital image. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Conquering Time and Space Subject The topic of the resource <div>Industrial Revolutions <img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4704/39667361775_2e3264c4bf_o.jpg" 100="" width="100% height=" /> <a href="https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~24266~880086:-Birdseye-view-Great-Plains-#" title="Bird Eye View - Rumsey" target="_blank">Detail(Birdseye view Great Plains)Knight, Leonard & Co.,Engravers and Printers, Chicago. (1890) David Rumsey.com </a></div> Description An account of the resource Industrial revolutions fundamentally transformed the world’s social and economic order. Beginning in Great Britain in the eighteenth century, European empires expanded industrialization into a global phenomenon that created spectacular wealth and unprecedent power for western countries, but also led to new social conflict and increased the gap between rich and poor. Industrialization also led to profound changes in the global environment. Advances in transportation and telecommunications expanded the reach of industrial powers. The railroad and the telegraph allowed people to tap distant natural resources more quickly and efficiently than ever before. Contemporaries praised this “annihilation of time and space” and Omaha was central to this story. The first transcontinental telegraph began in Omaha and was completed in 1861. In 1863, the Union Pacific chose Omaha as the eastern terminus for the transcontinental railroad. By 1867, the United States had built the world’s largest railroad network, business leaders communicated from coast to coast, and Omaha stood at the center. As railroads and the telegraph shrank time and space, cities expanded. Streetcars promoted urban growth and the rise of the first suburbs. The objects in this section show rail and the telegraph reshaped environments during this era of industrialization. As you move through this section of the exhibit, consider how transportation and telecommunication connects Omaha to the wider world and to global environments today. Physical Object An inanimate, three-dimensional object or substance. Note that digital representations of, or surrogates for, these objects should use Moving Image, Still Image, Text or one of the other types. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Streetcar Tokens Subject The topic of the resource Streetcar tokens were once a large part of American life. In the late 1800s, city sizes, structures, and functions changed. Why? Because streetcars allowed people to live in suburbs, away from their job in the city. Before the streetcar, the largest US cities did not extend more than two miles from their center. Today, most Americans travel over 10 miles to work. In Omaha, streetcars played an important role in this transition. Between 1886-1955, the Omaha and Council Bluffs Railway and Bridge Company (O&CB) operated an extensive streetcar system. By 1955, the car had already begun to replace mass transportation. With cars, the environmental consequences of suburban growth accelerated. As people lived further away from their work, vehicular emissions skyrocketed. Today, transportation accounts for over a quarter of US greenhouse gas emissions. The legacy of streetcar tokens lives on in the dollar bills spent on gasoline. Description An account of the resource In Omaha, streetcars were not only a symbol of innovation and urbanization, but also a symbol of a social justice movement and change to come. In the mid-1800s, before the advent of omnibuses and horse-drawn streetcars, the footprint of cities was limited, and walking was the primary mode of transportation. People often lived within a minute’s walk of their workplace, if not in the same building. During this time, the largest US cities – New York, Boston, Philadelphia– did not extend further than two miles from the city center, due to the limitations of walking as a primary mode of transportation. Between 1850 and 1900, Boston had extended the radius of its city center by five times, from two miles to ten. (<a href="http://www.steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/b40955b63eaf260975729e5fba7832ff.jpg">Figure 1</a>) (Chudacoff, 1975) By the turn of the 21st century, the average American commute to work lasted approximately 26 minutes, and about 50 percent of Americans traveled 11 miles or more for their commute. (Bureau of Transportation Statistics, 1995) Historians have often tied suburbanization to the rise of the automobile, but this misses an essential intermediary development. The streetcar was the crucial factor in the shift from the “walking city” to the modern, automobile-dominated landscape. The history of streetcars, particularly in Omaha, is also full of civil activism. The role activists played in opposition to streetcar companies helped to create the changes necessary for cars to overtake US roads. The subsequent processes of increased city expansion and the burning of gasoline and diesel have substantially contributed to the worldwide ecological shifts characteristic of the Anthropocene. Streetcar tokens, the object of display in The Durham Museum, provide a stand-in for measuring streetcar popularity over time. (<a href="http://www.steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/fa0dec6e9ac02f64db6db4afbf4918fd.JPG">Figure 2</a>) While the overall circular shape of the tokens remained largely stable, their value consistently decreased throughout the streetcar era. In order to ride the streetcar in 1919, fares were four for a quarter. By 1930, a fare was three tokens for a quarter and by 1950 it became two tokens for a quarter. (Orr, 1996) The development of streetcars depended on an earlier movement away from pedestrian traffic to other forms of mass transit. Omnibuses (enclosed, horse-drawn passenger vehicles) and horse-drawn carriages debuted prior to streetcars, and had large influences as the first means of public transportation in urban areas. As the nineteenth century advanced, electric railway and streetcar systems overtook those less-sophisticated technologies. By the 1890s, nearly every major US city contained an electric railway or streetcar system. (Chudacoff, 1975) In fact, in 1890, there were about 800 streetcar companies responsible for carrying approximately two billion passengers throughout the US. By 1903, the US had about thirty thousand miles of streetcar tracks, nearly all of them were electrified. (Wells, 2014) Electric streetcars changed the composition of city streets and the composition of cities themselves. (<a href="http://www.steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/aad7af18e64ac947fe94024a534e0685.jpg">Figure 3</a>) Due to the increased speed of travel, commuters were able to live farther and farther away from their workplace, and “streetcar suburbs” were born. Chicago, a city where cable cars and electric streetcars were hugely popular in the early 1900s, is a great example for the impact of streetcars on suburban growth. Between 1890 and 1920, 250,000 residential lots were recorded on the borders of its city limits, and another 550,000 in regions just outside those limits. (Chudacoff, 1975) The invention of the electric streetcar proved to be the first major transportation innovation leading to the current suburbia-dominated landscape surrounding urban areas. Streetcars were equally important in Omaha. The Omaha and Council Bluffs Railway and Bridge Company (O&CB) dominated the streetcar industry in the region. Omaha was first occupied by omnibus transport, then horse-pulled streetcars. In 1886, the O&CB became incorporated, and secured a monopoly over the region. (Orr, 1996) The O&CB streetcar company was one of the first in the nation to introduce an electric streetcar system. Shortly after incorporation, electric streetcar railways extended throughout the city center and into surrounding neighborhoods. (<a href="http://www.steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/20768e22998e209985384fcf6bfeba11.jpg">Figure 4</a>) The last streetcar ride through Omaha took place in 1955, completing the city-wide transformation into buses as the newest public transportation media. (Orr, 1996) The nearly 70-year history of electric streetcar systems in Omaha may be best characterized by controversial and often violent clashes between company and community. Many strikes against streetcar companies were headed by a local civil rights group, known as the De Porres Club, which was led by Mildred Brown and Rev. Markoe S.J. Brown was the co- founder and publisher of the Omaha Star, which is a newspaper predominantly for the African American citizens of Omaha. During her time as a publisher for the Omaha Star, she used her journalistic rights to spread the word of civil rights activism by putting initiatives in her paper that were put on by the De Porres Club. She provided a voice for residents in the North side of Omaha, where the population was an is predominately African American. She explained to her readers that she wanted, “freedom from fear, want, and the right to equal opportunity.” Through her activism she caught the eye of Rev. John Markoe, a Jesuit at Creighton, and six white Creighton University students that founded the De Porres Club on November 3, 1947. The De Porres Club led many strikes and rallies to stop discrimination of African Americans in the Omaha area. From 1909 to 1919, the black population grew 113%, most of whom lived in North Omaha. The De Porres Club held their meetings at the Omaha Star when they ran out of funding to support their own facility.(National Register of Historic Places, 2007) The De Porres Club first meeting in Omaha attracted a total of forty-seven people. Rev. Markoe S.J. was a former West Point graduate recently banished from St. Louis University’s Jesuit community due to civil rights advocacy. Markoe’s goal for the De Porres club was “better racial relations through constructive actions, to banish every form of compulsory segregation and abolish any and all forms of discrimination against individuals because of race, color or creed.” Ultimately, Creighton University, fearful of public backlash, severed any and all ties from the organization. Brown and the De Porres Club took the Omaha community by storm with their civil rights movements. They had many strikes in the Omaha area and a few were with the Omaha and Council Bluffs Street Railway Company. (National Register of Historic Places, 2007) In 1952, Brown and the De Porres Club challenged the Omaha and Council Bluffs Street Railway Company’s policy of no black bus drivers. In response, the streetcar management opined in 1952 that, “No white woman would be safe on a street car if there was a black [man] driving.” The Star pushed back forcefully against this discriminatory characterization. It provided upset readers with home address and phone numbers of company officials. Brown used the Star to keep people from using public transportation in Omaha by stating in an article to either pay less (18 pennies) or stay away. This transportation boycott was one of the first of the nationwide civil- rights transportation boycotts, and predated the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott of 1955-1956 by a few years. (Forss, 2011) Nationwide trends were also wrought with negativity. As streetcar popularity increased, so too did city congestion, waiting periods, and public complaints. Indeed, the history of streetcars is one of controversy between business and consumer. In order to maximize patronage and minimize expense, streetcars tended to serve only the locations of the highest densities, resulting in heavily- crowded city centers with ever-frustrating traffic jams. Despite growing public distaste for the perpetual ways of business within the streetcar industry, companies often failed to provide solutions, such as larger, faster, and more comfortable cars, as well as more frequent services. (Wells, 2014) Consumers frequently accused streetcar companies of other activities, including “bribing City Council members, disregarding the public's safety, ignoring the community's needs, abusing their franchise privileges, and profiting at the public's expense.” (Bottles, 1987) In Omaha, major union clashes and strikes against the OC&B took place in 1909, 1918, 1934, and 1935. (Orr, 1997) (<a href="http://www.steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/115f3851f1a0644cd804810aeaef7101.jpg">Figure 4</a>) The violence and unrest in June of 1935 was so overwhelming the city was put into martial law. All of the civil unrest, controversy, and public distaste of streetcar monopolies created a market for a new type of transportation, one for which consumers no longer needed to rely on time-schedules and station locations to commute. Indeed, automobiles liberated millions of Americans from reliance on streetcars; cities were also becoming increasingly decentralized, and many Americans were becoming less dependent on city centers for everyday items and services. These factors led to the stark decline of streetcar popularity beginning in the 1920s through the 50s. (Wells, 2014) As streetcars declined, car markets boomed. With cars came ever-increasing city limits and an accelerated expansion of suburbia. It was during this era that the full environmental implications of urban and suburban expansion came to be realized. While the effects of replacing natural geographical landscapes with concrete and steel can have large effects on global and local environments, the effects of carbon emissions have global environmental implications. The connection between rising CO2 emissions from the onset of the Industrial Revolution and rising global temperatures is well publicized. The exponential growth of CO2 from the nineteenth century into the twentieth century is frequently tied to global warming, as CO2 serves an ever-growing heat trap in our atmosphere, causing an overall warming of the climate. When examining the history of Western CO2 emissions, historians Christophe Bonneuil and Jean- Baptise Fressoz claim, “The suburbanization and motorization of Western societies are certainly the most massive example of a technological and civilizational choice that is profoundly suboptimal and harmful." (Bonneuil and Fressoz, 2015) The pattern of increased suburban sprawl with increased automobile usage correlates strongly with dramatic increases in CO2 emissions in the US during the mid- 1900s into the 1970s. Not only were people driving more, but city surface areas were also increasing. Alain Bertaud and Harry W. Richardson, well noted urban scholars, convincingly point to the relationships between city surface areas and CO2 emissions when comparing Atlanta with Barcelona. (Bertaud and Richardson, 2004) Barcelona, despite having a higher population, has over ten times less transport carbon emissions than Atlanta, a city with a much higher urban area. High density urban environments tend to be more “green” in terms of carbon dioxide emissions. Cities in the United States, such as Atlanta, have spread significantly further in surface area (on average), largely due to the early influence of streetcars and modern influence of cars. As population densities spread and people live further away from their work, vehicular emissions skyrocketed. When these trends are applied to an ever-industrializing and urbanizing planet, the consequences become convincing evidence for the Anthropocene origins in the Great Acceleration beginning in the 1950’s as production of automobiles escalated along with the burning of fossil fuels. The problems of urban sprawl do not end at city limits, either. Researchers at California Berkeley conducted a study examining the per-household carbon emissions by county across the entire United States. As evidenced by an <a href="http://coolclimate.berkeley.edu/maps">interactive US map</a>, urban areas of high population density tend to have relatively low per-household carbon emission levels. However, levels quickly grow as distance from the city center increases, with the highest levels of carbon emissions located often in residential suburbs surrounding big cities. While these patterns are prevalent throughout the United States, including Douglas County, Nebraska, which contains Omaha, Eastern metropolises demonstrate the pattern very clearly. (Jones and Kammen, 2014) In other words, suburban development has massive implications in CO2 generation. Transportation accounts for over a quarter of all US greenhouse gas emissions per year, mostly produced by the burning of petroleum (gasoline and diesel). (EPA, 2017) As cities and suburbs continue to grow in population, CO2 emissions become increasingly relevant in addressing climate change. Urban areas tend to be “greener” due to higher levels of mass transportation and shorter commutes to work. People living in cities tend to live closer to their workspace, reducing the need for longer transportation routes and increasing the utility of public transport systems. The history of the streetcar, in Omaha and beyond, is one of civil and environmental struggle. Poor service and racist practices inspired activism from organizations like the De Porres club to demand change. Change came in large part with the automobile, which displaced the streetcar and became the most dominant form of transportation in the US. Today, Omaha is considering the implementation of an expensive streetcar system that would travel through the downtown area. Public officials claim the system will increase the value of developments along its route, and cause economic stimulation. The project is, in large part, designed to incentivize more people to reside in the Omaha City Center. Across the nation, streetcars have been framed by city officials as potential economic boosts, acting as tourist attractions as well as improving property values. Streetcars initially played an active role in expanding city centers outward, and are now being designed to pull people in. In light of Omaha history, city officials should carefully consider the location of streetcar lines to benefit all communities. Also, as cities continue to grow in population density, creating “green” alternatives to unhealthy CO2 emission become more relevant. Perhaps incentivizing people to live downtown can play a significant role in reducing transportation CO2 emissions. However, much more innovation is necessary to reverse the increasing rate of planetary environmental change. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Bertaud, Alain and Richardson, Harry W. “Transit and Density: Atlanta, the United States and Western Europe” in Urban sprawl in Western Europe and the United States. England: Ashgate, 2004. Bonneuil, Christophe and Fressoz, Jean-Baptiste. “Thanatocene: Power and Ecocide," The Shock of the Anthropocene: The Earth, History and Us. Verso, 2015. Bottles, Scott. Los Angeles and the Automobile: The Making of the Modern City. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987. Chudacoff, Howard. The Evolution of American Urban Society. Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice- Hall, 1975. Forss, Amy H. “Mildred Brown and the De Porres Club: Collective Activism in Omaha, Nebraska’s, Near North Side, 1947-1960.” Nebraska State Historical Society, February 18, 2011. http://nebraskahistory.org/publish/publicat/history/full- text/NH2010DePorres.pdf Jones, Chrisopher and Kammen, Daniel. “Average Annual Household Carbon Footprint by Zip Code” CoolClimate Network, University of California Berkeley. http://coolclimate.berkeley.edu/maps Jones, Christopher and Kammen, Daniel. “Spatial Distribution of U.S. Household Carbon Footprints Reveals Suburbanization Undermines Greenhouse Gas Benefits of Urban Population Density,” Environmental Science and Technology 48, no. 2 (2014). Orr, Richard. O & CB: Streetcars of Omaha and Council Bluffs. Omaha, NE: R. Orr, 1996. “Sources of Greenhouse Gas Emissions,” Environmental Protection Agency, 2017. https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions United States Congress. “National Register of Historic Places Registration Form.” United States Department of the Interior National Park Service, 2007. www.nps.gov/nr/publications/sample_nominations/Omaha%20Star.pdf. United States Department of Transportation. “National Household Travel Survey.” Bureau of Transportation Statistics. 1995. https://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/subject_areas/national_household_ travel_survey/index.html. Wells, Christopher. Car Country: An Environmental History. Vancouver: University of Washington Press, 2014. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Ryan Leuty Mary McClure Civil Activism De Porres Club Emissions Greenhouse Gasses Omaha and Council Bluffs Railway and Bridge Company Protest Reverend Markoe S.J. Brown Suburban Development Transportation https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/dd9b5d6616913c206ecb315d3495c270.jpg 8ed938d4146ef8caa31f241ac18cde1d Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Figure 1 Description An account of the resource A section of the Original Iron Wire of the First Transcontinental Telegraph Line. Presented to Creighton University by Western Union in 1961 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Creighton University Archives and Special Collections https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/ebb6baea42c85643009997c95d797b84.jpg 0b8ee159ded86b1d55fa253d33b4e661 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Figure 2: the Eastern and Associated Telegraph Companies' cable system Subject The topic of the resource Color map, mounted on linen, on sheet 46 x 99 cm. folded into red cardboard cover 17x12., with title: "Via Eastern" Head Office, Electra House London. Includes insets: northwest Europe, Aegean area and East Indies and table of main line cables and land lines. Cable system shown in red lines and extension of telegraph system shown in red dots. Gift of Dorothy A. Young. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Eastern Associated Telegraph Companies Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived David Rumsey Historical Map Collection https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~272463~90046267:Via-Eastern---the-Eastern-and-Assoc# Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Waterlow & Sons Limited Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1922 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource DavidRumsey.com Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Conquering Time and Space Subject The topic of the resource <div>Industrial Revolutions <img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4704/39667361775_2e3264c4bf_o.jpg" 100="" width="100% height=" /> <a href="https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~24266~880086:-Birdseye-view-Great-Plains-#" title="Bird Eye View - Rumsey" target="_blank">Detail(Birdseye view Great Plains)Knight, Leonard & Co.,Engravers and Printers, Chicago. (1890) David Rumsey.com </a></div> Description An account of the resource Industrial revolutions fundamentally transformed the world’s social and economic order. Beginning in Great Britain in the eighteenth century, European empires expanded industrialization into a global phenomenon that created spectacular wealth and unprecedent power for western countries, but also led to new social conflict and increased the gap between rich and poor. Industrialization also led to profound changes in the global environment. Advances in transportation and telecommunications expanded the reach of industrial powers. The railroad and the telegraph allowed people to tap distant natural resources more quickly and efficiently than ever before. Contemporaries praised this “annihilation of time and space” and Omaha was central to this story. The first transcontinental telegraph began in Omaha and was completed in 1861. In 1863, the Union Pacific chose Omaha as the eastern terminus for the transcontinental railroad. By 1867, the United States had built the world’s largest railroad network, business leaders communicated from coast to coast, and Omaha stood at the center. As railroads and the telegraph shrank time and space, cities expanded. Streetcars promoted urban growth and the rise of the first suburbs. The objects in this section show rail and the telegraph reshaped environments during this era of industrialization. As you move through this section of the exhibit, consider how transportation and telecommunication connects Omaha to the wider world and to global environments today. Physical Object An inanimate, three-dimensional object or substance. Note that digital representations of, or surrogates for, these objects should use Moving Image, Still Image, Text or one of the other types. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Transcontinental Telegraph Wire Subject The topic of the resource In 1961, Western Union gifted this part of the transcontinental telegraph line to Creighton University to commemorate the Creightons' contributions the city of Omaha. Invented in 1836 during the second industrial revolution, the telegraph changed communication forever. Telegraphs are messages sent over wires by electricity. The transcontinental telegraph united the country from coast to coast, and eventually, telegraph lines crossed oceans. Every new telegraph cable built connected businesses to new markets and helped change the landscape it passed through. Plains became feeding areas; green woods turned to timber yards; and mountain sides gave way to coal mines. These changes depended upon rapid, effective communication provided by the telegraph. (Western Union Telegraph Company sent Edward Creighton to survey the Omaha area and determine the best route of installation. His wealth and business experience helped grow and shape the city, and allowed his wife Lucretia to fund Creighton University.) The transcontinental telegraph showed the growth and enhancement of global telecommunications. This includes communication by means of cable, telegraph, telephone, or broadcasting. Expansion of telegraph networks mirrors today expansion of communication networks. Edward Creighton was brought to Omaha by the telegraph, which allowed him to earn his fortune. His wife Lucretia later used a portion of his earnings to fund Creighton University. Description An account of the resource Before the telegraph, communicating across distances meant waiting for letters delivered by horses, boats, and trains, that often took days or weeks to reach their destination. Today, we cannot imagine life without instant communication. The invention of the telegraph in 1836 during the second industrial revolution allowed immediate transmission of messages, and suddenly business transactions could be made from across the country, increasing trade, globalization, and the accumulation of capital - all of which had dramatic environmental consequences. These connections in Omaha were directly linked to changes in telecommunication developing on a global scale - a telegraph could be sent from anywhere in the country and make its way across the globe in minutes. When considering the growth of Omaha, the telegraph and its implication for the area cannot be left out - with a direct connection to Edward Creighton and Omaha, the telegraph’s impact is undeniable. (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/show/14" title="Telegraph Wire">Figure 1</a>) On a larger level, the telegraph not only connected the United States from coast to coast, but also to the rest of the globe. (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/show/102" title="Via Eastern : the Eastern and Associated Telegraph Companies' cable system" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Figure 2</a>) The telegraph played an important role in the telecommunication revolution of the second industrial revolution and the mass globalization that stemmed from it, and continues to be relevant in the discussion of globalization’s effect on the environment. Globalization has resulted in an increased demand for goods and competition, ultimately leading to exploitation of the environment’s natural resources. The telegraph, then, and it’s connection to the Anthropocene, is beyond doubt. For the invention of the telegraph, Samuel F. B. Morse is to thank. Morse’s initial telegraph was crudely composed of parts from his painting studio. The first part of the apparatus recorded messages. Made of old canvas stretchers nailed against the side of a table, with a bar attached to an electromagnet hung across the middle of the frame. A lever stretched from the top of the frame, holding a magnet, its base holding a pencil onto a roll of paper. The second part of the apparatus transmitted messages, and consisted of a long horizontal rod with a saw-toothed type arranged in a deep slot at the top. The type was arranged in a way that opened and closed an electrical circuit according to a code pattern received as dots and lines as the pencil moved up and down, marking the moving paper. (Thompson, 1947) Galvanic batteries with 10-30 cylinders were used to power the telegraph after its installation. The cylinders were zinc with a thin plating of copper or platina, and placed in a glass vessel containing weak sulfuric acid. Operators placed a porous earthenware jar placed inside the zinc cylinder, containing a platina plate and weak nitric acid. To create a circuit copper wire was attached to the end of a platina plate to the zinc cylinder, and on the final cylinder from the platina to a metallic key on a pivot used by the operator. Pressing this key lifts the opposite end breaking the circuit, causing the pencil on the receiving apparatus to lower and transcribe the message. (Scientific American, 1851) Cables carrying messages were made of seven copper wires tinned over, and sheathed with natural latex or felted tape, and encased in india rubber. (Scientific American, 1871) Morse was motivated to improve communication after missing his wife’s funeral due to slow communication methods. To keep his mind off grief, Morse attended a series of lectures by James Freeman Dana. Morse’ and interest in electricity led Dana to stop by Morse’ studio often, where they would further discuss the applications of electricity. The idea of the telegraph was born on Morse’s return from Europe in 1832, during a discussion about electromagnetism. Morse saw no reason why electricity could not serve as a medium across which, “intelligence might not be instantaneously transmitted by electricity to any distance.” Morse completed his first telegraph apparatus and numerical code to represent the alphabet in 1836. (Thompson, 1947) Professor Leonard D. Gale of New York University helped improve the battery and electromagnet, increasing transmission from 40ft to 10 miles of wire arrange around Gale’s lecture room. (Thompson, 1947) Alfred Vail, graduate student and owner of an iron and brass works in New Jersey, heard of Morse’ invention and agreed to pay for the construction of telegraph instruments for a demonstration before a Congressional committee in January 1838. (Thompson, 1947) Morse took on Gale and Vail as partners. After successful exhibitions in the US and Europe, the American Senate signed the Telegraph Bill on March 3, 1843. The bill provided $30,000 (worth $918,183 today) for constructing an experimental telegraph line from Washington to Baltimore. Representative Cave Johnson of Tennessee felt Congress was doing much to encourage science, and he, “did not wish to see the science of mesmerism overlooked.” The majority of members agreed that allowing further experiments would be beneficial. (Thompson, 1947) This was the first step in the process of building the first transcontinental telegraph line. The ambition of this project was to connect the east and west coasts. Without Morse’ invention and persistence Omaha would not be the city it is today. When the installation reached Omaha, it was a small city just starting out. Western Union Telegraph Company sent Edward Creighton to survey to surrounding area and determine the best route of installation. His wealth and experience helped grow and shape the city. To commemorate the Creighton family’s contributions, the city of Omaha presented this piece of telegraph wire to Creighton University in 1961. At the age of fourteen Creighton began his entrepreneurial career as a cart boy delivering goods. When he was eighteen years old, his father gave him a wagon and team of horses, which he used to haul freight long distance within his home state of Ohio. He later expanded his business to building roads, grading city streets, and preparing roadbeds for railroad tracks. This experience made him ideal for working on the transcontinental telegraph. Through hard work Creighton earned the respect of his peers, and overcame the stereotypes of being Irish and Catholic. After seeing two Irish-Americans installing a line, Creighton shifted his business focus and began supplying and transporting lumber for the poles. He later secured contracts for grading the land, and within a year was supervising construction of multiple lines. (Mihelich, 2006) Creighton began working for the Western Union Telegraph Company and was chosen to survey the western plains for the proposed transcontinental line and provide it with supplies. (Mihelich, 2006; Zornow, 1950) Creighton and his younger brother John moved to Omaha, Nebraska in 1856 to sell their equipment, and head to the new town of Omaha, Nebraska to restart his businesses. The Panic of 1857 and the Civil War stalled his plans to install telegraph lines to the west coast and caused the economy to plunge, however, Edward still made money by becoming a creditor. (Mihelich, 2006) When the telegraph reached California on October 23, 1861 Edward returned to Omaha and became the general superintendent of the Pacific Telegraph Company. Using the nineteenth century business device of watered stock and artificially inflating the value, Edward and other directors profited more than they should have. Spending only $147,000 of the $400,000 subsidy they received to build a line, then issuing $1 million in stock which directors paid significantly less for. In 1864 Western Union absorbed Pacific Telegraph, and despite the initially inflated value, the actual value of stock rose. Edward sold one third of his stock for 8x the price he paid, receiving $85,000 (approximately $1.3 million today). (Michelich, 2006; Inflation Calculator) Mounting capital allowed Edward to create a freighting company, which took goods from Omaha to Salt Lake City to trade with the Mormon community there, then to the goldfields of Montana. Before the Platte River Bridge Company he started could take off, Union Pacific laid 305 miles of track west of Omaha. Changing his business, Edward began to transport goods between gaps in the railroad. Herds of draft animals did the grunt work for this business requiring arrangement of grazing rights until the Homestead Act of 1862. Large amounts of pasture west of the Missouri River became available, allowing Edward to claim thousands of acres so his herds to eat for free. Grazing extra animals to sell further increased profits. (Mihelich, 2006) Edward Creighton played an active role in all his businesses until November 3, 1874 when he collapsed in his office. Never regaining consciousness, he died two days later. Without a will, his wife Lucretia and brother John inventoried and administered her husband’s estate. Lucretia became ill and died in 1876, leaving in her will $100,000 for the founding of a, “Creighton College as a testimony to her late husband's virtues and her affection to his memory.” She did this for Edward because he wanted to found an institute of higher learning, but never got the chance. (Mihelich, 2006) Throughout the duration of man’s time on earth, communication has continued to evolve. The invention of the telegraph initiated a shift from communication by means of letters that took days to weeks to be delivered to messages that could be delivered and received in a matter of seconds or minutes. The telegraph kickstarted the telecommunications revolution of the Second Industrial Revolution and from it stemmed a rapid advance in new forms of technology that allowed for faster and easier communication, which of course, meant increased connectedness felt around the globe. The second industrial revolution, also referred to as the “Technological Revolution” is the time period during which the telegraph was brought to life. Beginning in 1870, the second industrial revolution was a time of great economic and industrial growth in America after the Civil War that gave way to numerous advances in different technologies, including the telegraph and railroad. Prior to the transatlantic cable connecting London and New York, it took three weeks for letters to travel across the ocean. Throughout Europe, the telegraph was also revolutionizing communication, with major cities serving as points of communication: “London was a major international communications node, as were Paris and Berlin. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly so too were Vienna and Budapest.” (EH.net) Investors often chose to do business within local markets at a known price instead of using information from a foreign market that was already a month old. The transatlantic cable cut down communication time to one day. Transaction prices were still accurate upon receipt and orders from foreign markets were able to be put in faster. Foreign transactions added came shipping costs, so cheaper goods did not always mean lower total costs. (Esty and Ivanova, 2003) To summarize the effects of the telegraph on a global scale: “By 1900, communication times converged and no longer reflected geography, presumably suggesting that globalization was entering a new phase.” (EH.net) History has shown that globalization often comes at a cost to the environment. Globalization has led to an increased consumption of products and competition within various industries. Lower environmental standards are a consequence of increased competition, as countries competing for global trade opportunities face pressure to lower prices, which often time results in detrimental exploitation of the environment. A higher demand to export products means more of a reason to push natural resources to their limit if it maximizes production. (Esty and Ivanova, 2003) An increased demand for goods to be imported and exported around the world has requires transportation. Food is an obvious example: “Globalization has also led to an increase in the transportation of raw materials and food from one place to another. Earlier, people used to consume locally-grown food, but with globalization, people consume products that have been developed in foreign countries." (Esty and Ivanova, 2003) Such a high demand for goods to be transported around the globe puts a strain on non-renewable energy sources, and the environment ultimately suffers. “The gases that are emitted from the aircraft have led to the depletion of the ozone layer apart from increasing the greenhouse effect. The industrial waste that is generated as a result of production has been laden on ships and dumped in oceans.” Overall, “production, transportation and use of consumer goods results in more waste, pollution and fuel use.” (McAusland, 2008) Apart from the effect of the telegraph on the manner in which individual businesses operated, capitalism itself owes much to the telegraph wire, for without the means to communicate on a transcontinental level, the huge web of business practices that we know to exist today as capitalism would not be so. Referred to as the “‘great item with commercial men,’” the ability to send seemingly instant messages by means of the telegraph greatly influenced the “acquisition, exchange, and circulation of specialized economic information by major-center businessmen.” (Pred, 1980) Bankers, manufacturers and other businesses used the telegraph to finalize buying or selling arrangements, and the Stock Market relied on the instant communication made possible by the telegraph to follow conditions of supply and demand. The telegraph meant that trade could occur more efficiently on a larger scale, impacting the level of speed at which negotiations could be made: “the telegraph not only affected when and where business opportunities were exploited, but, since they were performed in minutes and hours rather than days and weeks, they affected the pace at which capital could circulate, turn over, and accumulate.” (Pred, 1980) The telegraph changed the nature of business interactions in the nineteenth century, but that power was controlled by a relatively limited number of corporations. Initially, a number of telegraph companies obstructed the telecommunications infrastructure and controlled (and profited) from its operation. This gave way to the telegraph monopoly of the Western Union during the last half of the 19th century. Western Union absorbed numerous smaller companies, as shown in the illustration on the right, and rose “in two short decades to become the largest and most powerful corporation in the United States.” (Nonnenmacher, 2001) In the case of Western Union, more wire miles meant more capital - the connection between the telegraph and capitalism is undeniable. (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/show/103" title="Capitalization">Figure 3</a>) Due to its large contribution to the acceleration of capitalism and globalization, the telegraph wire earns its place within the Anthropocene, even if its own impact as a material object on the environment is in some ways indirect. The telegraph is a representation of capitalism, and capitalism has been seen to have negative impacts on the Earth System. While the telegraph wire is no longer in use - the last message was transmitted in 2006 - modern day communication methods have the telegraph to thank for their existence today. (Thompson, 1947) The telegraph was the first form of instant messaging, a concept that is an integral part of everyday life. The implications of the wire’s impact on capitalism and globalization are still felt today, as the connection of the world and efficiency of the business world relies on rapid communication on a global level. The telegraph wire, due to its contributions to globalization growth of capitalism is a representation of human impact on the Earth System. Globalization has contributed to an increase in consumerism, which has resulted in negative effects on the environment such as exploitation of resources from the environment and due to a demand for products and transportation. The way businesses conduct trade was changed by the telegraph, as was the way humans communicate in general. The segment of the transcontinental telegraph line mounted on a plaque house at Creighton University is a clear representation of humankind’s impact on the earth, and for that reason, the telegraph earns itself a place in the Anthropocene. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kassidy Smith Lindzey Sánchez Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Blondheim, Menahem. "Rehearsal for Media Regulation: Congress Versus the Telegraph-News Monopoly, 1866-1900." Federal Communications Law Journal 56, no. 2 (March 2004): 299-328. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed November 7, 2017). Brown, Charles H. First Telegraph Line across the Continent. Lincoln, NE: Nebraska State Historical Society, 2011. Esty, Daniel C. & Ivanova, Maria H. “Global Environmental Governance: the Post-Johannesburg Agenda” October 2003. FinanceRef Inflation Calculator, Alioth Education. “$85,000 in 1864 → 2017 | Inflation Calculator.”, 15 Dec. 2017, http://www.in2013dollars.com/1864-dollars-in-2017?amount=85000. Garbade, K., & Silber, W. (1978). Technology, Communication and the Performance of Financial Markets: 1840-1975. The Journal of Finance, 33(3), 819-832. Lew, Byron. Connecting the Nineteenth-Century World: The Telegraph and Globalization. https://eh.net/book_reviews/5252/. Accessed 15 Dec. 2017. "Manufacture of Telegraph Cables." Scientific American 25, no. 11 (1871): 165. McAusland, Carol. “Global Forum on Transport and Environment in a Globalising World; Globalisation’s Direct and Indirect Effect on the Environment.” November 2008. Mihelich, Dennis N. The History of Creighton University 1878-2003. Omaha, NE: Creighton University Press, 2006. Moore, Jason W. “The Capitalocene, Part I: On the Nature and Origins of Our Ecological Crisis.” The Journal of Peasant Studies 44, no. 3 (May 4, 2017): 594–630. NBC News. “STOP-Telegram Era over, Western Union Says.” Associated Press. February 2, 2006. Nonnenmacher, Tomas. “History of the U.S. Telegraph Industry.” Edited by Robert Whaples. Economic History Encyclopedia. EH.Net Encyclopedia: Economic History Association, August 14, 2001. https://eh.net/encyclopedia/history-of-the-u-s-telegraph-industry/. Pred, Allan. Urban Growth and City-Systems in the United States, 1840-1860. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1980. Prescott, George B. History, Theory, and Practice of the Electric Telegraph. Boston, Ticknot and Fields, 1860. Rumsey, David. “MEDIA INFORMATION.” The Eastern and Associated Telegraph Companies' Cable System, Eastern Associated Telegraph Companies, 1922. Sandweiss, Martha A. “John Gast, American Progress, 1872.” Picturing United States History. Accessed October 8, 2017. "THE AMERICAN ELECTRO MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH." Scientific American 6, no. 27 (1851): 211. Thompson, Robert L. Wiring a Continent. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1947. Zornow, William Frank. "Jeptha H. Wade in California: Beginning the Transcontinental Telegraph." California Historical Society Quarterly 29, no. 4 (1950): 345-56. Commodification Communication Edward Creighton Globalization Second Industrial Revolution Telegraph https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/b2a60ae98af11960e5ddb5e4eb5a3a5a.JPG 571e79a5860c782d16980ae853e6863b https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/5209f4b2e0866671cfd3166531f676e8.JPG 2e662b3ac695dd56ab3aa20292b3fbb4 https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/9f7cdc385f33b4557cec1ab086057669.jpg da2a739cbeff74cc719b21755fba1b2e Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Figure 1: Map of the state of Nebraska showing the lands of the Burlington & Missouri Riv. R.R. Co. in Nebraska, 1876 Description An account of the resource The shading on this 1876 map of Omaha details the land owned by the Burlington Railroad company at this time. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Photo Courtesy of the Library of Congress Subject The topic of the resource A map indicating in shading the land owned by the Burlington by 1876. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1876 https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/11f71a754a2826ba5bf76873abcd3205.jpg 8822b1d4ce3e6a5c6389c2d09a37ab1c Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Figure 2: Burlington Railroad Advertisements Description An account of the resource A set of advertisements released by the Burlington Railroad encouraging land acquisition around the railroads in Nebraska. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Courtesy of Olmanson, E. D. (n.d.). Promotion and Transformation of Landscapes along the CB&Q Railroad. Retrieved October, 2017, from http://www.environmentandsociety.org/exhibitions/railroad/settlement-promotion-burlington-railroad https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/2c411bb552774d376e1a31e3b1b5d496.jpg 4187ca525b6a7f3a10978f1e4e6c6d0e Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Graph 1: U.S Census Bureau Record of Nebraska Population Values, 1800 to 2000 Description An account of the resource The data displayed above helps illustrate the growth in Nebraska's citizen population from the 1800 to 2000. Notice the dramatic increase in population from 1860 to 1900s' which parallels the arrival and growth of the Burlington. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Photo Courtesy of the U.S. Census Bureau https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/dad605073741991d04ec917651789c65.jpg 8ae28fddcbb5b7cf7ac12fa5ea788446 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Figure 5. Description An account of the resource The Burlington Railroad introduced Vista Domes to customers as new way to consume nature and the beauty of the West. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Olmanson, E. D. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Retrieved October, 2017, from http://www.environmentandsociety.org/exhibitions/railroad/settlement-promotion-burlington-railroad https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/c9b07a5666a83584d00895bb0ae86b48.jpg f9a5cb82971419d90b60d3501916c7cd Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Figure 6. Description An account of the resource This man can be seen casually leaning against a rail with a Burlington Route Timetable in his breast pocket. This photograph was taken in 1909 by Louis Bostwick. At this point in time the Burlington was a household name, and many owned the timetables, as it was the most efficient means to traveling long distances at the time. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Durham Museum Photo Archive https://durhammuseum.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15426coll1/id/26607/rec/10 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Commercial use or distribution of the image is not permitted without prior permission of the copyright holder. Please contact The Durham Museum for permission to use the digital image. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Conquering Time and Space Subject The topic of the resource <div>Industrial Revolutions <img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4704/39667361775_2e3264c4bf_o.jpg" 100="" width="100% height=" /> <a href="https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~24266~880086:-Birdseye-view-Great-Plains-#" title="Bird Eye View - Rumsey" target="_blank">Detail(Birdseye view Great Plains)Knight, Leonard & Co.,Engravers and Printers, Chicago. (1890) David Rumsey.com </a></div> Description An account of the resource Industrial revolutions fundamentally transformed the world’s social and economic order. Beginning in Great Britain in the eighteenth century, European empires expanded industrialization into a global phenomenon that created spectacular wealth and unprecedent power for western countries, but also led to new social conflict and increased the gap between rich and poor. Industrialization also led to profound changes in the global environment. Advances in transportation and telecommunications expanded the reach of industrial powers. The railroad and the telegraph allowed people to tap distant natural resources more quickly and efficiently than ever before. Contemporaries praised this “annihilation of time and space” and Omaha was central to this story. The first transcontinental telegraph began in Omaha and was completed in 1861. In 1863, the Union Pacific chose Omaha as the eastern terminus for the transcontinental railroad. By 1867, the United States had built the world’s largest railroad network, business leaders communicated from coast to coast, and Omaha stood at the center. As railroads and the telegraph shrank time and space, cities expanded. Streetcars promoted urban growth and the rise of the first suburbs. The objects in this section show rail and the telegraph reshaped environments during this era of industrialization. As you move through this section of the exhibit, consider how transportation and telecommunication connects Omaha to the wider world and to global environments today. Physical Object An inanimate, three-dimensional object or substance. Note that digital representations of, or surrogates for, these objects should use Moving Image, Still Image, Text or one of the other types. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Burlington Railroad Timetable Subject The topic of the resource Railroads shrunk space and time during the nineteenth century. Before the growth of railroad networks, a trip from Chicago to Omaha took 5 days. By the twentieth century, railroads companies like the Burlington cut that time down to 8 hours. This was an important transition because railroads opened up new markets, new resources, and new environments to places like Omaha. As networks of railroads expanded, they created unified timetables which regulated time. This timetable, printed during the twilight of this railroad age, is symbol of this global transition. By the mid-twentieth century, railroads like the Burlington connected Omaha to the rest of America by encouraging economic growth and ecotourism. Description An account of the resource The railroad timetable annihilated time and space. It was America’s first-time keeper, and changed how people around the world considered travel. As intricate networks of railroads stretched across countries around the world, they introduced an era where distances were easily conquerable. People and goods were transported to the far reaches of countries. More importantly, the railroads brought with them timetables. The condensed pamphlets of arrivals and departures established a means of organizing time across the expanses the railroads covered. As railroads expanded the timetables were a means to unify how the country experienced time. Time is precious, and prior to the timetable there was no unified way of managing it. Towns prior to the railroad were limited in the amount of resources they had and had their own “temporal identities”. For example, London ran 4 minutes ahead of Reading, and 7 minutes and 30 seconds ahead of Cirencester, and a whole 15 minutes ahead of Bridgewater. (Schivelbusch, 1941) This system of localized time fared well prior to railroad due to the lack of travel and the long travel time between them. The main methods of transport in the 1800s were by boat through rivers and canals, or by carriage. These methods were not the most trust worthy and limited growth of cities to what they in their radius for the most part. The most striking issues was how slow and unreliable these methods of transport were. A fifteen-minute difference in time was not important if the time to travel to the area was measured in days. When railroads were introduced, traffic between cities increased and transit time shrunk. Railroad became an important mode of transport of goods and people. Resources once inaccessible to some towns were now easily shipped. Likewise, smaller towns grew into large cities by exporting their abundant good to other locations and gaining capital. A time difference between cities was longer plausible as it would mean confusion and inefficiency for the railroad and those who invested in it. Thus, the railroads implemented their own times and created timetables with them. Initially the time chosen was up to company, for example in 1871 the Central Pacific Railroad specified their timetable operated on Sacramento time, where its headquarters resided. (White, 2011) This allowed passengers to manage their time around a specific line, however it became inefficient when more than one train had to be taken. Having more than one time in a town also became inconvenient. In 1883, the United States officially standardized railroad time amongst all operating railroad companies, and people and businesses began to informally use it as a standard. (White, 2011) Timetables were a game changer for businesses and individuals alike. Omaha’s history can be traced back to railroads. Though the Union Pacific Headquarters currently resides in Omaha, the Burlington was more involved with the cities growth. The Union Pacific Railroad cut through Nebraska, pursuing a transcontinental railroad which passed through the country more so than branching to connect cities with one another. Though initially hesitant to expand to Nebraska, by 1868 The Burlington company saw it as a business opportunity after Charles Elliott Perkin, who would later become President of the Burlington Railroad, gave it a glowing review. (Kinbacher and Thomas, 2008) The Burlington Railroad acted on the 1864 Pacific Railroad Act which authorized the construction of a trunk line passing though territory south of the Platte River to intersect with the Union Pacific transcontinental route at or near the 100th meridian. (Kinbacher and Thomas, 2008) By 1872, a whopping 2,400,000 acres of land in Nebraska was granted to the Burlington Railroad by the U.S government to begin building railroad (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/show/67" title="Figure 1" target="_self">Figure 1</a>). (Overton, 1976) Thus, the Burlington Railroad threw open the doors to the West and ushered in a new wave of settlers. Initially upon receiving its land grants the Burlington launched an effort to sell it to prospective settlers. By successfully selling land around the area they use to build railroads up the Burlington increases the value of the railroad land they acquired. The Burlington was also granted more land due to its success in advertising the Midwest. (Overton, 1976) The Burlington created programs based on credit to sell the land around the railroads, and the area was advertised in the East though various exhibits, pamphlets, and maps. (O'Neil, 1956) A colonizing campaign was created and lured in potential settlers with special such as reduced prices for settlement (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/show/99" title="figure 2" target="_self">Figure 2</a>). In addition, the Burlington shipped in resources required to build the city, and to jump start farming, while advertising Nebraska’s potential at agricultural fairs in both the US and England. (Fisher, 1931) Despite being in competition with Union Pacific, overall the Burlington sold more land to potential settlers and investors. (Kawashima, 2010) These early promotional efforts were extremely effective and in time Nebraska became a well settled agricultural area. In 1872 alone, farmers shipped a quarter million bushels of wheat through across Burlington rail, and they were of such quality that the price easily paid for the cost of transportation. (Jones, 1957) The growth of the Burlington route, in a very real sense, both mirrored and prompted the growth of Nebraska, and Omaha. The growth of the city can be seen in census data. Though correlation does not mean causation, it is clear the growth of population in Nebraska coincided with the arrival of the Burlington Railroad (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/show/66" title="Graph 1" target="_self">Graph 1</a> and <a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/show/101" title="Figure 3">Figure 3</a>). By the 1900s, the Burlington its veered away from cargo and shifting its focus to passenger transportation. (Dorin, 1976) This was a response to the booming Second Industrial Revolution which came with a new-found interest in leaving the cities to experience nature. The Burlington made began to advertise the new concept of ecotourism to cater to the new American desire to explore the West. Improvements in the 1930s to its passenger service increased revenue and provided an economic boost to the Omaha after the depression. (Overton, 1941) The Burlington advertised Omaha as a gateway to West and promoted their line as a comfortable, exciting mode of travel for tourists. The Burlington released new trains such as the Exposition Flyer in 1939 which traveled for decades due to their popularity as a scenic draw (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/show/68" title="Figure 4" target="_self">Figure 4</a>). This inspired the Burlington to create more trains to cater to a new generation of ecotourists. (Retzinger, 1998) The emphasis on passenger rail services increased into the 1940s.Their Zephyr line, which ran from 1935 to 1960 featured air conditioning, vista domes, and in cabin luxuries (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/show/73" title="Figure 5" target="_self">Figure 5</a>). The Burlington Railroad aimed to make travel West easy and compelling. The growth of Omaha and Lincoln was undeniable, and correlated strongly with the establishment of the railroad. Atack et al. (2010), found a strong correlation between the expansion of railroads and the growth of cities. The Burlington Railroad created a network that connected almost everywhere in North America. Railroads even connected to seaports, which allowed for overseas transportation of commodities. (Milner, 1994) Atack et al. (2010) concluded that while the expansion of railroads did not have a significant enough correlation with population increase in the Midwest to be considered a cause of population growth, it was the most important factor behind urbanization in the Midwest. They cite three reasons as to why this is the case. First, railroads reduced the costs of transportation of goods, which led to increased trade. Second, they caused Midwestern wealth to increase which led to greater demand for industrial products. Lastly, they created “feeder lines”, which are connections between cities and towns, which encouraged people to settle into areas before railroads were constructed in those areas . In his book Nature’s Metropolis, William Cronon (1991) discusses how trains helped to urbanize Chicago. He states that distance was not as important a factor as time and cost in transportation. Because trains can travel much faster than many other modes of transportation, they greatly increased transportation of goods between Chicago and the surrounding rural areas. He states that many people were eager to use this new form of transportation because of its great speed. Interestingly, he states that many inhabitants of Chicago at the time believed that railroads had become “assimilated” to the natural landscape of the area . Railways also helped build many other Western cities (Milner, II et al. 1994). Railroads also advanced agriculture through their transportation speed. For a while, Texas Longhorn cattle were plagued by a tick-borne disease known as Texas fever. The ticks thrived in Texas, but could not survive the colder winters of the North. Because of this, the cattle were sometimes held in shipped north to be fattened up until they had become of Texas fever. A man named Joseph McCoy was noted for taking advantage of this situation using the railroad systems. He, along with many others, established cattle towns, such as Abilene, Kansas, where he could supply Texas Cattle to the Kansas Pacific railroad. Shipping of beef became an important industry for trains, especially when refrigerated train cars made shipment much more efficient, as it kept the beef fresher for longer. Gustavus Swift pioneered the use of refrigerated railroad cars and began to sell beef from Chicago in New York. Other agricultural products were shipped via trains, and railroad companies often encouraged farming near the railroad lines by providing economic incentives and some forms of compensation during periods of economic stress. Many of them encouraged dry-farming, which, as its name suggests, is farming pioneered by Hardy Webster Campbell that is productive in the dry environments of the northern Great Plains, in order to ensure that more farmers settled in. There were some people who accused railroad companies of exploiting the farmers. According to Milner, II et al. 1994, “along the rail system, farms sprang up like winter wheat in a Kansas spring.” As a result of the mass transportation of agricultural products brought about by trains, new opportunities opened up in industrial, urbanized areas, such as food processing plants and similar areas. (Milner, 1994) In addition to facilitating urbanization, trains later also made it easier for city-dwellers to commodify nature in another way. By moving people to different parts of the country faster, they allowed people to consume distant environments through tourism (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/show/74" title="Figure 6" target="_self">Figure 6</a>). During the twentieth century, the western United States became a popular tourist destination, mainly because it contained much truer wilderness than the East due to less human disturbance. National parks were often advertised by railroads to promote tourism. Often the trains would take hundreds of tourists to one spot, and the tourists would then reach the parks on horseback. Tourism became more popular in the 1920s thanks to Hollywood, although cars began to gain more popularity in this era, so it is unclear whether the 1920s was a prosperous era for the railroad industry or not. Union Pacific opened a ski resort in Sun Valley, Idaho in the 1936, which gained more popularity after World War II. Railroads also made exploitation of game animals much more efficient. Bison, for example, suffered from the westward expansion of railroads, by allowing hunters to transport their bison kills to the markets much more easily than before . This was furthered by the invention of refrigerated cars. Railroad companies even hired bison hunters to provide meat to their workers as well as fill their freight cars with numerous possible commodities. “Buffalo Bill” actually claimed to have killed 4,280 bison for Union Pacific. Railroads transported not only hunters’ quarries more efficiently, but also transported the hunters themselves to their quarries more efficiently and quickly than before. Bison were even shot for sport from the windows of trains. (Dolin, 2003). It is said that the railroads, along with the telegraph, were the most important contributors to the extinction of the Passenger Pigeon (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/show/72" title="Figure 7" target="_self">Figure 7</a>). (Burke, 2017) After World War II, other modes of transportation, such as cars and airplanes slowly became more popular, leading to the gradual decline of railroad tourism. (Milner, 1994) Omaha and its relationship with the Burlington railroad serves as a powerful example of the urbanizing power of railways and their impacts. The surrounding environment is both drained filled in with the human footprint, and thus its ecological changes become apparent. Trains drastically changed how people and businesses viewed transportation across vast distances. The Burlington timetable is a testament to how humans eliminated time as a constraining factor in the consumption and exploitation of new, distant, environments. Areas which were otherwise inaccessible without significant travel and hardship became easily accessible. Railroads facilitated the exploitation of nature by both bringing people to nature and bringing nature to people. They moved people seeking to urbanize to their cities, urban tourists to their scenic wilderness, and hunters to their quarry. In addition, they moved all kinds of natural resources from rural and wild areas into cities. This became the key to more urbanization and spreading of cities. More and more products of the area were shipped out and in demand, and more resources to fulfill that demand were shipped in. Resources included people who were ready to work, in addition to materials. The possibility for capital growth and success was increased significantly when railways were introduced to bring regions together to exchange resources. The ease of export also meant increased capital gains for those invested in the area and a drive utilize the earth for short term gain over long term upkeep. This sort of development lead to the ideas of Eugene Odum who observed cities as parasitic. This parasitic nature is only made possible by railways which act like extensive capillaries carrying capital, resources, and people one area to the next. This idea is further exemplified by the fact that many rural westerners felt that they were essentially a colony of the eastern urban elite, who drained the resources of the rural western United States for their own benefit. They often referred to the western United States as a “plundered province”. There were also many economic policies which favored easterners over westerners, such as tariffs. This led to some resentment of the East, whom the West often scapegoated for its problems, although, as noted before, sometimes rightfully so. (Milner, 1994) This situation prevails today, not just here in Omaha, but all over the world. The railroad, despite having given away to cars as the most popular means of transport, is still important for import of resources over long distance. The Burlington railroad left its footprint in Omaha, its headquarters taken over by KMTV still exist today. The crisscrossing of railroads correlated to the influx of people and capital which resulted in Omaha’s growth as a city. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource John Brennan Devika Prasanth Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Atack, Jeremy, Fred Bateman, Michael Haines, and Robert A. Margo. “Did Railroads Induce or Follow Economic Growth: Urbanization and Population Growth in the American Midwest, 1850-1860.” Social Science History 34.2 (2010): 171-197. JSTOR. Web. 17 Oct. 2017. Bostwick- Forhardt Collection, 1850-1964, compiled by The The Durham Museum (Omaha, Durham Museum Photo Archive, 2017 ). Burk, Theodore. Conservation Biology Lecture. 2017. Personal Communication. Cronon, William. Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and Great West. New York: W·W·NORTON & COMPANY, 1991. ebook. Dolin, Eric Jay. Smithsonian Book of National Wildlife Refuges. Old Saybrook: Konecky & Konecky, 2003. Print. Fisher, Chas. E. "The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company." The Railway and Locomotive Historical Society Bulletin, No 24 (1931): 4-43. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/43516939>. Jones, C. Clyde. "The Burlington Railroad and Agricultural Policy in the 1920's." Agricultural History, Vol. 31, No. 4 (1957): 67-74. Kawashima, Yasuhide. “Farmers, Ranchers, and the Railroad: The Evolution of Fence Law in the Great Plains, 1865-1900.” Great Plains Quarterly 30.1 .2010.: 21-35. JSTOR. Web. 7 Oct. 2017. Kinbacher, Kurt E. and William G. Thomas III. "Shaping Nebraska An Analysis Of Railroad And Land Sales, 1870-1880." Great Plains Quarterly 2008. <http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2374&context=greatplainsquarterl>. Loomis, Bill. Photograph. “Slaughtered to extinction: Passenger pigeons in Michigan.” The Detroit News. MediaNews, 31 Aug. 2014. Web. 13 Dec. 2017. Milner, II, Clyde A., Carol A. O’Connor, Martha A. Sandweiss, eds.. The Oxford History of the American West. New York: Oxford University P., 1994. Print. Olmanson, E. D. (n.d.). Promotion and Transformation of Landscapes along the CB&Q Railroad. Retrieved October, 2017, from http://www.environmentandsociety.org/exhibitions/railroad/settlement-promotion-burlington-railroad Overton, Richard C. Burlington West: A Colonization History of the Burlington Railroad. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1941. Retzinger, Jean P.. “Framing the Tourist Gaze: Railway Journeys Across Nebraska, 1866-1906.” Great Plains Quarterly 18.3 1998: 213-226. JSTOR. Web. 6 Oct. 2017. Schivelbusch, W., Railroad Space and Railroad Time. In The Railway Journey : The Industrialization of Time and Space in the 19th Century. 1941. (pp. 33-44). Berkeley: University of California Press. The California Zephyr. (n.d.). Retrieved December, 2017, from http://calzephyr.railfan.net/expoflyer.html White, R. Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America. 2011. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Burlington Extinction Railroad Second Industrial Revolution Tourism Transportation Westward Expansion https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/ab256367e5505777f6e0b157a038e1c6.jpg d5b256afb5ab4380601eb516bffe5dd4 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Nebraska Tire and Rubber Company Certificate Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Durham Museum Permanent Collection https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/463fbb76ca5173d59b3c1e580a8364f5.jpg ea969e86f7a87fdcb4219a6700090a6f Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Omaha Overland Tire Factory Subject The topic of the resource The Omaha Overland Tire Factory, pictured here represents a common tire factory in the 1920s Description An account of the resource Men working with tires. Located at 30th and Taylor Streets in Omaha, Nebraska. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Bostwick, Louis (1868-1943) and Frohardt, Homer (1885-1972) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Durham Museum Photo Archive http://durhammuseum.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15426coll1/id/4532/rec/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1926-05-04 https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/abc9d4fcd7ac6c4140c5d6264609e8d4.jpg b32e5482768640b22b9eb004c0e09eaa Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Natural and Synthetic Rubber and Tyres Subject The topic of the resource This map shows the global natural and synthetic rubber production and also shows the major movement of natural rubber from Southeast Asia. Description An account of the resource Industry (continued). Pergamon World Atlas. Pergamon Press, Ltd. & P.W.N. Poland 1967. Sluzba Topograficzna W.P. Pergamon World Atlas. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived David Rumsey Map Collection https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~205401~3002403:Industry--continued---Pergamon-Worl?sort=Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No&qvq=q:rubber%20world;sort:Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=1&trs=2834# Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1967 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Conquering Time and Space Subject The topic of the resource <div>Industrial Revolutions <img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4704/39667361775_2e3264c4bf_o.jpg" 100="" width="100% height=" /> <a href="https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~24266~880086:-Birdseye-view-Great-Plains-#" title="Bird Eye View - Rumsey" target="_blank">Detail(Birdseye view Great Plains)Knight, Leonard & Co.,Engravers and Printers, Chicago. (1890) David Rumsey.com </a></div> Description An account of the resource Industrial revolutions fundamentally transformed the world’s social and economic order. Beginning in Great Britain in the eighteenth century, European empires expanded industrialization into a global phenomenon that created spectacular wealth and unprecedent power for western countries, but also led to new social conflict and increased the gap between rich and poor. Industrialization also led to profound changes in the global environment. Advances in transportation and telecommunications expanded the reach of industrial powers. The railroad and the telegraph allowed people to tap distant natural resources more quickly and efficiently than ever before. Contemporaries praised this “annihilation of time and space” and Omaha was central to this story. The first transcontinental telegraph began in Omaha and was completed in 1861. In 1863, the Union Pacific chose Omaha as the eastern terminus for the transcontinental railroad. By 1867, the United States had built the world’s largest railroad network, business leaders communicated from coast to coast, and Omaha stood at the center. As railroads and the telegraph shrank time and space, cities expanded. Streetcars promoted urban growth and the rise of the first suburbs. The objects in this section show rail and the telegraph reshaped environments during this era of industrialization. As you move through this section of the exhibit, consider how transportation and telecommunication connects Omaha to the wider world and to global environments today. Physical Object An inanimate, three-dimensional object or substance. Note that digital representations of, or surrogates for, these objects should use Moving Image, Still Image, Text or one of the other types. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Rubber Tires Subject The topic of the resource This logo of the Nebraska Tire and Rubber Company represents the twentieth- century global rubber boom. It connects the evolution of transportation in Omaha to the demand for rubber. The early 1900s saw a dramatic increase in rubber driven partly by the popularity of the automobile. By 1923, Omaha had the highest ratio of population to automobiles. As the demand for rubber tires grew, so did deforestation. Rubber trees are native to the Amazon, and until 1876, environmental impacts remained confined to South America. By the early 1900s, rubber plantations took root in Southeast Asia and then western Africa. The rubber industry globalized forest clearance to make way for new monocrop plantations. This logo serves as a reminder of the global impact the items we use daily can have on the world around us. Description An account of the resource Every commodity we use today has a story, a history, and simultaneously acts as a connection and division between nature and humanity. Rubber is no exception; its history is rich and widespread, connecting each place it comes into contact with to the Anthropocene. Omaha, like any other city, had its own role to play in this story. Serving as evidence, the logo of the Nebraska Tire and Rubber Company, our artifact, connects Omaha with changes in transportation and the global rubber industry. It symbolizes their coevolution and simultaneous effects on environments thousands of miles away. In this essay we examine the history of the rubber industry in the Amazon, its leap into Southeast Asia, and how these affected local environments. We then connect these histories with our specific company, the tire industry, and the United States’ continued role in the global rubber industry. The story of rubber starts where the plant itself originated: in the Amazon basin. For most of the 18th and 19th centuries Brazil supplied almost all of the world’s demand for rubber. (Grandin, 2009) In the 18th century, the two most common rubber trees (Havea brasiliensis and Castilloa ulei) (Stanfield, 1998) grew wild in small patches of two to three trees spread throughout the jungle. (Grandin, 2009) Seringueros, or tree tappers, collected the sap from the trees and transported it back to their tents to create the first form of latex. There, he would smoke the sap over a fire to produce a ball of rubber taken to aviadores, or middlemen, who would then sell it . The collection of the latex was not simply a passive process. To extract the latex from the Castilloa trees required the tappers to create deep cuts which resulted in the death of the tree. This was such a problem that by 1874, reports came in telling of the decline in rubber exports due to the destruction of the trees. (Stanfield, 1998) This marked the first stage of environmental transformation due to the rubber industry. In 1876, Henry Wickham committed an act of bio-piracy that would change the world forever. (Clay, 2004) He illegally smuggled over 70,000 seeds of rubber plants to Kew Gardens in London from the Amazon. The plants were then transferred to the British colonies in Southeast Asia. Rubber trees flourished on the plantations in Southeast Asia due to the lack of natural diseases and fungi that were a cause of concern for the plantations in the Amazon. Within a span of 9 years the amount of latex produced in Southeast Asia grew from 8,500 tons to 370,000 tons. (Grandin, 2009) From this point onward, the Amazonian monopoly began its slow decline. By 1947, Brazil was no longer exporting rubber to the rest of the world. Where one rubber empire fell another rose to power. New plantations developed in countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka, and forests were clear cut to make room for the new monocrop, ultimately leading to a decrease in the natural biodiversity of the area. (Clay, 2004) The climate was perfect for the rubber species and the area provided cheap sources of labor. The trees are usually productive for up to 30-40 years and historically used for lumber after the end of their productive lifespan and ultimately replanted. (Gordon, 2004) In the beginning of the nineteenth century, the world used natural rubber as it’s source specifically in household items such as belts or hoses. (United States Synthetic Rubber Program, 2018) However, natural rubber has one major drawback, when exposed to extreme temperatures, it melts in the hot summer and cracks in the cold winter. In response, the rubber industry explored new ways to manufacture rubber. Through a process of trial, error, and serendipity, Charles Goodyear succeeded in “vulcanizing” rubber in 1839. Goodyear combined sulfur and rubber at a very high temperature. To his astonishment, instead of the rubber melting as it usually did at a high temperature, the rubber got harder as the heat rose. (Somma, 2015) Vulcanization is still in practice today. Without Goodyear’s invention of vulcanization, rubber would not be able to provide the means of transportation through tires. During the 1880s, bicycling increased in popularity and opened up space for a new market, tire manufacturing. Most of the rubber companies found on the east coast wanted nothing to do with making tires and stuck to what they knew -- making rubber shoes. This opened up a new market within the Midwest for tire production. Bicycles continued to gain popularity and by 1897, 3 million bikes were being manufactured around the country. With the advent of a new transportation through automobiles, this number dropped to 225,000 machines in 1904. By 1907 companies producing tires for automobiles thrived with 33% of their sales being for the larger more expensive car tires. (French, 1991) The 1900s saw a rise in the demand for rubber and many places profited. As global demand increased so too did the need for new rubber plantations. From 1910-1920 the total global area of rubber trees planted increased from 1,125,000 acres to 4,500,000 acres. (Babcock, 1966) The certificate of the Nebraska Tire and Rubber Company shows the importance of rubber not only in the United States, but specifically the impact of rubber in Omaha. In the 1920s, Omaha saw a boom in tire demand. The Nebraska Tire and Rubber Company was one of the leading producers at this time . The president, Mr. William Wuchter, began his career with bicycle tires in 1897 and adapted his business with the increasing use of the new household item, the automobile. (India Rubber & Tire Review, 1922) The automobile industry sparked not only across the nation in the 1920s, but specifically in Omaha. In fact, by 1923, Omaha was the leading city with the highest ratio of population to automobile ownership. (Harding,2017) According to the India Rubber & Tire Review, “Three tire manufacturers in Omaha are making approximately 1,500 tires and on average 1,000 a day each.” The Nebraska Rubber and Tire company attributed to 550 of these 1,500 tires and 500 of the 1,000 tubes produced each day. To keep up with high demand, the company was open and working 24/7. (India Rubber & Tire Review, 1922) It is clear that rubber is one of the most important commodities in the United States, “The American rubber industry became the largest and the most technologically advanced in the world. By the late 1930s, the United States was using half the world's supply of natural rubber, and most of it originated in Southeast Asia.” However, in 1941, not only did the United States feel the impact of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, but the Japanese also seized the United States’ rubber plantations in Southeast Asia. These rubber plantations consisted of 90%-95% of the world’s resource of rubber. Hence, the thought of losing almost all rubber resources caused the United States to question how they would proceed with the war. Without being able to produce tires for airplanes, cars, or other war machinery, an increasing fear arose that the Allies could not win the war. (United States Synthetic Rubber Program, 2018) It was time for a call to action. Franklin Roosevelt responded to the rubber shortage through three specific actions. First, Roosevelt asked Americans to be mindful of their rubber consumption and to collect extra rubber for recycling. Next, U.S. plant scientists traveled to nearly all corners of the earth to find other resources that could be used to produce rubber. Lastly, Roosevelt called for a production of a new synthetic rubber. (United States Synthetic Rubber Program, 2018) Two lines of thought emerged on what the best starting material for synthetic rubber would be: one side argued to create it from grain alcohol while the other advocated for the use of petroleum. Some of the biggest advocates for rubber made from grain alcohol came from the Midwest. The plan included building alcohol plants in the middle of Nebraska. They never received government support because the petroleum industry assured the government that they would be able to provide the rubber the country needed, and so synthetic rubber plants based on converting petroleum started to pop up. (Finlay, 2009) As a result, hundreds of thousands of new synthetic rubber materials increased to make accommodations for World War II. These actions that Roosevelt called for were essential to the US victory in World War II. In modern times, synthetic rubber has increased in demand. Countries in Asia, specifically China, have the highest demand for both synthetic and natural rubber. It is also evident that world consumption of synthetic rubber is higher than natural rubber. However, many products require natural rubber, such as airplane and car tires. Today natural rubber takes up 29% of the global rubber market, the remaining demand is synthetic rubber substitutes. (Clay, 2004) The United States consumption of natural rubber is highly used in the production of tires. (Tire Manufacturer Testing Dandelion Rubber, 2012) Natural rubber, made from latex not petroleum, favors over synthetic rubber in the manufacturing of tires because of its resilience, resistance to abrasion and high impact forces, ability to disperse heat and malleability when it gets cold. To this day, research with synthetic rubber has not been able to create a product that performs as well as natural rubber does. (Van Beilen and Poirier, 2007) “Aircraft tires require nearly 100% natural rubber to meet heat tolerance and required adhesion specifications.” (Tire Manufacturer Testing Dandelion Rubber, 2012) In comparison, car tires compose of 35-40% natural rubber for the same reasons. (Clay, 2004) Natural rubber is not only used for tires, but also found in tennis shoes, surgical gloves, rubber bands, hoses, and many more household items. With the large consumption of natural and synthetic rubber in our country, there is a push for recycling rubber materials, especially because it can take fifty to eighty years for rubber to decompose. (Adhikari and Maiti, 2000) Even with the effort to find ways to start recycling rubber materials this does not change the fact that forest landscapes have suffered centuries of transformations and exploitative practices. During the start of his automobile empire Henry Ford wished to find ways to economize and control as many parts of his business as he could. This led to the purchase of land in the Amazon jungle in Brazil to be used for the creation of rubber plantations. This attempt failed, but Ford’s purchase, now called Fordlandia, has become pasture land for cattle after years of deforestation. The roads that Ford had built resulted in fragmented landscapes propelling extinctions of species that require huge amounts of land to survive. (Grandin, 2009) Southeast Asia has also suffered from immense landscape change due to high demand for the latex. Since 1961 rubber production has increased by a factor of 1500% in Southeast Asia. (Fox et al., 2000) Its range is being expanded from where it was originally planted to keep up with demand. (Li and Fox, 2012) Typically, this process used the slash and burn tactic to clear forests needed for the new plantations. The new areas are less suitable for rubber plantations and usually require some form of terracing to grow properly leading to higher rates of soil erosion. (Ziegler, Fox, and Xu, 2009) As the demand for new tires continues to increase areas in Southeast Asia will continue to be transformed and degraded. The Nebraska Tire & Rubber company shows the impact that a single commodity can have not only on the city of Omaha, but on a global perspective. Not only does rubber serve as a vital part to suffice our need for modern day transportation, but it is also seen in everyday objects. Our world would not be where it is today without rubber. From its original habitat in the Amazon, to Goodyear’s invention of producing natural rubber through vulcanization, and the increasing amount of natural forest loss, it is evident that the consumption of rubber on a global scale has attributed to the Anthropocene. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Emma Baker Rebecca Hare Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Adhikari, B., and S. Maiti.“Reclamation and Recycling of Waste Rubber,” Progress in Polymer Science, vol. 25, iss. 7, 909-948, September 2000. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0079670000000204 Ahrends, Hollingsworth, Ziegler, Fox, Chen, Su, and Xu. "Current Trends of Rubber Plantation Expansion May Threaten Biodiversity and Livelihoods." Global Environmental Change 34 (2015): 48-58. Babcock, Glenn D. History of the United States Rubber Company; a Case Study in Corporation Management. Indiana Business Reports ; No. 39. Bloomington: Bureau of Business Research, Graduate School of Business, Indiana University, 1966. Beilen, Jan B. Van, and Yves Poirier. "Establishment of New Crops for the Production of Natural Rubber." Trends in Biotechnology25, no. 11 (2007): 522-29. Clay, Jason W., and World Wildlife Fund. Staff. World Agriculture and the Environment a Commodity-by-commodity Guide to Impacts and Practices. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2004. Finlay, Mark R. Growing American Rubber Strategic Plants and the Politics of National Security.Studies in Modern Science, Technology, and the Environment. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2009. Fox, Jefferson, Dao Minh Truong, A. Terry Rambo, Nghiem Phuong Tuyen, Le Trong Cuc, and Stephen Leisz. "Shifting Cultivation: A New Old Paradigm for Managing Tropical Forests." BioScience50, no. 6 (2000): 521. French, M. J. The U.S. Tire Industry : A History. Twayne's Evolution of American Business Series ; No. 6. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1991. Gordon, Alec. "Dynamics of Labour Transformation: Natural Rubber in Southeast Asia." Journal of Contemporary Asia 34, no. 4 (2004): 523-46 Grandin, Greg. Fordlandia : The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City. 1st ed. New York: Metropolitan Books, 2009. Harding, David. "Hupmobile Showroom Was Part of Omaha's Auto Row on Farnam Street." Omaha.com. March 22, 2017. http://www.omaha.com/living/hupmobile-showroom-was-part-of-omaha-s-auto-row-on/article_f7ccb2a8-0b5f-11e7-91c5-bf401131adb4.html. "India Rubber & Tire Review." Google Books. Accessed March 27, 2018. https://books.google.com/books?id=xNjmAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA64&dq=Nebraska rubberandtirecompany&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjNucrA_YfaAhUIG6wKHSwPBQUQ6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q=Nebraska rubber and tire company&f=false. Li, Zhe, and Jefferson M. Fox. "Mapping Rubber Tree Growth in Mainland Southeast Asia Using Time-series MODIS 250 m NDVI and Statistical Data." Applied Geography 32, no. 2 (2012): 420-32. "Overland Tire and Rubber Company." Bostwick-Frohardt Collection. Accessed March 28, 2018. http://durhammuseum.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15426coll1 /id/4532/rec/6. Somma, Ann M. "Charles Goodyear and the Vulcanization of Rubber." Connecticut History. Accessed March 27, 2018. https://connecticuthistory.org/charles-goodyear-and-the-vulcanization-of-rubber/ "Statistical Summary of World Rubber Situation." Accessed March 27, 2017. http://www.rubberstudy.com/documents/WebSiteData_Feb2018.pdf. "Tire Manufacturer Testing Dandelion Rubber." Material Analysis & Materials Testing Lab. July 05, 2012. Accessed March 27, 2018. https://www.polymersolutions.com/blog/tire-manufacturer-testing-rubber-from-dandelion/. "U.S. Synthetic Rubber Program - National Historic Chemical Landmark." American Chemical Society. Accessed March 27, 2018. https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/syntheticrubber.html. "United States Synthetic Rubber Program, 1939-1945." A National Chemical Historical Landmark. Accessed March 27, 2018. https://www.acs.org/content/dam/acsorg/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/syntheticrubber/us-synthetic-rubber-program-historical-resourc.pdf. Ziegler, A. D., J. M. Fox, and J. Xu. "The Rubber Juggernaut." Science324, no. 5930 (2009): 1024-025. https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/94462c35734989111bd47633537294f9.jpg 654fbba492deae4e0c43cefb0f9763ea Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Omaha Horse Railway Company Bond Description An account of the resource An image of our object, a mortgage bond issued by the Omaha Horse Railway Company in 1874. As noted, seven small tear-away receipts at four dollars apiece are missing. The bond can be found at the Durham Museum in Omaha, NE. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Durham Museum Permanent Collection https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/8ee35cd08a9c8e391c2a53e53146e0f1.jpg 6cf3cbf35379a631ce7e934d82f84377 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Omaha Horse Railway Company Bond Description An account of the resource An image of our object, a mortgage bond issued by the Omaha Horse Railway Company in 1874. As noted, seven small tear-away receipts at four dollars apiece are missing. The bond can be found at the Durham Museum in Omaha, NE. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Durham Museum Permanent Collection https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/3c82b68dcaa89296093e3b608ab3dc04.jpg d4f7dc95c0afb5a7d109974ab171457b Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Omaha Horse Railway Company Bond Description An account of the resource An image of our object, a mortgage bond issued by the Omaha Horse Railway Company in 1874. As noted, seven small tear-away receipts at four dollars apiece are missing. The bond can be found at the Durham Museum in Omaha, NE. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Durham Museum Permanent Collection Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Conquering Time and Space Subject The topic of the resource <div>Industrial Revolutions <img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4704/39667361775_2e3264c4bf_o.jpg" 100="" width="100% height=" /> <a href="https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~24266~880086:-Birdseye-view-Great-Plains-#" title="Bird Eye View - Rumsey" target="_blank">Detail(Birdseye view Great Plains)Knight, Leonard & Co.,Engravers and Printers, Chicago. (1890) David Rumsey.com </a></div> Description An account of the resource Industrial revolutions fundamentally transformed the world’s social and economic order. Beginning in Great Britain in the eighteenth century, European empires expanded industrialization into a global phenomenon that created spectacular wealth and unprecedent power for western countries, but also led to new social conflict and increased the gap between rich and poor. Industrialization also led to profound changes in the global environment. Advances in transportation and telecommunications expanded the reach of industrial powers. The railroad and the telegraph allowed people to tap distant natural resources more quickly and efficiently than ever before. Contemporaries praised this “annihilation of time and space” and Omaha was central to this story. The first transcontinental telegraph began in Omaha and was completed in 1861. In 1863, the Union Pacific chose Omaha as the eastern terminus for the transcontinental railroad. By 1867, the United States had built the world’s largest railroad network, business leaders communicated from coast to coast, and Omaha stood at the center. As railroads and the telegraph shrank time and space, cities expanded. Streetcars promoted urban growth and the rise of the first suburbs. The objects in this section show rail and the telegraph reshaped environments during this era of industrialization. As you move through this section of the exhibit, consider how transportation and telecommunication connects Omaha to the wider world and to global environments today. Physical Object An inanimate, three-dimensional object or substance. Note that digital representations of, or surrogates for, these objects should use Moving Image, Still Image, Text or one of the other types. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Omaha Horse Railway Bond Subject The topic of the resource How did Omaha expand and evolve into the modern, urban setting we see today? As Omaha grew, getting to and from businesses consumed more and more of people’s time. In 1867, responding to the problem, the Omaha Horse Railway Company opened the first horse-drawn streetcar line in the city. To help fund its operations, the company issued mortgage bonds (like the one seen here) in 1874. In the late nineteenth century, the United States was well on its way to becoming an industrial, urban power. This transition did not happen overnight, though. Before people drove their cars to work, the horse-drawn streetcar was your only alternative to traveling by foot. It set the stage for the expansion of Omaha’s suburbs and the pollution produced by the people living in them. Description An account of the resource The emergence of the horse-drawn streetcar showcased the ingenious innovation of man in his quest to conquer time. The horse-drawn streetcar responded to the necessity for methods of intercity travel for people as populations continued to grow. The hybrid design of the horse-drawn streetcar combined the natural power of the horse with the industrial-age iron tracks. The establishment and expansion of the horse railway system in Omaha facilitated the city’s expansion. It was a bridge between animal and machine power that moved Omaha into an expanding industrial urbanized frontier. It ensured continuity and ease of travel to neighboring regions and communities. The Omaha Horse Railway was an archetypal organic machine representative of the world-altering impacts of industrial urbanization. The horse-drawn railway reached the frontier Nebraska Territory in 1867. Prior to its arrival, the sleepy western gateway city was a frontier town barren of any timber, only miles of rolling hills and prairie grass. The city only had a few brick buildings and hugged the banks of the Missouri River (Hendee, 2015). The horse-drawn streetcar was nothing more than a omnibus on iron train tracks pulled by four horses. First introduced in New York in 1832 to serve the Harlem-New York City area (The Evening Post, 1833), its arrival in Omaha signaled the Nebraska territory had entered a new industrial age. The entirety of the Omaha horse-drawn streetcar market would be dominated by the Omaha Horse Railway Company, chartered by the legislative assembly in 1867 (Martin, 1978). To help construct the foundations of the rail system, the Omaha Horse Railway Company introduced many incentives. Our object is a mortgage bond issued by the Omaha Horse Railway Company. (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/admin/files/show/223">Figure I</a>) The document is made of parchment and has smaller slips for the bond claims. The bond is valued at one hundred dollars with twenty slips that can be cut out in exchange for four dollars and accrued value at an established interest rate. (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/admin/files/show/224">Figure II</a>) The slips could be exchanged on two dates; the first of January and July each year. The mortgage bond on display is missing seven slips, indicating that the previous holder could have possibly already exchanged twenty-eight dollars. (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/admin/files/show/225">Figure III</a>) The bond also has information indicating that the Omaha Horse Railway Company was established through an act by the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Nebraska on February 18th, 1867. The bond was issued in 1874 with the last exchange slip due in 1884. The bond can be exchanged at the Omaha office of the State Bank of Nebraska. After being granted an ordinance by the Omaha City Council, construction on the rail tracks began. The first shovelful of earth to be removed was dug on Farnam Street and Ninth Street on November 13, 1868 (Martin, 1975). With the expansion and success of Union Pacific Railroad, Omaha was a growing frontier outpost and people flocked to the city. The city grew from 1,883 residents in 1860 to 102,555 residents in 1900 (Nebraska State Data Center, 2010), and the horse railway was a innovative method to help the growing city. Omaha was still relatively compact, however. At its inception, the horse railway operated from Ninth and Farnam Street―the heart of downtown― to Sixteenth Street and Capitol Avenue. Sixteenth Street was as far west as the track could go before the steep hills proved challenging for the horses (Thomas, 2017). To bypass this problematic terrain, the lines spread to serve North and South Omaha and avoided steep hills. The potential benefits of having a street railroad system excited the population. Even before the groundbreaking took place on Ninth and Farnam, news that the tracks would run down 16th and 23rd streets were enough to get people to spring for prime real estate on the two streets (Martin, 1975). By the 1870s, the company had expanded its services to both North and South Omaha, running along 24th and 26th streets. But as the demand for services increased, particularly with the concentration of homes along the track lines, the company needed a maintenance shop to service the North Omaha area. In 1884, a barn was built on the corner of 24th and Lake Street, the barn consisted of a car shop, a corral, and shed. (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/admin/files/show/226">Figure IV</a>) The barn was so large it could stable 235 horses, enough to serve both North and South Omaha (Fletcher, n.d). The horses are unique in that they are a living component of this system, finding themselves displaced from their natural habitats and domesticated for city transit. (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/admin/files/show/228">Figure V</a>) As such, they required basic maintenance and living requirements such as food and housing—resources that also came at the expense of the natural environment. It was estimated that to move one ton at 2.9 miles per hour along flat, paved terrain, a horse would require 3,421 calories of nutritional intake (McShane, 2007). Because the digestive systems of horses were able to metabolize and utilize low-quality grains, horses used within railway transportation were fed a diet of oats and hay. To meet the caloric approximations described, it was estimated that railway horses consumed anywhere between 13-20 pounds of oats and 8-12 pounds of hay per day. Maintenance of horses were not their only downfall, however; horses were capable of transmitting disease and were eventually deemed financially inefficient, given the technological innovations that lie ahead of their time. The close compactness of cities made the spread for diseases easier. In 1872, the “Great Epizootic” struck Boston’s horse railway system leaving every horse either sick or deceased (Mohl, 1997). Alongside Boston, an estimated 80 percent of New York City’s horses suffered from disease, leaving large swaths of New Yorkers immobile (“The Horse Distemper”, 1872). By 1894, discussions held in New York concerned the issue of manure and its impact on public health, as it was estimated that its horse population exceeded 175,000 and was producing urine and manure at an uncontrollable rate (Morris, 2007). Urbanization accelerated, but there remained no clear separation between nature and culture. The advent of horse drawn railway systems seemingly catalyzed human society’s urge to transform the natural landscape to accommodate the needs of the public. By paving roads and laying rails within them, Omaha and many other developing cities were able to impose man-made technologies upon what was once prairie or forest, comprised of vegetation, dirt and mud. Mud, in fact, proved itself to be a nuisance to early horse-drawn transportation methods; not only was traveling across natural terrain unclean, but was also energetically inefficient. By paving roads and establishing railway systems, horses and mules were able to carry loads at two to three times efficiency (McKee, 2014). Omaha was not the only city however, to use the horse railway system. Expanding networks of horse railways emerged in cities across the United States and the world, from New York to San Francisco and Paris to Montevideo. Having a system in your city meant that you were entering the new industrial century. The horse railway system was first introduced in Nantes, France in 1826, quickly spreading to Paris and London by 1832. New York City got its first cars in 1828. By 1840, Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore all had established lines (Young, 2015). Another wave of expansion occurred in the 1860s, by the 1880s, almost 20,000 horse streetcars traveled on more than 30,000 miles of street railways across the United States (Young, 2015). Just as the horse railway helped Omaha to expand, other cities using it also grew. In Frankfort, Kentucky, which started its horse railway system in 1887, real-estate developers constantly lobbied for the streetcar line to reach the community of Bellepoint, originally left out of the route (Bogart, 1997). In San Francisco, old horse streetcars were converted into housing and formed the community of Cartown and even inspired a new type of housing architecture (Rhoads, 2000).   Expansion of the horse railway system was prominently notable in the United States compared to slower growth in Europe, where people called the technology the “American Railways” (Young, 2015). Which is ironic considering that the technology first appeared in Europe. Horse-drawn streetcars, and the rails they travelled on, began a process of redefining the meaning of city streets. This new definition would continue with the introduction of electric streetcars and automobiles (Young, 2015). Under this new understanding, the streets became “a place for mobility, diminishing the centrality of sociability, recreation, and other traditional street uses” (Young, 2015). The streets allowed for the connection of communities, in accordance with trends all over the United States, Omaha’s expansion was owed to the networks of its horse railway systems. Intense demand for reliable intracity transportation allowed the Omaha Horse Railway Company to expand quickly. Homes popped up along the track lines, extending far out from downtown Omaha. However, as the city continued to grow, horse-drawn streetcars proved too slow from transporting people from the “streetcar suburbs” to their employer in the city. In 1887, the <a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/admin/items/show/2">electric cable car</a> was introduced by the Cable Tramway Company. Conflicts soon emerged between the two companies over operations and competition for tracks. Eventually the Omaha Horse Railway Company and the Cable Tramway Company merged to form the Omaha Street Railway Company in 1887 (Fletcher, n.d). With streetcars now operating completely on electric motors, which made the cars heavier, new tracks were required. Originally, 25-pounds “T” rails were laid for the horse tracks. After the merger and switch to electric, 45-pounds steel girder rails were required to accommodate the new cars (Thomson, 2014). The switch to electric streetcars marked and end to organic machines, horse-power now became horse-powered. Given this myriad of environmental, health, financial issues facing horse-drawn transportation, it might seem that a transition toward electric cable cars was inevitable. This was not the case, however, in Benson, Nebraska. Omaha continued to grow between 1870 and 1900, and the suburban community of Benson was slowly on the rise. Seeing the success of the Omaha cable cars, the community established the Benson Motor Company in 1886, with cars pulled by steam-engines (Savage & Bell, 1894). The tracks ran on North 40th Street and Cuming Street, then connected to North 42nd and Hamilton, and finally following Military Road to North 58th Street (Fletcher, n.d). However, since most residents were still farmers, the loud noise proved to be a disturbance to the residents. The city soon declared it a nuisance and the company were forced to abandon their steam-powered engines and use horses to pull their cars (Savage and Bell, 1894). The implementation of the horse-drawn streetcars had profound influence in the growth of the central city and linked it with suburban areas. Though operating for only a couple of years, it inspired new transportation innovations to connect the central city and its suburbs to nearby rural communities with a fast, frequent service not otherwise available before. This was evident when the City of Omaha annexed Benson on July 29th, 1917 (Persigehl, 2017). Horse drawn infrastructure laid the foundation in many American cities by the late 19th century for what was needed to establish a “cleaner”, more financially and energetically efficient mode of transit found in electric railway systems. Despite their difference in power methodology, horse-drawn, and electric streetcars served a common purpose - to enable to expansion of the growing communities in which they served, speeding up suburbanization and the settling of surrounding natural landscapes. Urbanization was further developed through surrounding suburbanization and has both directly and indirectly impacted the Omaha area’s once natural landscape through road paving, construction of housing, businesses and infrastructure, and the collective pollution consequences coming as a result of consolidated human occupation and activity. Urbanization in Omaha was evident in the growth of the city between 1860 and 1900. Other cities around the world also saw a growth in their populations starting in the 1860s, when the horse railway system was expanding (Rees, 2016). Urbanization has contributed greatly to the Anthropocene as it required more extraction of natural resources to feed a growing, industrialized city. Materials were needed to build the horse railway lines and for horse care. Indirectly, through its facilitation of urbanization, materials were also needed to construct more homes and other amenities associated with a growing city (Awasthi, 1999). Perhaps the starkest impact associated with the Anthropocene, is the changing of the natural landscape. Grasslands and forests were soon replaced by gridded neighborhoods and paved lines connecting communities and cities (Rees, 2016). These railways, both horse-drawn and eventually electric-powered, extended the reach of the city and allowed it to grow into what it is known as today—without these developments, growth may not have been seen until the invention, public access, and affordability of the automobile in the early 20th century. Accelerating the rate of suburbanization, the Omaha Horse Railway company also played a significant role in enabling the city’s contribution to worldwide pollution collectively derived from the necessity to transport, house, feed and accommodate growing populations. It is through this perspective that we understand how the intermediary method of human transport did more than get people home from work—it is one of many roots that ground the premise of worldwide geological and environmental scars inflicted by humankind. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kaden Cloud Zak Phosri Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived “A Statement of Facts―In Relation to the Origins, Progress and Prospect of the New York and Harlem Railroad Company.” The Evening Post. (1833, Feb 21). Retrieved from <a href="https://www.newspapers.com/clip/19998189/harlem_railroad_pt_1/">https://www.newspapers.com/clip/19998189/harlem_railroad_pt_1/</a> Awasthi, Aruna. (1999). “Environmental Degradation: A Case Study of Railways and Deforestation in India in The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.” Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, 60, 572-581. Retrieved from <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/44144125">http://www.jstor.org/stable/44144125</a> Bogart, Charles H. (1997). “Frankfort’s Streetcars and Interurbans: The Bluegrass Route.” The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society. 95(4):395-424. Retrieved from  <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/23383835">http://www.jstor.org/stable/23383835</a>. Fletcher, Adam. n.d. “26th and Lake Street Maintenance Shop.” North Omaha History. Retrieved from https://northomahahistory.com/2016/09/10/26th-and-lake-streetcar-barn/ Fletcher, Adam. n.d. “Benson Motor Company.” North Omaha History. Retrieved from https://northomahahistory.com/2017/03/04/benson-motor-company/ Hendee, David. (2015). “1865 in Omaha: A Momentous Year.” Omaha World-Herald. Retrieved from <a href="https://www.omaha.com/special_sections/in-omaha-a-momentous-year/article_72e950df-ec1f-53ae-b383-8ef47b8241fc.html">https://www.omaha.com/special_sections/in-omaha-a-momentous-year/article_72e950df-ec1f-53ae-b383-8ef47b8241fc.html</a>.   Martin, Charles W. (1978). “Omaha in 1868-1869: Selections from the Letters of Joseph Barker,” Nebraska History. 59: 501-524. McKee, Jim. (2014, Apr 6). “Horse Cars and Street Railway.” Retrieved from <a href="https://journalstar.com/news/local/jim-mckee-horse-cars-and-street-railways/article_09fc3864-c8f7-5f87-b033-ede68e26791f.html">https://journalstar.com/news/local/jim-mckee-horse-cars-and-street-railways/article_09fc3864-c8f7-5f87-b033-ede68e26791f.html</a> McShane, Clay. “Transforming the Use of Urban Space: a Look at the Revolution in Street Pavements, 1880-1924.” Journal of Urban History, 1979, journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/009614427900500302?casa_token=_o0SYBpEa3gAAAAA:hXBVV7cIMPYnoDn4moKb5D2ryMj-HAWFwWgpOlk0RHeDwnQZIku-LceZMkjesKtvNZzFQIp4c1QK. McShane, Clay and Joel A. Tarr. (2007). The Horse in the City: Living Machines in the Nineteenth Century. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press.   Mohl, Raymond A. (1997). The Making of Urban America (2nd edition). Lanham, MD: SR Books. Morris, E. (2007). From Horse Power to Horsepower. ACCESS Magazine, 1(30). Retrieved from <a href="https://cloudfront.escholarship.org/dist/prd/content/qt6sm968t2/qt6sm968t2.pdf">https://cloudfront.escholarship.org/dist/prd/content/qt6sm968t2/qt6sm968t2.pdf</a>. Nebraska State Data Center, Center for Public Affairs Research, University of Nebraska at Omaha, and U.S Bureau of the Census. (2010). “Population of Nebraska Incorporated Places, 1860 to 1920.” Retrieved from <a href="https://opportunity.nebraska.gov/files/research/stathand/bsect5a.htm">https://opportunity.nebraska.gov/files/research/stathand/bsect5a.htm</a> Persigehl, Linda. (2017). “Battle for Benson: The 100th Anniversary of its Annexation.” Omaha Magazine. Retrieved from <a href="http://omahamagazine.com/articles/battle-for-benson/">http://omahamagazine.com/articles/battle-for-benson/</a> Rees, Jonathan. (2016). “Industrialization and Urbanization in the United States, 1880-1929.” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History. Retrieved from <a href="http://oxfordre.com/americanhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.001.0001/acrefore-9780199329175-e-327">http://oxfordre.com/americanhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.001.0001/acrefore-9780199329175-e-327</a> Rhoads, William B. (2000). “The Machine in the Garden: The trolley Cottage as Romantic Artifact.” Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture. 8:17-32. Retrieved from  <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3514405">https://www.jstor.org/stable/3514405</a>    Roberts, G. K., & Steadman, P. (1999). American Cities & Technology: Wilderness to Wired City. New York, NY: Routledge. Savage, James W. and John T. Bell. (1894). History of the City of Omaha Nebraska. NYC, NY: Nunsell & Company. Thavenet, Dennis. “A History of Omaha Public Transportation.” 1960, digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/studentwork/1267. “The Horse Distemper.” (1872, Oct 26) Retrieved from <a href="https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1872/10/26/83212943.pdf">https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1872/10/26/83212943.pdf</a> Thomas, Doug. (2017, Dec 11). “Omaha’s Once-Sprawling Streetcar System Now Lives Only In Memory.” Retrived from <a href="https://www.omaha.com/living/omaha-s-once-sprawling-streetcar-system-now-lives-only-in/article_faf152c0-da05-11e7-b045-2f378c682fd5.html">https://www.omaha.com/living/omaha-s-once-sprawling-streetcar-system-now-lives-only-in/article_faf152c0-da05-11e7-b045-2f378c682fd5.html</a> Thompson, Joe. (2014). “Omaha Street Railway History - 1909 News Advertisements by William H. Hodge.” Cable Car Guy. Retrieved from <a href="http://www.cable-car-guy.com/html/ccomaha.html">http://www.cable-car-guy.com/html/ccomaha.html</a> Young, Jay. (2015). “Infrastructure: Mass Transit in 19th- and 20th-Century Urban America.” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History. Retrieved from <a href="http://oxfordre.com/americanhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.001.0001/acrefore-9780199329175-e-28">http://oxfordre.com/americanhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.001.0001/acrefore-9780199329175-e-28</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The Durham Museum Permanent Collection Horse Railway Organic Machine Suburban Development https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/7375efb95df70f7b01747efc111e33ce.jpg c4697d493008abf101443b5bbef76916 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mormon Camp Meeting, Council Bluffs Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource George Simons (1834-1917) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Durham Museum Permanent Collection https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/6d670239a7f33476669c6956f5622e67.jpg 636f0f32972acfcb06dcc9ed4355569e Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mormon Trail. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hales, J. Rulon Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived David Rumsey Map Collection https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~290740~90062336:Mormon-Trail-?sort=Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No&qvq=w4s:/what%2FPictorial%2Bmap;q:mormon%20trail;sort:Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=1&trs=2# https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/347b34f5998affa5d69af9fd4dab42e7.png 3b8e80ca774aea24a509c624a4142ef9 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Detail (Mormon Camp Meeting, Council Bluffs) Subject The topic of the resource Handcarts depicted in Mormon Camp Meeting, Council Bluffs, by George Simons Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Durham Museum Permanent Collection Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Conquering Time and Space Subject The topic of the resource <div>Industrial Revolutions <img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4704/39667361775_2e3264c4bf_o.jpg" 100="" width="100% height=" /> <a href="https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~24266~880086:-Birdseye-view-Great-Plains-#" title="Bird Eye View - Rumsey" target="_blank">Detail(Birdseye view Great Plains)Knight, Leonard & Co.,Engravers and Printers, Chicago. (1890) David Rumsey.com </a></div> Description An account of the resource Industrial revolutions fundamentally transformed the world’s social and economic order. Beginning in Great Britain in the eighteenth century, European empires expanded industrialization into a global phenomenon that created spectacular wealth and unprecedent power for western countries, but also led to new social conflict and increased the gap between rich and poor. Industrialization also led to profound changes in the global environment. Advances in transportation and telecommunications expanded the reach of industrial powers. The railroad and the telegraph allowed people to tap distant natural resources more quickly and efficiently than ever before. Contemporaries praised this “annihilation of time and space” and Omaha was central to this story. The first transcontinental telegraph began in Omaha and was completed in 1861. In 1863, the Union Pacific chose Omaha as the eastern terminus for the transcontinental railroad. By 1867, the United States had built the world’s largest railroad network, business leaders communicated from coast to coast, and Omaha stood at the center. As railroads and the telegraph shrank time and space, cities expanded. Streetcars promoted urban growth and the rise of the first suburbs. The objects in this section show rail and the telegraph reshaped environments during this era of industrialization. As you move through this section of the exhibit, consider how transportation and telecommunication connects Omaha to the wider world and to global environments today. Physical Object An inanimate, three-dimensional object or substance. Note that digital representations of, or surrogates for, these objects should use Moving Image, Still Image, Text or one of the other types. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mormon Camp Meeting Painting Subject The topic of the resource In the early nineteenth century, people had to travel by foot or wagon to get to new places. During this time, Omaha and Council Bluffs became a settlement for pioneers traveling west. This painting illustrates one of these settlements on the Mormon Trail called the Winter Quarters. Likely painted between 1834-1917 by George Simons, it connects Omaha to migration. Trails have often been the pathway for the movement of people around the world. Migration redistributes both people and resources. It can bring new people and goods that can be helpful to local economies. Human mobility often introduces harmful new plants and animals to an area as well and migration contributes to global carbon emissions. This painting shows how important trails are to cities like Omaha. Even so, we shouldn't forget that how they create ecosystem changes that are harmful to the Anthropocene. Description An account of the resource When the word ‘migration’ comes to mind, one may think of animals traveling south for winter or people relocating to distant new lands, seeking refuge or opportunity. However, migration involves more than just the movement of people or animals. Its effects extend deeper, leaving an impact on the environment itself. The Mormon Trail is one such example of human migration that left a stark impact on the land. The trail, beginning in Nauvoo, Illinois, was the route people of the Mormon religion used to get to Salt Lake, Utah while fleeing religious persecution. From 1846 to 1868, over 15,000 Mormon migrants trekked across the 1,300 mile-long trail. The painting “Mormon Camp Meeting, Council Bluffs” by artist George Simons, depicts a stop along this trail and is representative of the social as well as environmental significance of this movement. (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/admin/files/show/237">Figure I</a>) The movement on the Mormon Trail is not unique: migration is omnipresent in human history and has been a constant in the human story. Migration contributes to the settlement of new countries and the exploration of foreign lands. This painting reminds viewers that the Anthropocene is more than a story of settlement, urbanization, and agriculture. The Mormon Trail represents all human migration and the effects it has on the global environment. Migration is not inherently good or bad on its own; however, the methods used for migration have had and continue to contribute negatively to the Anthropocene. Movement is an unusual object of environmental historical analysis, but images offer unique evidence of its significance. This painting depicts the Winter Quarters settlement of the Mormon Trail, which later became the cities Omaha and Council Bluffs. The settlement is split into two sections, divided by a stream or narrow river. Tents and covered wagons are depicted on the right side of the painting and are presumably the primary shelters used at this settlement. These dwellings are simple and representative of the few resources migrants have had. Animals are also depicted, often alongside the wagons they pull. These horses were vital for movement on the trail and without them the journey would have been longer and more arduous. Near some of the horses, are handcarts. While not as effective as animal-drawn transportation, handcarts were commonly used to transport smaller goods. The depictions of these tools highlight the elements necessary for all forms of land migration. Migration involves more elements than just the movement of people. The attire of the people depicted in the painting can also be associated with the values of these migrants. People are wearing formal attire, despite travelling and living modestly. Clearly the Mormons prioritized personal presentation more than communal presentation. Painting, as a medium, imitates the physical appearance of a scene, although it also presents the ideas associated with its subject. The painting is an interesting piece to look at on its own, but knowing the story behind the painting sheds a new light on what it is attempting to convey. The Mormon Camp shown in the painting is merely a small snapshot of a much bigger picture, for Council Bluffs was just a stop along the way for the Mormons. The painting was produced by a well-known artist to the area, George Simons, and represents a time sometime between 1834 and 1917. It is based off sketches Simons made while documenting the Mormon exodus. Simons arrived in Council Bluffs between 1849 and 1855, when the region was known as Kanesville (Gregory, 16). The physical state of the artwork today helps convey its age—the paint is beginning to crack and fade over the canvas. These works of art help give a visual record of what Omaha and Council Bluffs may have looked like at the time. Eventually, his painting, Mormon Camp Meeting, Council Bluffs, ended up in possession of the Durham Museum in Omaha. The exact timeframe of the painting’s creation is unknown. A rough range of dates is limited only by Simons’ own lifespan (1834-1917), and the time of the subject depicted: the Mormon Trail (1846-1868). Mormonism took root far east of Council Bluffs, in upstate New York. There, a religious leader, Joseph Smith (December 1805 – June 1844), claimed to have received a set of golden plates from an angel, from which he wrote the Book of Mormon in 1830 and founded the Church of the Latter Day Saints (Pierce, 6-7). Persecution forced the Mormons west, to Nauvoo, where they stayed until 1844, when Smith was murdered. Smith’s successor, Brigham Young, soon decided that the Mormons should yet again migrate west, this time to the Great Salt Lake, in what would later become Utah. Throughout global history, persecuted groups have been forced to uproot themselves and to migrate to safer locations. Migration is difficult and potentially deadly, but for many groups it is a necessity for their survival, and while many people in the 19th century regarded the Mormons as little more than nuisances, they could not deny the importance of the Mormons’ migration westward. (Cosmopolitan Art Journal, 82). The Mormons acted as pioneers, laying the road for others outside the Mormon religion to travel into the vast regions of the largely unknown Western United States. The 1,300-mile-long migration along the Mormon Trail began in 1846, taking the Mormons west through Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming and finally to Utah. (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/admin/files/show/238">Figure 2</a>). The journey was treacherous, and many perished along the way. In some places, the Mormon Trail overlapped with the Oregon Trail, but other than that, there were no roads to follow, nor any cities or towns where the weary Mormons could stop or rest. They slept in tents and wagons, and there was “only the wreckage—the remains of camps—the bones of animals and men” who had died before them along the trail to mark the way (White, 24). Food was often hard to come by and the lack of sustenance had disastrous results for health and morale. By the time the Winter Quarters were abandoned, and the Mormons continued their migration west, over seven hundred graves were left behind at the Winter Quarters, and along the trail, families had little more than wagons as shelter, many children “were born and died in these tents of misery” (Cosmopolitan Art Journal, 82). “[We were] wearied and worn down, the bones almost through the skin, not only of myself but of all that were in the company...I never was so hungry in my life. My children cry with hunger and it grieves me and makes me cross,” (Aitken). However, some migrants found value within their suffering:  “When we got on top of the mountain it was the potis seanry that I ever saw in my lif...Hear was a little lake and it was very Clar and cold. Thar was fish but I had lost my hooks and lines so I Codent ketch any of them. Hear was timbor of all kinds of the fir kind and whar I was I cod see wone montan below a nother and Coverd with timber and it was the purtis seanry I evver saw. This sit pad me for my hardship,” (Clark). Nearly 42,000 people made the journey on the Mormon-Carson (Council Bluffs to San Diego) section of the trail in 1850 alone (Owens, 16). The main ways that people moved along the Mormon Trail were by foot, wagon, and handcart (each of which were depicted in the Simons’ painting). (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/admin/files/show/239">Figure III</a>) For nearly 20 years, Mormon migrants traveled along the trail, forcing them to find creative ways to bring the goods necessary to establish settlements. Walking proved ineffective when it came to carrying goods, but handcarts and wagons proved substantially more efficient. Prior to 1855, Brigham Young instructed his followers to use covered wagons to transport goods (Bagley, 54). While these wagons provided shelter, carried more goods, and did not require human labor, they did have some shortcomings. Wagons required beasts of burden, which were expensive and required care and occasionally replacement. Most livestock did not survive the 1,300-mile trek and replacements did not come cheap or quickly. Covered wagons were also expensive and took a long time to build. To solve these problems, Brigham Young and Robert Campbell implemented the “Handcart Plan,” (Bagley, 58). The Handcart Plan is especially relevant to the painting because Campbell suggested the plan to Young in a letter from Kanesville—the setting of the painting. It was also written in the period when Simons may have sketched the camp for his painting, which can clearly be seen in Figure 2 (Bagley, 58). In the letter, Campbell quoted a Mormon traveler in Kanesville who described handcarts as “the fulfillment of a Mormon prophecy,” (Bagley, 58). In June of 1956, Brigham Young instructed the construction of over 10,000 handcarts, which were produced in Iowa City (Bagley, 67). While these handcarts were cheaper to produce, the manufacturers in Iowa City could not keep up with their high demand, forcing some trail-goers to wait over a month to receive them (Bagley, 70). Handcarts turned out to be very unpopular among users, due to the physical labor required to use them and their limited carrying capacity. People often died of fatigue while using handcarts, with one handcart captain describing the devices as “two wheeled instruments of torture,” (Bagley, 78). While individual experiences along the Mormon Trail were unique, the impact of migration on the surrounding environment was largely negative. In fact, the environmental impact of trails and other forms of mass migration has had an overall negative effect on the biotic and abiotic materials surrounding areas used for migration. Once the Mormons reached their destination, the migrations did not end. With no one to evict or persecute the Mormons in Utah, they flourished, but this eventually led to a crisis of overpopulation. People were continuing to come, which caused problems for Utah’s agricultural environment. With the abundance of people, too much land was being taken up to support the number of workers. The younger people, who did not have a stake on a plot of land, had to move farther and farther away to support themselves (Sherlock, 54). Aside from a boom in agriculture, the increasing number of people in Utah catalyzed industrialization. These are both major themes in the Anthropocene and illustrate just how big of an impact this religious community’s journeys had. The Mormon Trail played a role in migrations outside of the Mormon religion as well. From 1849 to 1852, Kanesville became the most used departure point for the California Gold Rush than anywhere else along the Missouri River (Hartley, 38). When news of gold in California spread, people came from far and wide to partake in the Gold Rush. Council Bluffs became a center for commerce. Thousands of people swarmed the area, buying out the Mormons’ wagons and supplies so they could head West. This reminds us that movement and settlement were inextricably intertwined historical processes in western migration. The painting, Mormon Camp Meeting, Council Bluffs, and the story of migration it depicts, does have important historical contexts. The global theme of migration, specifically rural to urban migration, has had a particularly significant impact to the Anthropocene. Historically, many populations have moved from rural countries to urban cities. <a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/admin/files/show/240">Figure 4</a> illustrates the move from more rural countries in the Americas to the more urban countries in North America (Meyerson, 185). Urbanization can be a positive thing because “it moves population growth away from rural and protected areas.” However, “it can also increase per capita demand for energy, material goods and services, since migrants to cities often become more affluent and consume more resources,” (Meyerson, 184). The Anthropocene is often characterized as the epoch triggered by human activity. Urbanization may not have been the catalyst of the Anthropocene, but has left its mark via negative human contribution to the environment, including unhealthy water, soil, and air pollution levels (Meyerson, 185). The global population is expected to increase by 3 billion by 2050 (O'Neill et al, 1). This population growth will impact urban areas more, where “urbanization can substantially influence emissions,” (O'Neill et al, 1). Global population growth and urbanization is already projected to increase and will thus have increasingly negative impacts on the environment. Human migration/movement had distinct environmental impacts too. The mechanical and human movement on the trail compacted the soil, which continues to have an impact on the environment today, specifically in ways that contribute to climate change. A survey conducted on the Iowa portion of the Mormon Trail, stretching from Montrose, Iowa to Council Bluffs, found that though the trail has been relatively untouched since its original use, the soil remains compacted from the traffic it once endured 150 years ago (Brevik, 137-138). This revelation carries importance because compacted soil loses the organic matter it usually contains, which plays a role in removing CO2 from the atmosphere (Brevik, 137). Higher amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere increase average global temperature, contributing to the Greenhouse Effect (Brevik, 137).  This study provides direct evidence that human trail migration contributes to climate change. Though the study was conducted exclusively on the Mormon Trail, the effects of soil compaction can be found in trail systems worldwide. The study did not consider untrodden soil—the authors only note that it was a mass land migration on this route that created permanent compaction. This implies that any form of land migration involving people following an exact route will compact the soil on the path. As early as the agricultural revolution, when humans had the means to travel independently with animal herds, trails would become the predominant method of transportation, suggesting that land migration—from the Silk Road or simple walking trails used today—compacts soil, removing mass amounts of organic matter over time, thus worsening human induced climate change over time. Another study found that, more recently, the creation of alkaline paved roads and trails are “the main cause of changes along roads in the area and indicate the leading role of water transport in the soil and consequent vegetation alteration,” (Müllerova, 3839). Changes to the environment were found to be especially threatening to “rare and protected species,” (Müllerova, 3847). The process in which alkaline gravel impacts the surrounding environment can be found in <a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/admin/files/show/241">Figure 5</a>. While the damage has already been done, the study also finds hope, saying “The National Park authorities started to reconstruct the trails, although recovery is expected to be slow,” (Müllerova, 3839). Unfortunately, while park trails are halting the harmful use of alkaline, the worldwide use of pavement for roads is a larger problem to tackle. The painting, Mormon Camp Meeting, Council Bluffs, illustrates just a small piece of a greater story: one of migration and the environmental impacts that characterize the Anthropocene. Human migration changes not just the people who migrate, but the earth itself. The Mormons, and all those who migrate, can teach future generations about the impacts it has on the earth being tread underfoot. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Cassi Adams Laura Gagnon Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Aitken, William. “Adventures of a Mormon,” London Advertiser. (1957) Anson, Clark.  “Recollections of his Journey from Ohio, to California in 1850, with his Experiences in the Mines,” Bancroft Library. Bagley, Will. ""One Long Funeral March": A  Revisionist's View of the Mormon Handcart Disasters." Journal of Mormon History 35, no. 1 (2009): 50-115. Ball, Terry, and Brotherson, Jack. "Environmental Lessons from Our Pioneer Heritage." BYU Studies Quarterly 38, no. 3 (July 7, 1999). Bennett, Richard Edmond. Mormons at the Missouri: A History of the Latter-Day Saints at Winter Quarters and at Kanesville, 1846-52: A Study in American Overland Trail Migration. 80-81. Brevik, E., T. Fenton, and L. Moran. "Effect of Soil Compaction on Organic Carbon Amounts and Distribution, South-Central Iowa." Environmental Pollution 116 (2002): Environmental Pollution, 2002, Vol.116. Gregory, Katie. "The Art of George Simons." Nauvoo Journal, 1997, 16-24. Halon, Rules. Mormon Trail [Map]. 1947. David Rumsey Map Collection.<a href="https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~290740~90062336:M">https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~290740~90062336:M</a>ormon-Trail Hartley, William G. "Council Bluffs/Kanesville, Iowa: A Hub for Mormon Settlements, Operations, and Emigration, 1846-1852." The John Whitmer Historical Association Journal 26 (2006): 17-47.<a href="http://www.jstor.org.cuhsl.creighton.edu/stable/43200235"> </a> Kimball, Stanley B. "Mormon Trail Network in Nebraska, 1846-1868: A New Look." Brigham Young University Studies 24, no. 3 (1984): 321-36. McOwen, Micah J. B. "An Earth Used with Judgment, Not to Excess: Distilling a Mormon Approach to Environmental Law." Journal of Law and Religion 23, no. 2 (2007): 673- Meyerson, Frederick A. B., Leticia Merino, and Jorge Durand. "Migration and Environment in the Context of Globalization." Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 5, no. 4 (2007): 182-90.<a href="http://www.jstor.org.cuhsl.creighton.edu/stable/20440620"> </a> Müllerová, Vítková, and Vítek. "The Impacts of Road and Walking Trails upon Adjacent Vegetation: Effects of Road Building Materials on Species Composition in a Nutrient Poor Environment." Science of the Total Environment 409, no. 19 (2011): 3839-849. O'Neill, Brian C., Michael Dalton, Regina Fuchs, Leiwen Jiang, Shonali Pachauri, and Katarina Zigova. "Global Demographic Trends and Future Carbon Emissions." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America107, no. 41 (2010): 17521- Owens, Kenneth N. "The Mormon-Carson Emigrant Trail in Western History." Montana: The Magazine of Western History 42, no. 1 (1992): 14-27. Pierce, Perry Benjamin. "The Origin of the “Book of Mormon”." American Anthropologist 1, no. 4 (1899): 675-94. Sherlock, Richard. "Mormon Migration and Settlement after 1875." Journal of Mormon History 2 (1975): 53-68.<a href="http://www.jstor.org.cuhsl.creighton.edu/stable/23286028"> </a> Van Dyke, Judge Walter. "Overland to Los Angeles, By the Salt Lake Route in 1849." Annual            Publication of the Historical Society of Southern California, Los Angeles 3, no. 2 (1894): 76-83. "Views from the Top of a Bluff." Cosmopolitan Art Journal 2, no. 2/3 (1858): 82-84. White, Hiram F. "The Mormon Road." The Washington Historical Quarterly 6, no. 4 (1915): 243-50.<a href="http://www.jstor.org.cuhsl.creighton.edu/stable/40474465"> </a> Woods, Thomas A. "Nature within History: Using Environmental History to Interpret Historic Sites." History News 52, no. 3 (1997): 5-8. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1849-1855 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The Durham Museum Permanent Collection Greenhouse Gasses Migration Mormon Overland Trails https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/3f7b186c786c8d614843ad7859b12ee3.jpg 828e670e8dba4022bfc106e7b5f37403 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Standard Clock Subject The topic of the resource The outside of the Self Winding Standard Clock that hung in Omaha’s Union Station. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Durham Museum Permanent Collection https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/221015c8c243ff4c04afca384c5c791e.jpg 1cb0072459e9e9b60f4055a00ae37a4e Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Standard Clock Description An account of the resource The inside the Self Winding Standard Clock that hung in Omaha’s Union Station. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Durham Museum Permanent Collection https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/60c58aa3a526a9fa75cd6c32b2db83ef.png 3df80d36ee0363a32ef0bdb5bdf39e96 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Figure 3: Per Capita Income in Nebraska in 1880 Description An account of the resource Per Capita Income in Nebraska in 1880 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Hanson, Killeen, et al. “Per Capita Income in the United States: 1880-1910.” Spatial History Project, 2018, web.stanford.edu/group/spatialhistory/cgi-bin/site/viz.php?id=265&project_id=0. https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/650a3201d0dc9bd81288f2211594c291.png 458fc07c6c880cd81814bab7448365c0 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Figure 4: The rise in China’s GDP from 2013 to 2017 Description An account of the resource Figure 4: This graph depicts the rise in China’s GDP from 2013 to 2017. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived GDP (Current US$). The World Bank, 2018, data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD?end=2017&locations=CN&start=2013. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Conquering Time and Space Subject The topic of the resource <div>Industrial Revolutions <img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4704/39667361775_2e3264c4bf_o.jpg" 100="" width="100% height=" /> <a href="https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~24266~880086:-Birdseye-view-Great-Plains-#" title="Bird Eye View - Rumsey" target="_blank">Detail(Birdseye view Great Plains)Knight, Leonard & Co.,Engravers and Printers, Chicago. (1890) David Rumsey.com </a></div> Description An account of the resource Industrial revolutions fundamentally transformed the world’s social and economic order. Beginning in Great Britain in the eighteenth century, European empires expanded industrialization into a global phenomenon that created spectacular wealth and unprecedent power for western countries, but also led to new social conflict and increased the gap between rich and poor. Industrialization also led to profound changes in the global environment. Advances in transportation and telecommunications expanded the reach of industrial powers. The railroad and the telegraph allowed people to tap distant natural resources more quickly and efficiently than ever before. Contemporaries praised this “annihilation of time and space” and Omaha was central to this story. The first transcontinental telegraph began in Omaha and was completed in 1861. In 1863, the Union Pacific chose Omaha as the eastern terminus for the transcontinental railroad. By 1867, the United States had built the world’s largest railroad network, business leaders communicated from coast to coast, and Omaha stood at the center. As railroads and the telegraph shrank time and space, cities expanded. Streetcars promoted urban growth and the rise of the first suburbs. The objects in this section show rail and the telegraph reshaped environments during this era of industrialization. As you move through this section of the exhibit, consider how transportation and telecommunication connects Omaha to the wider world and to global environments today. Physical Object An inanimate, three-dimensional object or substance. Note that digital representations of, or surrogates for, these objects should use Moving Image, Still Image, Text or one of the other types. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Railroad Clock Subject The topic of the resource The Standard Clock was made by the Self Winding Clock Company. This clock was used by the Union Pacific Railroad as the official clock by which workers would set their watches. Time used to be different in different cities until companies created the standard time we use today. This clock shows how standard time was able to help trains run more quickly, allowing for the smooth movement of trains. Railroads played a big role in Omaha’s history. The Union Pacific rail lines that ran through Omaha brought more money and made the city grow quicker. This made Omaha’s environmental footprint larger. While the Union Pacific railroad allowed for the growth of cities like Omaha, similar growth can be seen around the world. The railroad has created growth in countries like China and Japan. While trains once created growth while hurting the environment it can now help to solve these problems. Description An account of the resource At first glance it may not be clear exactly how a clock fits into the concept of the Anthropocene. This is not an ordinary clock, however. It is a Union Pacific standard time clock. This clock was used by Union Pacific Railroad to help keep trains running smoothly and efficiently in and out of Omaha, Nebraska. The standard clock reveals the role played by the railroad in Omaha’s urban development. The clock provided a standard measure for which time was to be set all over America, not solely in Omaha. It represented the industrial and commercial standardization of time and could be easily translated to the different time zones around America and around the world. The standardization of time allowed railroads and industries to run at peak efficiency and consume natural resources quicker. It also increased the negative environmental consequences of those activities.  Time itself is a subject of fundamental interest in Anthropocene discourse. In a narrow, stratigraphical sense, the concept signifies a new division of geological time. The Union Pacific Railroad Clock demonstrates how the social construction of standard time reshaped humanity’s relationship with nature. Our object, the Standard Clock, was created by the Self Winding Clock Company for use by Union Pacific Railroad. (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/admin/files/show/259">Figure I</a>, <a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/admin/files/show/260">Figure II</a>) It hung in the telegraph office of Omaha’s Union Station until the station closed in 1971. The clock served as the official clock by which workers would set their watches. Clocks like this would have enabled the train station to run at peak efficiency and allow for smooth movement of trains in and out of the station. Telling the history of standard time and the railroads in Omaha would not be complete without a discussion of Union Pacific. Headquartered in Omaha, the Union Pacific was one of the largest railroad companies in America during the 19th century. It played a major role in the history of Omaha. In 1862, Thomas Durant, the first vice president and general manager of Union Pacific, persuaded President Abraham Lincoln to make Omaha the eastern terminus of the transcontinental railroad. The first rail of the track was laid on July 10, 1865 and would signal the beginning of Omaha’s urban history. After the passage of the Homestead Act in 1863, “settlers and immigrants poured into the area… and today this vibrant city has a population of nearly 500,000” (Union Pacific, 2018). Between the years 1880 and 1910 Nebraska’s per capita income increased from about $150 to a little over $300 (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/admin/files/show/266">Figure III</a> and<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/admin/files/show/267"> IV</a>). Omaha became a bustling railroad town, but like other cities, it kept its own local time. Before standard time, railroad time used the local times of major cities. This was known as local solar time. For example, noon in Kansas City was just when the sun was over head. Local solar time was “a group of unrelated times...there was no ‘system’” (Bartky, 28). There was no way to coordinate all these times and make sense of them. As industry grew and more trains were on the rails this combination of local times was no longer safe or efficient. Railroad companies required a more accurate means of timekeeping. “Railroads were particularly interested in accurate timekeeping for the safe running of trains and for scheduling time tables. Slowly, a network of railroad regional times replaced a hodge podge of local times” (Levinson, 10). A growing consensus emerged among railroads companies that there needed to be a single time in order to increase safety and efficiency. Local time was no longer something that was feasible. So, “on Nov. 18, 1883, the country's railroad magnates, acting on the theory that they needed provisional time zones to coordinate their train schedules” created Standard Railroad Time and in essence “seized control of the hands of time itself” (Feuer, 26). The railroads demonstrated the significance of time-related values regarding the speed and effectiveness of productivity. “In 1873, there were over seventy regional railroad times across the United States. By 1883, the railroad industry implemented a system of five distinct time zones in North America-Intercolonial (now Atlantic), Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific” (Levinson, 13). (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/admin/files/show/265">Figure V</a>) Such concepts of time were seen not only in the United States but in other regions throughout the world. It would take a while for Standard Railroad Time to be adopted across America. In 1918, the New York Central Railroad petitioned Congress and the Standard Time Act was passed. This enacted into law railroads’ time zones as the standard way to measure time across America.   Like other industrial cities in America and abroad, Omaha would eventually come to adopt standard time and use clocks such as ours to keep time. Time keeping became a standardized process on the global scale. This global standard time would even come to impact Creighton University. Father Rigge kept two clocks in the observatory on campus in order to record the time with the utmost precision. In order to keep the time accurate “Western Union Telegraph Company sent the beats of the clock of the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., to our Observatory on every week day at 11 A.M., from January 1887 to about the end of 1894” (Rigge, 88). The advent of railroads and standard time was causing Omaha to become a more globally interlinked city than in previous years. Railroads had a hand in helping to redefine Omaha as a global city, connected via transportation networks to distant locations.   The influences of the railroad on urban industrialization was a global phenomenon. While the Union Pacific railroad allowed for the rapid industrialization of cities like Omaha, similar transformation took place in states around the world. In 1884, Greenwich Mean Time was adopted internationally. This standardization of time increased the efficiency of international business and commerce while creating a globalized interconnectivity between countries. Figure VI shows the rapid growth in China’s GDP over a period of five years. (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/admin/files/show/268">Figure VI</a>) While China’s growth in GDP can be attributed to several factors, this increase is due in part to the development of the railroad throughout the nation. Due to the development of railroads, China was able to conduct commerce with countries that were otherwise inaccessible, greatly increasing China’s GDP. China invested in railways, which provided an increase in their railroads represented by an acceleration of industry across the world. It “marked a decisive break with all previous history. They were faster than the fastest horse and carriage or the fastest dispatch rider...however different the cultural reactions and modes of employment, the effects of rail travel were in principle the same all over the world” (Osterhammel, 74). The time it took to transport raw materials and products was greatly reduced thanks to the introduction of a much quicker mode of transportation. The adoption of Greenwich time across the world “increased the efficiency of international business” and “enabled administrative services to be co-ordinated too” (Ogle, 76). Asia was one such area where this effect was felt. From the years 1870-1911, China and Japan implemented the railroad at two very different rates. Japan implemented railroad technologies very rapidly and effectively. China resisted this movement due to backlash from more rural communities wanting to maintain traditional values. “The Meiji government justified the early adoption of railroad technology by appealing to the technology’s economic modernization effects” (Schmid, 571). The rapid innovation and implementation of the railroad within Japan created economic growth for the nation. At the same time, it allowed for increased modernization of urban settings. In China, the nation hesitated with investing in such technologies because “the Chinese leadership anticipated that the introduction of railroads would also have significant negative consequences” (Schmid, 572). While China was hesitant, Japan industrialized rapidly, showing the significance and impact of the railroad in the development of cities. By the early twentieth century, railroads were a global phenomenon and evidence of the spread of Western industrial power. The standard time of railroads has had a clear impact throughout history, especially during the Second Industrial Revolution. While trains ceased to be the common mode of transportation in the 21st century the effects of this earlier period of history are still important to societies today. The connections established and solidified during the nineteenth century have expanded into the 21st century. One can scarcely imagine globalized interconnectivity and commerce without a standardized measure of time. The environmental impacts of globalization are diverse, but can be most directly observed in climate change.   One of the most prevalent areas where time is felt in today’s society is climate change. By the year 2000 the IPCC reported that “global average temperatures had risen...by about 0.8℃ since the beginning of the 20th century” and “there is little doubt that this is because of human activities” (Aldrich, 31). The most alarming part is the rate at which this change is taking place. It is having a major effect on our ecosystems. Earth’s ecosystems run on a biological clock. All living things have “biological timing, the timekeeping in living organisms, in plants, and in animals including people” (Binkley, 4). However, human effects on the environment have distorted the timing of nature’s biological clock. Over the last 50 years plants in the Royal Botanic Gardens have begun blooming six days earlier and “in western Canada the aspen is blooming 26 days earlier than a century ago” (Aldrich, 32). Animal wildlife is also being affected. Migratory birds are arriving north earlier and leaving later in the fall. The acceleration of industries via railroads has had a major impact on the biological timing of the environment. The rise in industries has led to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions due to corporate activities. In the UK, supermarkets “may be responsible for up to 10% of emissions” (Sullivan and Gouldson, 733). However, companies are working to reduce this. Between “2000–2010, UK supermarkets invested significant resources in reducing their emissions through improving building and transport energy efficiency, reducing refrigerant losses and increasing the use of renewable energy” (Sullivan and Gouldson, 733). UK based supermarkets have already started seeing improved operational efficiency. These finding show that “larger companies have the potential to achieve long-term sustained reductions in emissions, but...achieving these benefits requires a continual focus on developing and testing new technologies” (Sullivan and Gouldson, 739). The Anthropocene is not a hopeless cause, there are many solutions being proposed to help reduce the negative impact of humans on the environment. Another solution that has been discussed is increasing the presence and utilization of railroads within modern societies to lessen the carbon emissions contributing to climate change. It is somewhat ironic that the railroad, a major agent in the industrialization that created current climate issues, is now being utilized to combat such environmental  issues. In terms of releasing carbon emission, the transportation industry is a large contributor. Implementing low-carbon emission innovations in the transportation industry will greatly cut the world’s carbon emissions. “The total CO2 emissions of highway freight transportation is 7.89-10.45 times more than that of railway freight transportation.” (Boliang, 97). To put this into perspective, if just 10% of highway freight was instead transported via railway, 22 million tons of carbon emissions would be prevented from entering the atmosphere (Boliang, 97). While the railroad has helped urbanize and industrialize both the United States and other global nations, it also provides an opportunity for resolving the modern issues of excessive carbon emissions. Railroads and the adoption of standard time has had a major impact on Omaha’s local history, global history, and development of the Anthropocene. Union Pacific, an Omaha based company, connects Nebraska to the rest of America. The Union Pacific Standard Clock stewarded this industrial integration into the present and promoted the accelerated growth of industries all over the world. This growth has had harmful effects on our climate and environment but the story is not just a negative one. Railroads also provide a possible solution for the future. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Charlie Clarke Thomas Haggstrom Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived "The Great Race to Promontory: The 150th Anniversary of Driving the Golden Spike." Accessed November 5, 2018.<a href="https://www.up.com/goldenspike/index.html"> https://www.up.com/goldenspike/index.html</a>.  Aldrich, Tim. About Time Speed, Society, People and the Environment, edited by Aldrich, Tim E., Will Hutton. Sheffield: Sheffield : Greenleaf Pub, 2005.  Bartky, Ian. "The Adoption of Standard Time." Technology and Culture 30, no. 1 (1989): 25.  Binkley, Sue. Biological Clocks: Your Owners Manual. Harwood Academic Publishers, 1997.  Boliang, Lin, Chang Liu, and Huijun Wang. "Modeling the Railway Network Design Problem: A Novel Approach to considering Carbon Emissions Reduction." Transportation Research Part D56 (2017): 95-109.  Levinson, Martin H. Time-Binding Time: A History of Time-Measurement and Time-Management in America, April 2014, 1-11.  Ogle, Vanessa. The Global Transformation of Time : 1870-1950 Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England : Harvard University Press, 2015.  Osterhammel, Jürgen. The Transformation of the World : A Global History of the Nineteenth Century, edited by Camiller, Patrick Princeton : Princeton University Press, 2014.  Rigge, William F. Memoirs, edited by David E. Crawford, Stefanie Lierz February 1, 2008.  Schmid, Jon, and Jonathan Huang. "State Adoption of Transformative Technology: Early Railroad Adoption in China and Japan." International Studies Quarterly 61 (2017): 570-83.  Sullivan, Rory, and Gouldson, Andy. "Ten Years of Corporate Action on Climate Change: What Do We Have to Show for It?" Energy Policy 60 (2013): 733-40. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The Durham Museum Permanent Collection Self Winding Standard Clock Standardization Time Union Pacific https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/7b84093ebd3dbed55bf673db051b738b.png 59fd432bcef33983d0dd728184dd1e77 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Conquering Time and Space Subject The topic of the resource <div>Industrial Revolutions <img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4704/39667361775_2e3264c4bf_o.jpg" 100="" width="100% height=" /> <a href="https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~24266~880086:-Birdseye-view-Great-Plains-#" title="Bird Eye View - Rumsey" target="_blank">Detail(Birdseye view Great Plains)Knight, Leonard & Co.,Engravers and Printers, Chicago. (1890) David Rumsey.com </a></div> Description An account of the resource Industrial revolutions fundamentally transformed the world’s social and economic order. Beginning in Great Britain in the eighteenth century, European empires expanded industrialization into a global phenomenon that created spectacular wealth and unprecedent power for western countries, but also led to new social conflict and increased the gap between rich and poor. Industrialization also led to profound changes in the global environment. Advances in transportation and telecommunications expanded the reach of industrial powers. The railroad and the telegraph allowed people to tap distant natural resources more quickly and efficiently than ever before. Contemporaries praised this “annihilation of time and space” and Omaha was central to this story. The first transcontinental telegraph began in Omaha and was completed in 1861. In 1863, the Union Pacific chose Omaha as the eastern terminus for the transcontinental railroad. By 1867, the United States had built the world’s largest railroad network, business leaders communicated from coast to coast, and Omaha stood at the center. As railroads and the telegraph shrank time and space, cities expanded. Streetcars promoted urban growth and the rise of the first suburbs. The objects in this section show rail and the telegraph reshaped environments during this era of industrialization. As you move through this section of the exhibit, consider how transportation and telecommunication connects Omaha to the wider world and to global environments today. Physical Object An inanimate, three-dimensional object or substance. Note that digital representations of, or surrogates for, these objects should use Moving Image, Still Image, Text or one of the other types. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Columbia Dry Cell Battery Subject The topic of the resource Telephones, clocks, and flashlights all have one thing in common: energy. In 1896, the Columbia Dry Cell Battery ushered in a new age of portable power. The dry cell battery made it easier for people to use everyday items and develop new technologies, helping cities like Omaha thrive. They also had environmental and human health impacts. Most batteries, including dry cells, end up in landfills or burned. The zinc in dry cell batteries can harm cells and slow plant growth. Later inventions, like lead-acid and lithium-ion batteries, worked better but created new environmental problems. Over one hundred years of battery improvements have made storing energy easier, but the problem of battery waste remains. The Columbia Dry Cell Battery shows that the real challenge is not creating power but figuring out what to do with the waste it leaves behind. Description An account of the resource The Columbia Dry Cell Battery played an instrumental role in the groundbreaking advancements in energy storage, use, and technology introduced in the 1890s. The creation of the dry cell battery ushered in a new age of items for both recreational and domestic use, relying on innovative, portable energy. From clocks and children’s toys to railroad signaling systems, this invention fostered a newfound sense of power within society. The Durham Museum, located in Omaha, Nebraska, is home to an array of artifacts relating to Omaha’s industrial history. Among this collection, is the Columbia Dry Cell Battery. This seemingly modest, brown, and red cylindrical object appears insignificant and mundane at first glance. However, this battery represents so much more. The Columbia Dry Cell Battery not only revolutionized energy harnessing but also created immense environmental challenges linked to battery disposal, issues that persist and intensify today, further fueling the Anthropocene on both a local and global scale. According to the American Chemical Society (ACS), the invention of the Columbia Dry Cell Battery was an integral steppingstone in the transition of batteries from specialized industrial applications to everyday household products (ACS 2005). Located in Cleveland, Ohio, The National Carbon Company (NCC), the precursor to Energizer, was the pioneer of battery development in the early 20th century (ACS 2005). Prior to 1896, the Leclanché wet cell battery dominated the industrial market. However, due to their fragility, costly nature, and susceptibility to spilling, widespread consumer use of wet cell batteries was impractical (ACS 2005). To provide a more reliable and portable energy source, E.M. Jewett worked with the National Carbon Company to mass manufacture and distribute sealed Columbia Dry Cell Batteries. Jewett’s design utilized a paste electrolyte, initially made out of flour and potato starch, to eliminate the leakage issue and streamline use for the American public. The National Carbon Company’s Columbia Dry Cell Battery introduced the age of emerging battery-powered consumer products, establishing the NCC as the leading producer of accessible, portable energy. The Columbia Dry Cell Battery was pivotal in the creation of revolutionary technologies, enhancing consumer accessibility to items like clocks and transforming railroad signaling systems (Elliott 1909). Many companies participated in the creation of mechanical clocks, with the Self Winding Clock Company being the most notable. Their innovative clocks operated on two Columbia Dry Cell Batteries, enabling them to wind themselves, something previously done manually. The self-winding mechanism utilized two motors to convert the battery’s electrical energy into mechanical energy, powering the clock’s gears. Furthermore, the clock’s tension-regulated spring maintained consistent winding, allowing effortless gear movement (Self Winding Clock Co. n.d). These clocks were widely used by the Union Pacific Railroad, headquartered in Omaha. It provided a standardized time to coordinate train schedules. This innovation led to increased efficiency and punctuality in train travel, even allowing railroad workers to set their own clocks accordingly, promoting synchronization throughout the industry. Furthermore, the Columbia Dry Cell Battery also played a critical role in railroad signaling by powering a system that allowed railway tracks to essentially sense trains and communicate with the station. The automatic signal system divided the track into sections, each fitted with wires connecting across both rails. This setup formed a circuit, with a small charge from the battery connected to one of the rails. When the train’s wheels touched both rails, a short circuit was created, diverting the current through the train’s wheels instead of through the previous path. This interruption stopped powering the original circuit linked to the motor. The motor, unpowered, would produce a “release” signal, indicating the presence of a train on that section of track (Elliott 1909). This signaling system powered by the Columbia Dry Cell Battery, adopted in locations like Omaha’s railway, greatly improved railway safety. In addition to industrial applications, the Columbia Dry Cell Battery also powered a range of popular commercial products, including flashlights and telephones. One notable high-demand product was the Eveready flashlight, which was widely used across America. Advertisements, especially around Christmas, highlighted its practicality, displaying its brightness and portability as valued traits in a household flashlight (The Omaha Morning Bee 1924). Telephones were another major commercial innovation powered by Columbia Dry Cell Batteries in the early 20th century. The Nebraska Telephone Company, which played a key role in increasing telephone access, allowed people to connect with anyone, anywhere. The Omaha Daily Bee, reported a significant increase in the use of Bell telephones in Omaha, with the number of devices increasing by 12,000 over four years. As the geographic center of the Bell system, Omaha connected to 50,000 cities and towns (Omaha Daily Bee 1911). The Columbia Dry Cell Battery specifically powered the microphone, converting sound waves to electrical signals. The battery power provided constant current, which the microphone changed based on sound waves. The altered electric signals were then sent through the telephone lines, facilitating clear communication throughout America. The National Carbon Company utilized targeted marketing strategies to sell the Columbia Dry Cell Batteries, notably placing advertisements in household magazines and newspapers like Collier’s (Collier’s 1916, 41) and The Saturday Evening Post (The Saturday Evening Post 1925, 94). Understanding their target audience, the company often advertised in Science and Invention, a prominent science and technology magazine during the 1920s and 1930s. In the November 1928 issue, a man is depicted constructing a dry cell battery in an advertisement titled, “Lots of people know how to make a dry cell - but not the Eveready Columbia.” The body of the advertisement includes text discussing the materials present in dry cells, indicating that “the principal ingredients are zinc, sal ammoniac, manganese, and carbon” (Science and Invention 1928, 579). This advertisement highlights the prevalence of these elements in the production of dry cell batteries, while also providing insight into what materials are released into the atmosphere when the batteries are discarded and dismantled. In 1937, The United States Department of Commerce and the National Bureau of Standards created an American Standard Specification for dry cells and batteries. The publication lists the governmental standards for manufacturers of dry cells, including specifications for sealing compounds, mechanical top closures, and the caliber of tests that must be conducted before the distribution of the batteries. Section eight of the government document states “the anode shall be made from smooth zinc, free from flaws, blisters, and cracks” (U. S. Department of Commerce 1937, 5). Zinc is the predominant element used in dry cell batteries, as it composes the outer casing of the battery and acts as the negative terminal through oxidation and electron release. While zinc is imperative to the function of the dry cell, the large quantity of zinc creates a problem for battery disposal, due to the potential of zinc leaching into the soil. When zinc leaches into the soil it readily transforms into zinc sulfides, becoming more reactive and impacting surrounding ecosystems and human health (Kwon et. al 2017). The Columbia Dry Cell Batteries’ design featured a zinc anode and cathode made of manganese dioxide with some carbon, connected by an ammonium chloride electrolyte to bridge electron flow. While these materials were vital for battery function, the environmental impact of their use intensified as the production of the Columbia Dry Cell Battery increased due to popularity. The demand for zinc, and thus its mining, surged which is illustrated in soil and surrounding ecosystems. An article from Gutiérrez, Mickus, and Camacho explains that abandoned lead and zinc mining sites release toxic metals into nearby water systems. Furthermore, zinc mining involves lead-zinc deposits which build up and leach into the environment. These metals over time form mobile compounds. Even at low levels, these heavy metals can result in severe health issues such as organ damage and neurological disorders (Gutiérrez, Mickus, & Camacho 2016). Further research by Okereafor et al., describes the implications of toxic metals on agricultural soils and broader ecosystems. For example, poor management and storage of mining tailings in South Africa have contributed heavily to degraded environments around the mine. The tailings leach into aquatic ecosystems, leaving organisms vulnerable to cellular damage and dwindling in population size. Additionally, toxic metals have the potential to biomagnify in food chains, especially in freshwater species like mussels. High concentrations of metal in the soil can also disrupt plant growth and metabolism (Okereafor et al. 2020). While this example is specific to South Africa, it illustrates the broader issue of improper metal waste management globally, which applies equally to America. Together the findings of Gutiérrez et. al and Okereafor et al. illustrate the significant environmental costs stemming from the degradation of toxic materials contained by Columbia Dry Cell Batteries. In the 1890s, there was little awareness of environmental costs surrounding the disposal of Columbia Dry Cell Batteries. Consumers often discarded batteries with other regular household goods. Waste management systems were primitive and underdeveloped, leaving the public unaware of possible environmental impacts resulting from careless disposal of toxic elements. As a result, zinc, manganese, and ammonium chloride were recklessly thrown away, ending up in landfills and impacting the ecosystem in surrounding areas, or so-called sacrifice zones. In The Dry-Cell Battery Problem, Bernadette Nola Kowey describes landfills and incineration as two routes of dry cell battery disposal. Kowey writes, “Batteries which are burned in an incinerator explode, releasing the metals they are made of into the air and the ash of the incinerator” (Kowey 1990, 74). It was not until the early 1980s that disposal practices for batteries were regulated to prevent heavy metal contamination. In 1987, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) created a pamphlet describing the enforced pretreatment regulations for battery manufacturing, which further postulated that “recycle and reuse is performed where possible in this subcategory (Dry Cell Battery) to eliminate the discharge of pollutants” (EPA n.d., 2-20). The EPA has continued to enforce strategies for battery disposal today, expanding guidelines to compensate for heavy metals used in current batteries. The Columbia Dry Cell Battery paved the way for advancements in battery technology which power modern devices today. One significant step was the development of the lead-acid battery, which addressed the power demands of automobiles. These batteries power essential functions in cars like engine starting, lighting, turn signals, and even moving the windshield wipers. Similarly, single-use alkaline batteries, like the popular AA or AAA sizes, emerged in 1937. The alkaline battery replaced the traditional dry cell battery as a more convenient, maintenance-free alternative. Later, lithium-ion batteries were introduced in 1978, replacing mercury-zinc batteries as longer lasting, and higher powered batteries. These new lithium-ion batteries became vital for powering larger electronic devices like laptops, mobile phones, and electric cars (Turner & Sutter 2022). Lithium-ion batteries, which rely on resources often sourced from developing countries, are less toxic than alternatives. These materials, notably cobalt and nickel, are essential for decarbonizing economies by enabling renewable energy storage and reducing fossil fuel dependence (Turner & Sutter 2022). However, along with new and improved batteries, came unique environmental costs associated with their disposal. Extensive research has been conducted to improve battery recycling techniques. Lu and Wang’s study on lithium-ion battery recycling argues that the current recycling process still creates environmental challenges and results in immense energy consumption. The current industrial methods for extracting metals, like cobalt and lithium, rely predominantly on pyrometallurgical techniques, which require a lot of energy and release toxic gases. Another method, hydrometallurgical processing, requires large quantities of leachates, or liquid containing dissolved metals, making recovery harder and exponentially increasing chemical waste. However, Lu and Wang note that promising new recycling techniques are emerging that aim to lower energy usage and reduce dependence on chemical reagents for extraction (Lu & Wang 2024). In an article by Moore et al., they examine the intersection of battery waste and capitalism. They argue that waste management, specifically relating to the disposal of spent batteries, often becomes an afterthought in capitalistic frameworks due to the focus on profits and supply over environmental responsibility (Moore et al. 2018). They point out that, even though batteries are coded for recycling to manage their disposal, the final destination of batteries is often unknown. The coding system is complex and leads to ambiguity, with batteries often ending up in areas poorly equipped for dealing with toxic waste. Moore’s analysis describes a troubling trend where electronic waste, or e-waste, generated in the United States is mismanaged and even frequently exported to other countries. David Naguib Pellow writes, “E-waste follows the path of least resistance and finds its way into poor nations, producing global environmental inequalities” (Pellow 2007, 191). Pellow notes that eighty percent of electronic waste from the United States is sent to Asia. He suggests that industry leaders support this global e-waste chain because it creates work and income for residents of economically marginalized communities (Pellow 2007, 191). In a political economic system that discounts environmental costs in the service of profit generation, there is little motivation for change. This political economic trend is mirrored on the local level. According to the EPA, the Gould Incorporated lead battery recycling plant was located at 555 Farnam Street in Omaha, Nebraska. The plant acted as a secondary smelter to treat lead from used batteries. The EPA states, “The blast furnace used to smelt the lead at the Gould plant emitted lead particles into the air from that refinery” (EPA n.d.). The Gould Incorporated lead battery recycling plant in Omaha, Nebraska, exemplifies how industrial processes tied to battery disposal have contributed to environmental changes associated with the Anthropocene. The localized pollution in Omaha due to burning batteries is part of a larger global trend in which hazardous, toxic materials are released into the environment, compromising soil biodiversity, air quality, and human health (Rajput et al. 2018). Omaha’s industrial history in battery disposal highlights how even local human-made contaminants can reshape ecosystems, ultimately fueling the Anthropocene on a global scale. The Columbia Dry Cell Battery symbolized both the story of Omaha’s industrial past and the environmental impacts of technological advancement, revealing the interconnected nature of the Anthropocene. From bridging communication through telephones to aiding in safe train travel, Columbia Dry Cell Battery unlocked numerous opportunities. However, along with its successors, it also created ecosystem breakdown through their disposal on both a local and global scale. The Columbia Dry Cell Battery serves as a reminder of the strain between human progress and the environment. While steps are being taken to find alternative solutions to battery disposal, further exploration into the environmental costs of convenience and the importance of sustainable practices is essential in understanding the true role of the Columbia Dry Cell Battery in the Anthropocene. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Clocks: Clarke, Brooke. (2007). Fig 6 [Photograph]. Self Winding Clock Co. https://www.prc68.com/I/SWCC.shtml “Columbia Dry Cell Battery - Landmark.” American Chemical Society. Accessed November 6, 2024.https://www.acs.org/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/drycellbattery.html#history-of-batteries. 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HathiTrust. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc2.ark:/13960/t5n874b0m “Guidance Manual for Battery Manufacturing Pretreatment Standards .” United States Environmental Protection Agency, August 1987. https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2016-06/documents/battery-mfg_guidance-manual-pretreatment_1987.pdf. Gutiérrez, M., Mickus, K., & Camacho, L. M. (2016). Abandoned pb zn mining wastes and their mobility as proxy to toxicity: A Review. Science of The Total Environment, 565, 392–400. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.04.143 Kowey, Bernadette Nola. An Example of Planning for Sustainable Production: The Dry-Cell Battery Problem, September 1990. https://open.library.ubc.ca/media/stream/pdf/831/1.0098582/2. Kwon, M. J., Boyanov, M. I., Yang, J.-S., Lee, S., Hwang, Y. H., Lee, J. Y., Mishra, B., & Kemner, K. M. (2017). Transformation of zinc-concentrate in surface and subsurface environments: Implications for assessing zinc mobility/toxicity and choosing an optimal remediation strategy. Environmental Pollution, 226, 346–355. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2017.01.066 Lu, Yan, and Jianbo Wang. 2024. “Life Cycle Assessment for Spent Lithium-Ion Batteries’ Recycling Process: Environmental Impact, Energy Consumption, and Sensitivity Analysis.” ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering 12 (34): 12966–75. https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.4c04541. Moore, Sarah A., Mohammed Rafi Arefin, and Heather Rosenfeld. “Generating Anxiety, Short-Circuiting Desire: Battery Waste and the Capitalist Phantasy.” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 36, no. 6 (May 21, 2018): 1081–1100. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263775818777249. Okereafor, U., Makhatha, M., Mekuto, L., Uche-Okereafor, N., Sebola, T., & Mavumengwana, V. (2020). Toxic metal implications on agricultural soils, plants, animals, aquatic life and human health. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(7), 2204. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17072204 “Omaha Lead Site.” United States Environmental Protection Agency. Accessed November 10, 2024. https://response.epa.gov/site/site_profile.aspx?site_id=NESFN0703481. Pellow, David Naguib. Resisting Global Toxics: Transnational Movements for Environmental Justice. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007. Rajput, V. D., Minkina, T. M., Behal, A., Sushkova, S. N., Mandzhieva, S., Singh, R., Gorovtsov, A., Tsitsuashvili, V. S., Purvis, W. O., Ghazaryan, K. A., & Movsesyan, H. S. (2018). Effects of zinc-oxide nanoparticles on soil, plants, animals and soil organisms: A Review. Environmental Nanotechnology, Monitoring & Management, 9, 76–84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enmm.2017.12.006 The Omaha Daily Bee. (Omaha [Neb.]), 18 June 1911. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn99021999/1911-06-18/ed-1/seq-45/ The Omaha Morning Bee. [volume] (Omaha [Neb.]), 14 Dec. 1924. Chronicling America:Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84024326/1924-12-14/ed-1/seq-43/> Turner, J. M., & Sutter, P. (2022). Charged: A history of batteries and lessons for a clean energy future. University of Washington Press. United States. 1937. American Standard Specification for Dry Cells and Batteries. Circular of the National Bureau of Standards; C414, 11 p. Washington: G.P.O. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007290983. Battery Lithium Waste zinc