1 10 34 https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/556a59cecae3bc315aeeed1ae4b8a11a.png 337659af88a133a88ec474b197d978f9 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 Taming the Landscape Subject The topic of the resource The Early Anthropocene<br /><br /> <img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4740/38752446300_776a102fdd_o.jpg" 100="" width="100% height=" /> <span style="font-size: 3;"> </span> Description An account of the resource When did people begin to take control of the global environment? Humans have shaped their local environments for hundreds of thousands of years. As populations increased, their impacts expanded. Two changes greatly accelerated human influence on a global scale: the movement of hunting societies and the development of agriculture. By the end of the last ice age, humans had migrated across much of Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Whenever humans appeared, a wave of extinctions followed. In the Americas, large animals such as the Mastodon and Giant Beaver went extinct shortly after the arrival of people. Although scientists debate the origin of these mass extinctions (changing climate likely played a role), hunting was a significant factor. The development of agriculture played an even more important role in global environmental change. People began domesticating plants and animals around the world roughly 12,000 years ago. The stone (“lithic”) tools in our exhibit speak to this dramatic change. Agriculture often required clearing forested lands, irrigating, or fertilizing landscapes to make them suitable for crops. These changes were the foundation for settlement and later the rise of complex civilizations all over the world. Agriculture and hunting continue to reshape environments on a global scale today. The bison in this exhibit represents the consequences of modern overhunting and the single-wheel hoe represents our continued reliance on agriculture. These objects remind us that “taming the landscape” revolutionized societies, but they also produced global environmental consequences. They connect us to a deep past and symbolize a transformation that continues to shape the modern world. Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. 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 Cyclone Seeder Bag Subject The topic of the resource Farming in the nineteenth century was hard work. Agriculture was labor intensive, and farmers often planted seeds by hand. The Cyclone Seeder Bag made seeding easier. The farmer held the device and turned a crank to spread the seeds. This tool was useful in many environments, including in Nebraska. The seeder bag saved farmers time and labor and paved the way for future inventions. In the twentieth century, machine power largely replaced human labor. Mechanization increased crop yields and farm sizes, and it made agriculture a global industry. Overproduction resulted in the exportation of excess crops into the world market. The consequences of these changes varied but included land clearance and loss of plant and animal species. Mechanization improved farmers’ lives but had lasting effects on the environment. Description An account of the resource The late-nineteenth century was a moment of profound transition in the history of Nebraska. This period encompassed the largest migration of people in United States history and included the movement of millions of farmers to the Great Plains (Billington and Ridge, 2001). Over one million people migrated to Nebraska between 1850 and 1890, drawn by the promise of agricultural fertility (Hervey, 1903). About 600,000 people settled in the state in the 1880s alone. As a result of this large migration, 430,000,000 acres were settled, and 225,000,000 acres were cultivated between 1870 and 1900 with those settling in humid eastern Nebraska focusing on arable agriculture (Billington and Ridge, 2001; Hervey, 1903). Nebraska settlers viewed the region as a land of possibility with the potential to double its crop yield under proper cultivation (Hervey, 1903). However, farmers during the nineteenth century were limited by inefficient seeding practices. The existing methods of seeding had been employed since ancient times and consisted of a farmer seeding by hand, dropping seeds from a cloth sack into prepared rows (Conkin, 2008; Lazor, 2013). The invention of the Cyclone Seeder Bag and other mechanical broadcasters reduced the labor necessary for seeding. Though it may seem small, the Cyclone Seeder was part of a much larger mechanization of agriculture during the turn of the twentieth century that had profound social and environmental consequences. The Cyclone Seeder Bag is important in the environmental history of Nebraska because it symbolizes the labor-saving costs of mechanization that led to the globalization of agriculture and regional changes to land clearance trends characteristic of the Anthropocene. Samuel S. Speicher invented the Cyclone Seeder Bag in 1870. Speicher was an Indiana farmer driven by his commitment to optimize agricultural efficiency. Speicher had already devised a hand-full of labor-saving devices similar to the seeder bag intended for his own agricultural use. Realizing the demand of a tool capable of expediting the sowing process, Speicher created a manual seeder device efficient in the consistent disbursement of seeds across a broad region of land. From a little shop on his farm, Speicher manufactured roughly 150 seeder bags per year. Demand was robust, and by 1880, Speicher moved his business to Northern Manchester, Indiana, where he produced 2,000 to 5,000 seeder bags annually. By 1890, he was manufacturing 30,000 to 40,000 seeders per year at his new facility in Urbana, Indiana. Although largely forgotten today, Speicher’s Cyclone Seeder Bag was a common item on American and international farms by the nineteenth century, and one example has found its way to the Durham Museum collection (Weesner, 1914). The object in the Durham Museum collection is representative of the tool. Typically made from heavy duty canvas, the seeder bag portion plays a critical role in the hand powered device. Adjustable straps attached to the seeder bag affix the machine to the user’s shoulder, allowing for a hands-free approach in hauling the seeder bag during the seed dispersal procedure (Lazor, 2013). The seeder bag operates as the seed chamber, which feeds a metering aperture that deposits the seeds into a rotating metal ribbed disk. From there, the seeds are dispersed in a wide fan-shaped arrangement by the operator’s hand, which cranks the metal disk. Figure 1 depicts an image of the Cyclone Seeder Bag from the Durham Museum in Omaha, Nebraska. The Cyclone Seeder Bag’s configuration and light form allows the operator to maneuver with ease while simultaneously regulating the dispersal of seeds (Larson, 1980). The Cyclone Seeder Bag had various advantages, specifically in small-scale agriculture and land restoration. During the 20th century, the seeder bag evolved into a critical device in the dispersal of seeds among areas in which use of heavy equipment was limited. Additionally, the device was particularly helpful in sowing on uneven landscapes or inclined surfaces, both demanding greater regulation and systematic approach than sowing by hand. Farmers and foresters particularly found this device useful for the equal covering of areas unreachable for heavier equipment, such as tractors (Hardware, 1906). Although the Cyclone Seeder Bag was effective for uneven landscapes, inclined surfaces, and smaller plots, it was not very efficient in sowing large-scale fields. Compared to mechanized seed spreaders mounted on vehicles, the hand-cranked seeder bag approach was more labor-intensive. Likewise, the seeder used a greater number of seeds, which resulted in overapplication of seeds. Despite these disadvantages, the Cyclone Seeder Bag remained an effective tool for seeding needs for when alternative practices proved impractical (Larson, 1980). Although the Cyclone Seeder Bag saved labor relative to hand sowing, it was merely one step in the process of agricultural mechanization. Omaha evolved into an agricultural hotspot for its’ large-scale corn production as it is located in the region referred to as the ‘Corn Belt.’ The extension of farms and mechanization in the Midwest gave farmers the opportunity to maximize crop productivity, allowing Nebraska to become a dominant agricultural region (Edwards, 2004). Devices such as the Cyclone Seeder Bag promoted this growth, further making it more effective in seed dispersal of regions in which other machines were not as efficient. The evolution of agricultural practices in Nebraska developed into a central part of Omaha’s economy, strengthening its regional impact and adjusting to contemporary agricultural equipment and environmental obstacles (Sanford, 2007). As agriculture expansion moved to the West, the open nature of Nebraska’s area permitted the integration of innovative technology. Mechanized devices like the Cyclone Seeder Bag substantially enhanced productivity, allowing agriculture to excel across both the region and the economy. The Cyclone Seeder Bag was one of the first in a long line of innovations that reduced the labor agriculture required of farmers. Mechanical broadcasters like the seeder bag led to innovations such as battery powered rotary spreaders that could be attached to a wagon or trunk and later drills/planters that deposited the seeds directly into a hole made in the ground (Conkin, 2008; Lazor, 2013). The mechanization of agriculture reduced the labor force necessary for seeding and other processes. Energy historian Vaclav Smil has argued that “massive reduction of labor force has been the most consequential economic impact of agricultural mechanization” (Smil, 2021). The replacement of human power with mechanical power saved farmers millions of hours of farm work to produce the same yield of crop (Perelman, 1973). While Speicher’s innovations may seem simple, his motivation to create a labor-saving device paved the way for innovations that have changed agriculture across the world. The labor-saving effects of agricultural mechanization allowed farmers to increase the size of their farms and still input the same amount of labor. Mechanization not only allowed the average American farm to triple in size but also encouraged the restructuring of farm enterprises (Gardner, 2002; Smil, 2021). Figure 2 shows the percent change in the average size of farms in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa, including Douglas County and Omaha, during the 20th century (Retallick and Gildersleeve, 1967). As farmers continued to increase the size of their farms, more land was cleared for agricultural use. Mechanization has changed the shape of the agricultural landscape and the transformation of natural ecosystems is an indicator of humans’ impact on the environment (Handbook on the Human Impact, 2021; Smil, 2015). The most common and extensive form of anthropogenic land clearance was the conversion of forests, grasslands, and wetlands into crop fields, which peaked in the early twentieth century. The transformation of several hundred acres of grassland was able to be cleared per family across the Great Plains (Cunfer, 2005; Smil, 2015). While the conversion of land began with the advent of agriculture, land clearance increased exponentially in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Figure 3 shows the total amount of land used for cropland in North America from 1600 to 2023 (Ritchie and Roser, 2024). Conversion of grassland to cropland not only reduced the diversity of grass and plant species in the area but also decreased the vegetation needed by animals for habitats and consumption. Large-scale farming systems also led to a decrease in the genetic diversity of the crops planted which is necessary for plant breeding to prevent pests and disease and to adapt to future farming practices and climate change (Committee on Twenty-First Century Systems Agriculture, 2010). The mechanization of agriculture has changed humans’ relationship with the land leading to a farming system that prioritizes high yields over sustainable land use practices. As the size of farms and crop yields increased, American agriculture shifted from more subsistence and small-scale farming to large-scale farming systems rooted in capitalism. Historian Donald Worster argues that nature can be considered capital and that farmers’ use of it for personal advancement and wealth should not just be allowed but encouraged (Worster, 1979). Mechanized agriculture can be explored as a series of inputs and outputs in which the inputs are land, labor, and capital and the outputs are harvested crops and livestock products (Gardner, 2002). Changes in agricultural technology through mechanisms such as reduction of labor have resulted in a decrease of these inputs and/or an increase in outputs. The large-scale agriculture that was made possible by mechanization increased productivity with fewer labor costs. It was thus a “capital-saving innovation” that provided significant economic incentives (Gardner, 2002). Agricultural innovations did not emerge out of scientific and technological progress but out of a need to increase productivity as farms became immersed in the global market. Historian Joshua Brinkman has described this change as the shift to a “rural capitalistic modernity” defined by farmers acting as independent capitalists through the use of technology at a time where mechanization was a symbol of the industrialist American culture (Brinkman, 2024). Mechanization of agriculture was not just a method in which farmers could save labor but became a tool for increasing productivity and profit. As farmers immersed themselves in the world of capitalism and as agricultural productivity increased, there were more crops available for exchange in the global market. Decreases in the amount of labor agriculture required and increases in farm sizes led to an overproduction of crops in the United States. As domestic products became abundant, the preferred method was the export of farm products into the world market (Paarlberg and Paarlberg, 2001). By the late 20th century, the United States used more than 20% of its cropland acreage for exports (Perelman, 1973). Increased crop yields and globalization of agriculture have had significant positive social implications. Higher productivity due to mechanization resulted in the production of more food and lower food prices (Handbook on the Human Impact, 2021). While increased food production, cheaper prices, and exporting of food has helped to feed the planet, it has also left a substantial impact on the environment, both in terms of land clearance and energy usage. Agriculture is thought of as being an energy producing industry, harvesting solar energy from plants, but due to mechanization, it used more petroleum than any other industry by the late 20th century (Perelman, 1973). Many scholars argue that the Anthropocene began during the postwar Great Acceleration as it is marked by dramatic increases in not only population and urbanization but also human impacts on the environment. The mechanization of agriculture parallels the themes of the Great Acceleration as it has led to increases in technological innovations, size of farms, land clearance, crop yields, farm product exports, and energy utilization. Mechanization has transformed agriculture from a local or regional enterprise into a global industry. Increased use of machinery in agriculture and increased productivity resulted in the collectivization and specialization of agriculture and reduced labor needs resulted in urbanization (McNeill, 2021). The mechanization of agriculture is connected to the Anthropocene through its environmental impact and increase in land clearance, but also through the global consequences of agriculture’s emergence into the global, capitalist market. The Cyclone Seeder Bag may come across as a minor chapter in agricultural history, but it marks a defining moment in the transition to mechanized labor. Carried by nineteenth century farmers, the canvas bag represents a broader transformation in agriculture; a shift towards mechanization that redefined human interaction with the environment. The consequences of industrial agriculture, such as climate change, loss of biodiversity, and land degradation, serve as a reminder of the balance between progress and sustainability. This device played a critical role in shaping Omaha’s agricultural landscape, marking a pivotal period in the Anthropocene when mechanization began to transform the environment. As mechanization advanced, it increased productivity while underscoring the growing human impact on the land, connecting Omaha’s agricultural growth to global shifts in land use and environmental change. The Cyclone Seeder Bag represents more than just a tool; it exemplifies how small innovations ripple through history, influencing the environment, economies, and societies. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource McKenna Blaine, Hannah Ladwig Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Billington, Ray Allen, and Martin Ridge. Westward Expansion: A History of the American Frontier. 6th ed., University of New Mexico Press, 2001. Google Books, https://www.google.com/books/edition/Westward_Expansion/YoV-k7VcyZ0C?hl=en&gbpv=0. Brinkman, Joshua T. American Farming Culture and the History of Technology. Taylor & Francis, 2024. Google Books, www.google.com/books/edition/American_Farming_Culture_and_the_History/0yH7EAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0. Committee on Twenty-First Century Systems Agriculture. Toward Sustainable Agricultural Systems in the 21st Century. National Academies Press, 2010. Google Books, www.google.com/books/edition/Toward_Sustainable_Agricultural_Systems/DjRkAgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=-HISTORIES%2BOF%2BAGRICULTURE%2BIN%2BTHe%2B Conkin, Paul K. A Revolution Down on the Farm: The Transformation of American Agriculture Since 1929. University Press of Kentucky, 2008. Google Books, www.google.com/books/edition/A_Revolution_Down_on_the_Farm/J1xyUPpkloMC?hl=en&gbpv=0&kptab=overview. Cunfer, Geoff. On the Great Plains: Agriculture and Environment. Texas A&M University Press, 2005. Google Books, https://www.google.com/books/edition/On_The_Great_Plains/__01fkRdOcEC?hl=en&gbpv=0. Edwards, Lewis Clifford. History of Richardson County, Nebraska. Unigraphic, 2004. Google Books, www.google.com/books/edition/History_of_Richardson_County_Nebraska/yJ4yAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=manufacturing%2Bin%2Bnebraska%2B1900s&printsec=frontcover. Gardner, Bruce L. American Agriculture in the Twentieth Century: How It Flourished and What It Cost. Harvard University Press, 2002. Google Books, www.google.com/books/edition/American_Agriculture_in_the_Twentieth_Ce/9UgvEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0. Handbook on the Human Impact of Agriculture. Edited by Harvey S. James, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2021. Google Books, www.google.com/books/edition/Handbook_on_the_Human_Impact_of_Agricult/b2IzEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=environmental%2Beffects%2Bof%2Bagricultural%2Bmechanization%2Bin%2BUS&printsec=frontcover. Hardware: Devoted to the American Hardware Trade. Vol. 33, The New York Public Library, 1906. Google Books, www.google.com/books/edition/Hardware/hZk7AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&kptab=overview. Hervey, George Washington, ed., A Condensed History of Nebraska for Fifty Years to Date: Profusely and Appropriately Illustrated.Omaha: Nebraska Farmer Company, 1903. Google Books, www.google.com/books/edition/A_Condensed_History_of_Nebraska_for_Fift/ZBo1AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=agriculture%2Bin%2Bomaha%2Bnebraska%2B1800s&printsec=frontcover. Larson, John E., and Richard Hallman. Equipment for Reforestation and Timber Stand Improvement. Forest Service, Equipment Development Center: Fort Missoula, 1980. Google Books, www.google.com/books/edition/Equipment_for_Reforestation_and_Timber_S/0gUnumr86PgC?hl=en&gbpv=1. Lazor, Jack. Organic Grain Grower: Small-Scale, Holistic Grain Production for the Home and Market Producer. Chelsea Green Publishing, 2013. Google Books, www.google.com/books/edition/The_Organic_Grain_Grower/6vyGAgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1. McNeill, J. R. Something New Under the Sun. W.W. Norton & Company, Incorporated, 2001. Google Books, https://www.google.com/books/edition/Something_New_Under_the_Sun/h_NT3RlHH2oC?hl=en&gbpv=0. Paarlberg, Don, and Philip Paarlberg. The Agricultural Revolution of the 20th Century. Iowa State University Press, 2001. Perelman, Michael. “Mechanization and the Division of Labor in Agriculture.” American Journal of Agricultural Economics, vol. 55, no. 3, 1973, pp. 523–26. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1239138. Retallick, Harold J., and Charles R. Gildersleeve. “Geographic Background Report No. 01: Omaha’s Agricultural Core Region.” Publications Archives, University of Nebraska at Omaha, 506, 1967. digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/cparpubarchives/506. Ritchie, Hannah, and Max Roser. “Land Use.” Our World in Data, 16 Feb. 2024, ourworldindata.org/land-use. Sanford, Albert Hart. The Story of Agriculture in the United States. D.C. Heath, 2007. Google Books, www.google.com/books/edition/The_Story_of_Agriculture_in_the_United_S/-PoNAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0. Smil, Vaclav. Grand Transitions: How the Modern World Was Made. Oxford University Press, 2021. Google Books, https://www.google.com/books/edition/Grand_Transitions/rrscEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1. Smil, Vaclav. Harvesting the Biosphere: What We Have Taken from Nature. The MIT Press, 2015. Google Books, https://www.google.com/books/edition/Harvesting_the_Biosphere/DFT5DwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0. Weesner, Clarkson W. “DANIEL E. SPEICHER.” History of Wabash County Indiana, vol. 2, 1914, pp. 939–940, www.nmanchesterhistory.org/biographies-daniel-speicher.html. Worster, Donald. Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s. Oxford University Press, 1979. Google Books, https://www.google.com/books/edition/Dust_Bowl/8fM-ZWXPe_QC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=worster+dust+bowl&printsec=frontcover. https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/9658c5eb5acf40ebe1a5bcf81be47700.jpg f8539e9057aec9a70e27525d0fa5df34 https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/3dad6a41c786c02e008adafb0385ea73.png 739c3dac52638094b9da03fe75a2c48b 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 Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Packaging, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution 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 Living in a World of Our Own Making Subject The topic of the resource <a href="http://www.igbp.net/images/18.950c2fa1495db7081ebd1/1421396650502/GreatAcceleration2015igbpsrclowres.jpg" title="IGBP - The Great Acceleration Dashboard" target="_blank">The Great Acceleration</a> <img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4721/40562555551_972c132773_o.jpg" 100="" width="100% height=" /> <span style="font-size: 3;"> </span> Description An account of the resource The Anthropocene means “The Age of Humans,” but what does it mean to live in a world of our own making? Humanity has flourished in past two centuries. Two thirds of every person ever born lived between 1945 and today. Scientists call this era of expanding population, economic development, and environmental impact the “Great Acceleration.” People are now more numerous and powerful than ever before. Mining moves more rocks and soils than all of the worlds rivers combined. Artificial fertilizers have doubled the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus in our soils. Plastics can now be found on mountain tops and the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Paradoxically, many of the most profound changes to global environments pass virtually unnoticed. Nuclear fallout, for instance, is invisible to the naked eye, but radioactive evidence of cold war weapons tests remains in soils around the world. Until recently, lead was one of the most common materials in industrial use. It was used to seal our foods, paint our homes, and power our cars. Lead is toxic, especially for children. Although invisible, lead is now in our soils, in our cities, and even in our blood. By contrast, concrete is virtually everywhere, yet we rarely think about it. We drive on it, work in it, and the foundations of this very museum are built using it. More than half of the concrete ever produced was manufactured between 1995-2015. Concrete requires enormous energy to mine, transport, and produce. These consequences are as invisible to us as the material is abundant. As you finish your journey through the exhibit, consider how many other “invisible” materials influence our lives and connect us to the global environment. 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 Wooden Egg Crate Subject The topic of the resource This 1950 wooden egg crate reflects Omaha's local food system. It marks the end of pre-industrial poultry farming. Early settlers brought chickens to America. They were not a widespread food until the mid-1800s. Then chickens became more popular, and this increased the demand for eggs. After World War II, the need for cheap protein grew. Programs like the "Chicken of Tomorrow" Contest aimed to breed larger chickens in less time. Farmers also bred hens to increase egg production. New antibiotics and farming methods helped the U.S. lead a global rise in chicken production. Local farms fell behind the large companies. The use of chicken litter pollutes nearby ecosystems. Layer chicken litter is a mixture of waste, bedding, and leftover feed used for farming. This history shows the effects of industrial farming on labor and the environment. The human impact on chickens reveals how these systems are shaping the Anthropocene. Description An account of the resource The transition from small, local poultry farms to large, industrial operations represents a significant turning point in the environmental history of Omaha, the U.S., and the world. This transformation, driven by capitalism and the demand for cheap, mass-produced protein, led to chickens becoming the world’s most produced and consumed protein source. However, this industrialization came at a significant environmental cost, contributing to resource depletion, ecological imbalances, and widespread degradation. In this context, the wooden egg crate found in Omaha is a powerful symbol of the Anthropocene, reflecting the human-driven industrialization of chicken farming and its lasting impact on the environment and the biosphere. Chickens were introduced to the Americas by European settlers around the time of the establishment of Jamestown (Gordon, 1997). Their progenitor, the red junglefowl (Gallus gallus), was thinner than modern chickens and often nested in trees (Alder, 2012). These birds were practical companions on transatlantic voyages due to their resilience and ability to provide both meat and eggs. Despite their utility, poultry remained a peripheral part of the American diet through the early 20th century. For centuries, chickens roamed barnyards, foraging and mating naturally. They were a minor agricultural concern (Alder, 2012). The mid-19th century marked a turning point in poultry farming. The "hen fever" craze, which spread across Europe and America from 1845 to 1855, popularized ornamental poultry breeds. During this period, the U.S. imported a diverse range of chickens from around the world, and breeding and crossbreeding gained significant attention (Burnam, 1855). Technological innovations, such as the invention of incubators in the 1870s, transformed the breeding process. In the 1870s, the value of ornamental plumage declined, and plumbers were employed to focus on egg production (Bugos, 1992). Ultimately, while the chicken initially gained attention for its vibrant feathers, it was the egg that propelled the chicken in industrial farming. Like many parts of America, East Omaha was home to small, family-run farms that supplied the city with fresh produce, meats, and poultry in the 19th century (Fletcher, 2017). Poultry practices were casual and often managed by farmers' wives as chickens were largely self-sufficient. Families collected eggs year-round and consumed chickens seasonally, and surplus eggs were sold in local markets. Accordingly, in 1894, the Cummer Manufacturing Company patented the “Humpty Dumpty Egg Crate,” a wooden crate designed to carry up to 12 dozen eggs (Warshaw Collection, 2024) (Figure 2). Manufactured in Michigan, this particular crate, found in The Durham Museum Permanent Collection, is marked with the date December 1950. During the late 19th century and early 20th century, this egg crate would have been valuable to farmers traveling to local markets to sell their surplus eggs (Figure 1). The egg crate thus serves as a symbol of the pre-industrial poultry farming era, when small-scale, family-run farms were the primary source of food production. Egg production expanded and industrialized throughout the early 20th century, with chickens increasingly viewed as "mechanical oviducts," tools for efficient egg production rather than natural organisms. The introduction of electric lighting and artificial incubators further boosted production, allowing for extended laying seasons and year-round egg production. Competitions like the 1926 International Baby Chick Association (IBCA) contest in Georgia, which offered around $21,000 in awards, highlighted the industry's competitive drive. These competitions contributed to the growing trend of industrialized farming, encouraging breeders to push for greater egg yields at the expense of the hens' health. Methods to increase egg production negatively affected the genetic fitness of hens, leading to physical deterioration, including bone fragility, as many were unable to sustain their egg output through feed intake alone (Bryerly, 1976). The industrialization of egg production set the stage for the development of the broiler industry in the following decades, marking a significant shift from egg production to meat production. After World War II in America, red meats such as pork, beef, veal, and lamb were tightly rationed. This led to an increased interest in the development of poultry production. The "Chicken of Tomorrow" initiative in the 1940s and 1950s encouraged collaboration between government agencies, scientists, colleges, researchers, and volunteers across the country (Shrader 1952). These programs sought to create chickens that grew faster, had larger meat portions, and exhibited consistent quality. As a product of this program, the Vantress chicken became the industry standard by the 1950s (Breakthrough, 2022). Further selective breeding, coupled with the use of antibiotics and a modified diet, fundamentally altered the modern broiler’s skeletal morphology, pathology, bone geochemistry, and genetics (Bennett, 2017; Miller, 2022). As a result, while the average grocery store chicken in the 1920s weighed about 2.5 lbs, it now averages around 5.5 lbs and reaches that size in just seven weeks (Silberman, 1988). The industrialization of poultry production was marked by increased efficiency and large-scale production, driven by the vertical integration of major corporations. These companies quickly consolidated hatcheries, feed production, and slaughtering facilities, creating a streamlined, cost-effective model for mass distribution of chicken at lower prices (Macdonald 2009). Technological innovations such as vaccines, antibiotics, and mechanized slaughter processes played a significant role in this transformation, allowing for faster and more efficient production. The Packers and Stockyards Administration reported that the labor required to produce 1,000 broilers declined from 250 hours in 1940 to just 26 hours by 1965 (Lord 1971). The emergence of the "Broiler Belt" in the southeastern U.S. concentrated poultry production in specific regions also contributed to an increase in chicken production. The rise of poultry in America was largely driven by meat affordability and a significant increase in per capita chicken consumption in the U.S. Between 1939 and 1949, the U.S. population increased by 46%, while chicken sales rose by more than 600% (Lord, 1971). The rise of takeout and carryout chicken outlets in the 1950s and 1960s further fueled this trend. As a result, U.S. chicken consumption more than doubled from 1950 to 1980, and by the late 1990s, chicken had surpassed beef as the most consumed meat in the country (Ritchie, 2023) (Blazejczyk & Kantor, 2024). The success of the American poultry industry extended globally, with the United States surpassing European poultry industries (Godley, 2014). Driven by growing urban markets and improved access to inputs, many countries transitioned to large-scale, vertically integrated broiler operations from the mid-20th century. Today, the U.S. remains a leader in poultry production, with China and Brazil following closely behind. Together, these three countries account for approximately 46% of global poultry production and over 40% of global chicken consumption (Belova, 2012). The rise of mass production and agribusiness also boosted the production of other protein sources. From 1980 to 2006, total meat exports more than tripled (Park, Miyun, and Peter Singer, 2012). Today, chickens are the most abundant terrestrial vertebrate species, with a global population exceeding 20 billion. The widespread presence and altered morphology of modern chicken bones, shaped by decades of selective breeding, demonstrate the profound influence of human activity on the biosphere. Most of these chicken bones trace back to just four species, with commercial broilers descending from three lines of chickens and egg-laying poultry derived from a single specialized line (Muir, 2008). The genetic composition of the modern chicken has also been dramatically altered. Mutations linked to industrial farming, such as changes in the TBC1D1 gene, which accelerates growth rates, and in the TSHR gene, which enables year-round egg production, are clear examples of this shift (Rubin, 2010). Furthermore, comparisons between commercial breeds and native or non-commercial chickens show that, in some cases, up to 90% of genetic alleles have been lost. There are environmental degradation concerns that come from poultry farming, such as the effects that the layer’s chicken litter has on the environment. Chicken litter is considered to be “a compost of manure, feathers, and bedding,” (Gerlock, 2016). Agricultural farmers tend to use chicken litter to help their crops grow instead of expensive synthetic fertilizers as it adds organic nutrients. Many countries around the world use chicken litter due to how cheap it is, which allows for farmers to afford the large quantities that companies sell (Chicken Litter, n.d.). There are harmful chemicals that are found in the litter, as it is “rich in nitrogen and phosphorus but also contains other substances such as hormones, antibiotics, pesticides, pathogens, and heavy metals” (Zeynal et al., 2021). The issue doesn’t surround the fertilizer on crops but the runoff of chemicals that leads into the waterways (Gerlock 2016). Unclean water is not only dangerous to the environment, but severely unhealthy for humans due to the high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus. Unknown to most people, high nitrogen levels can have fatal reactions to living creatures. For example, these high levels can cause fatal conditions where people struggle to have enough oxygen in their blood flow (Gerlock, 2016). The quality of our waterways is essential for the functions of society and the environment. The continuation of using chicken litter from poultry farming can lead to further contamination of water for animals, humans, and crops. Water systems are able to filter out most contaminants through natural cycles, but groundwater poses a deeper issue. Companies that are incharge of water safety use sand and grit to filter our water, but when the concentration is potent, it runs into a problem. There is a natural saturation point that can be filtered out through our water system, but when the levels of nitrogen and phosphorus go over that natural level, it can end up in the drinking water supply, (Gerlock, 2016). Chicken litter has been correlated to the high levels of contaminants in water and soil, which lead to the understanding that industrial poultry farming can affect the environment. Without severe regulations on industrial farming, environmental degradation continues and ecological changes become more potent due to our choice of using chicken litter. Around the world, the depletion of local poultry farms grew over time. After World War II, the demand for chicken had increased significantly, but the number of farms had significantly decreased (Freshour, 2018). This demand led farmers to attempt to upgrade their farms, but with the rise of technology it ultimately caused farmers to go into debt. This change from local farms grew into a bulk movement for egg production (Kidd, 2021). There were specific types of eggs that sold best, such as the white shell eggs. The USDA shares that a dozen of large white shelled eggs on average are about $4.00 for retail supermarkets (Weekly Combined Region Shell Eggs, 2024). On the other hand, local egg producers are selling their farm fresh eggs at around $6.00 a dozen (Local Eggs, n.d.). This price discrepancy plays an important role in the consumers, as most people find it more convenient and cost effective to buy their eggs at a grocery store. The competition between the local markets and large companies is unfortunately impossible to achieve an even balance, due to the decreasing local poultry farms. These interrelated social and ecological costs are also taking place in Nebraska. In 2016, a chicken slaughterhouse for Costco in Fremont presented economic concerns for local farmers. This $300 million slaughterhouse took space from local farmers as well as potential businesses. Gerlock explains that the Costco plant would “surely be a boon to many farmers looking for new revenue sources in a down economy,” (2016). With the widespread production of poultry, farmers were driven out of business because people could get it from industries for cheaper. Large companies had the ability to boost their surplus efficiently and effectively, which decreased the need for smaller farmers (Fletcher, 2017). When it came to Nebraska, people worried about the contracts that companies sign because of the possibility of taking business from local sellers. The Nebraska Communities United group worried about unfair contracts that may come from specifically the Costco plant, which can lead to the failing business of local farmers (Gerlock, 2016). These contracts against the Nebraska Communities United as they were fighting for an environmental study and expressed their worries about the labor market (Knapp, 2016). Costco was showing how job opportunities would rise for the small community, but the group brought concern about an increase of population, as there wasn’t sufficient housing, schools, or other community resources (Knapp, 2016). Industrial companies posed issues by taking profits from local businesses, as well as driving resources out for the local inhabitants. Local farmers in Nebraska have tried to resist these changes through environmental studies and they have also promoted alternatives to this factory farming model. When it comes to soil, sustainable farmers talk about using and managing soil through “regenerative agricultural practices that can help protect crops” from climate change (“Background,” n.d.). These practices would be able to reduce the pathogens in soil and waterways, thus allowing other organic matter to be used instead of chicken litter. Local farmers have “implemented conservation techniques to save water and build soil organic matter,” to use as crop nutrients (“Background,” n.d.). There have been many threats to sustainable farmers, such as the environmental changes caused by industries. For example, carbon emissions that relate to climate change raised concerns for sustainable farmers, such as they began “to understand the threat of rising emissions to the planet to be serious… farmers and ranchers become leaders in efforts to drawdown rapidly rising emissions,” (“Background,” n.d.). Industrial competition led family farmers to be driven out of their farms, due to the lack of money and water sources nearby. Factories would take resources from local farmers to route them to the industrial companies, such as waterways and roadways (Fletcher, 2017). Since most local farmers lived a humble lifestyle, they had little money to push back against these corporations, leading them to be left with no other choice but to retire. The demand for poultry has allowed companies to take advantage of ecological resources that were essential for local farmers. These local farmers are unable to keep up with the prices, demands, and production time of industrial farming. Not only are they worried about the social aspects, but the environmental issues that are brought by the chicken litter. In Nebraska, poultry plants often have excess chicken litter that is used for agricultural processes. Nearby the Costco plant, an investigation was done to determine the health of nearby waterways. During a three-year investigation, upstream and downstream of litter deposits, there was an increase of select pathogens that violate the accepted limits provided by the Environmental Protection Agency (Hammel, 2022). This finding showed that chicken litter is correlated to pathogens found in our waterways that are used for crops and supposedly clean drinking water. The data from the three-year investigation led to a further look into the water quality which has shown that the data collected proves that the stream health is compromised (Hammel, 2022).The administration of the poultry firm admits that “contaminant fluctuations cannot be meaningfully estimated,” (Hammel, 2022). The poultry firms know that the contaminants can't be regulated, which is dangerous to the health and safety of our water and soil. Poultry farming, though a pivotal moment for economics and capitalism, brought proof of environmental degradation and ecological effects. The wooden egg crate is a marker of the Anthropocene, showing the rapid change from backyard chickens to slaughterhouses. As demand for poultry rose, local farmers were unable to keep up with the industrialization of chickens. These chickens were often cheaper, but also filled with antibiotics and other drugs to make them bigger. This sparked conflict in surrounding communities, as these chemicals had a high chance of affecting humans through the waterways and soil. In Omaha, poultry was a commodity that caused environmental changes, as well as ruining small businesses. The industrialization of chicken farms lead to resource depletion, ecological imbalances, and widespread degradation. These effects are still seen today and can be captured in the comprehensive background of the wooden egg crate. This marker of the Anthropocene is understood through Omaha’s history which has expanded to be a worldwide environmental issue. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Madeline Bushong, Sarah Fujiwara Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Adler, Jerry, and Andrew Lawler. 2012. “HOW THE CHICKEN CONQUERED THE WORLD: EBSCOhost.” June 2012. https://web.p.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=9d6f5d28-3c46-4fd8-ad0d-e9d2415ad66b%40redis&bdata=JkF1dGhUeXBlPXNoaWImc2l0ZT1laG9zdC1saXZl#db=ahl&AN=76154201. “Background - GC Resolve, LLC.” n.d. Accessed October 7, 2024. https://www.gcresolve.com/background. Belova, A. v., L. Smutka, and E. Rosochatecká. 2012. “World Chicken Meat Market - Its Development and Current Status.” Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis 60 (4): 15–30. https://doi.org/10.11118/ACTAUN201260040015. Bennett, Carys, Jan Zalasiewicz, Mark Williams, and Richard Thomas. “How Chickens Became the Ultimate Symbol of the Anthropocene.” The Conversation, August 24, 2023. https://theconversation.com/how-chickens-became-the-ultimate-symbol-of-the-anthropocene Blazejczyk, Andrzej, and Linda Kantor. 2024. “USDA ERS - Food Availability and Consumption.” September 9, 2024. https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/ag-and-food-statistics-charting-the-essentials/food-availability-and-consumption. Breakthrough Institute. “ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS OF US AGRICULTURAL R&D.” GROWING GREEN: THE ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS OF PUBLIC AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT. The Breakthrough Institute, 2022. http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep49577.5,. Byerly, T. C. “Changes in Animal Science.” Agricultural History 50, no. 1 (1976): 258–74. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3741922. Bugos, Glenn E. “Intellectual Property Protection in the American Chicken-Breeding Industry.” The Business History Review 66, no. 1 (1992): 127–68. https://doi.org/10.2307/3117055. Burnam, Geo.P. 1855. “The History of the Hen Fever : A Humorous Record : Burnham, Geo. P. (George Pickering), 1814-1902 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive.” 1855. https://archive.org/details/cu31924002972424/page/n45/mode/2up. Cernea, I., I. Sutura, M. Rusu, and C. Man. “Epidemiological Investigation of Colibacillosis in Chicken Farms and Identification of Pathogenic Serotypes.” EurekaMag, 1968. https://eurekamag.com/research/014/460/014460777.php?srsltid=AfmBOorrB0lHIQp58tHjqtepuJ2ErfPIQeeDhsos6xTxQbtnKo9rWhPs. Chicken Litter Fertilizer Market – global industry trends and forecast to 2028. Data Bridge Market Research. (n.d.). https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-chicken-litter-fertilizer-market?srsltid=AfmBOorvX7dgYRtVzBAwGfV5hFOm-WzmH46jTtArHIu8pgiUrP7agMCe Derry, Margaret E. 2015. “Chicken Breeding: The Complex Transition from Traditional to Genetic Methods in the USA.” Archimedes 40: 371–93. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12185-7_18. Fletcher, Adam. 2017. “A History of Truck Farms in East Omaha – NorthOmahaHistory.Com.” April 24, 2017. https://northomahahistory.com/2017/04/27/a-history-of-truck-farms-in-east-omaha/comment-page-1/. Freshour, C. (2018). Squeezing farmers in the poultry capital of the world [Book review]. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 8(1), 187–189. https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2018.081.008 Gerlock, Grant. “Growing Nebraska Poultry Industry Spurs Environmental Concerns.” KCUR, December 19, 2016. https://www.kcur.org/agriculture/2016-12-19/growing-nebraska-poultry-industry-spurs-environmental-concerns. Godley, Andrew. “The Emergence of Agribusiness in Europe and the Development of the Western European Broiler Chicken Industry, 1945 to 1973.” The Agricultural History Review 62, no. 2 (2014): 315–36. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43697983. Gordon, John Steele. 1997. “The Chicken Story: EBSCOhost.” 1997. https://web.p.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=18&sid=610d1b5a-11f6-4f6f-b360-9418ae2b56da%40redis&bdata=JkF1dGhUeXBlPXNoaWImc2l0ZT1laG9zdC1saXZl#db=ahl&AN=9608133794. Gržinić, Goran, Agnieszka Piotrowicz-Cieślak, Agnieszka Klimkowicz-Pawlas, Rafał L. Górny, Anna Ławniczek-Wałczyk, Lidia Piechowicz, Ewa Olkowska, et al. “Intensive Poultry Farming: A Review of the Impact on the Environment and Human Health.” Science of The Total Environment 858 (February 2023): 160014. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.160014 Hammel, Paul. 2022. “Report Suggests That Litter from Chicken Farms Has Upped Contamination of Water | Nebraska Public Media.” December 7, 2022. https://nebraskapublicmedia.org/en/news/news-articles/report-suggests-that-litter-from-chicken-farms-has-upped-contamination-of-water/. Kidd, M. T., & Anderson, K. E. (2019). Laying hens in the U.S. market: An appraisal of trends from the beginning of the 20th century to present. Journal of Applied Poultry Research, 28(4), 771–784. https://doi.org/10.3382/japr/pfz043 Knapp, F. (2016). Fremont Chicken proposal brings mixed reactions. Nebraska Public Media. https://nebraskapublicmedia.org/en/news/news-articles/fremont-chicken-proposal-brings-mixed-reactions/ Local eggs Omaha, Nebraska. Benson Bounty-Omaha, NE. (n.d.). https://www.bensonbounty.com/shop/farm-fresh-eggs?srsltid=AfmBOooiaXrzf8IvH6qcgz0_zYCZL6IV3W-3apINhXGBuBJpQ8eiZVcY Lord, Jerry Dennis. “THE GROWTH AND LOCALIZATION OF THE UNITED STATES BROILER CHICKEN INDUSTRY.” Southeastern Geographer 11, no. 1 (1971): 29–42. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44370549. Macdonald, James M, and William D Mcbride. 2009. “Economic Information Bulletin Number 43 The Transformation of U.S. Livestock Agriculture Scale, Efficiency, and Risks.” www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/44292/10992_eib43.pdf Miller, Matthew, Adam Gerval, James Hansen, and Grace Grace Grossen. 2022. “USDA ERS - Poultry Expected To Continue Leading Global Meat Imports as Demand Rises.” August 1, 2022. https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2022/august/poultry-expected-to-continue-leading-global-meat-imports-as-demand-rises/. Morrison, Joseph Louis. “Distribution of Arsenic from Poultry Litter in Broiler Chickens, Soil, and Crops.” Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 17, no. 6 (November 1969): 1288–90. https://doi.org/10.1021/jf60166a018. Muir, William M., Gane Ka Shu Wong, Yong Zhang, Jun Wang, Martien A.M. Groenen, Richard P.M.A. Crooijmans, Hendrik Jan Megens, et al. 2008. “Genome-Wide Assessment of Worldwide Chicken SNP Genetic Diversity Indicates Significant Absence of Rare Alleles in Commercial Breeds.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 105 (45): 17312–17. https://doi.org/10.1073/PNAS.0806569105. Nery, V. del, I. R. de Nardi, M. H.R.Z. Damianovic, E. Pozzi, A. K.B. Amorim, and M. Zaiat. 2007. “Long-Term Operating Performance of a Poultry Slaughterhouse Wastewater Treatment Plant.” Resources, Conservation and Recycling 50 (1): 102–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.RESCONREC.2006.06.001. Park, Miyun, and Peter Singer. “The Globalization of Animal Welfare: More Food Does Not Require More Suffering.” Foreign Affairs 91, no. 2 (2012): 122–33. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23217226. Peters, Joris, Ophelie Lebrasseur, Evan K. Irving-Pease, Ptolemaios Dimitrios Paxinos, Julia Best, Riley Smallman, Cecile Callou, et al. 2022. “The Biocultural Origins and Dispersal of Domestic Chickens.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 119 (24): e2121978119. https://doi.org/10.1073/PNAS.2121978119/SUPPL_FILE/PNAS.2121978119.SAPP.PDF. Ritchie, Hannah, Pablo Rosado, and Max Roser. 2017. “Meat and Dairy Production - Our World in Data.” August 2017. https://ourworldindata.org/meat-production Rubin, Carl Johan, Michael C. Zody, Jonas Eriksson, Jennifer R.S. Meadows, Ellen Sherwood, Matthew T. Webster, Lin Jiang, et al. 2010. “Whole-Genome Resequencing Reveals Loci under Selection during Chicken Domestication.” Nature 2010 464:7288 464 (7288): 587–91. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08832. Shrader, H. L. "The Chicken-of-Tomorrow Program: Its Influence on 'Meat-Type' Poultry Production." Poultry Science 31, no. 1 (January 1952): 3-10. https://doi.org/10.3382/ps.0310003. Silberman, Morton S. 1988. “Animal Welfare, Animal Rights: The Past, the Present, and the 21st Century.” The Journal of Zoo Animal Medicine 19 (4): 161. https://doi.org/10.2307/20094884. “Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Packaging | Collection: NMAH.AC.0060.S01.01.Packaging.” n.d. Accessed November 10, 2024. https://sova.si.edu/record/nmah.ac.0060.s01.01.packaging. Weekly Combined Regional Shell Eggs. USDA. (2024). https://mymarketnews.ams.usda.gov/filerepo/sites/default/files/2848/2024-12-06/891048/ams_2848_00250.txt Zeynal Topalcengiz, Amanda Moller, Sanjay Kumar, Manpreet Singh, Michelle Danyluk, “Chapter 30 - Preharvest food safety.” Foodborne Infections and Intoxications (Fifth Edition), Academic Press, 2021, Pages 495-521, ISBN 9780128195192, https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-819519-2.00014-1. chickens 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 &amp; Co.,Engravers and Printers, Chicago. (1890) David Rumsey.com <span style="font-size: 3;"> </span> </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. Columbia Dry Cell Battery, National Carbon Co., “Columbia Batteries: Insist If Necessary” advertisement, Collier’s, March 25 1916 Columbia Dry Cell Battery, National Carbon Co., “Columbia Dry Batteries - they last longer” advertisement, The Saturday Evening Post, October 27, 1923 Columbia Dry Cell Battery, National Carbon Co., “Lots of people know how to make a dry cell-but not the Eveready Columbia” advertisement, Science and Invention, November 1928, 579. Compact Dry Cell Bridging Telephone. Kellogg 1903 Compact Dry Cell Phone - telephonearchive.com - antique telephone information. (n.d.). http://www.telephonearchive.com/phones/kg/kg-1903-compact-dry-cell.html Elliott, W. H. (n.d.). The A B C of railroad signaling; a lecture delivered before the Harvard School of Business Administration, by W. H. Elliott. 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 &amp; 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 https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/accd071b247ae2369fbcc1674273b2de.jpg bf31567dce618b9369418e57ba3b1def 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 Living in a World of Our Own Making Subject The topic of the resource <a href="http://www.igbp.net/images/18.950c2fa1495db7081ebd1/1421396650502/GreatAcceleration2015igbpsrclowres.jpg" title="IGBP - The Great Acceleration Dashboard" target="_blank">The Great Acceleration</a> <img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4721/40562555551_972c132773_o.jpg" 100="" width="100% height=" /> <span style="font-size: 3;"> </span> Description An account of the resource The Anthropocene means “The Age of Humans,” but what does it mean to live in a world of our own making? Humanity has flourished in past two centuries. Two thirds of every person ever born lived between 1945 and today. Scientists call this era of expanding population, economic development, and environmental impact the “Great Acceleration.” People are now more numerous and powerful than ever before. Mining moves more rocks and soils than all of the worlds rivers combined. Artificial fertilizers have doubled the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus in our soils. Plastics can now be found on mountain tops and the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Paradoxically, many of the most profound changes to global environments pass virtually unnoticed. Nuclear fallout, for instance, is invisible to the naked eye, but radioactive evidence of cold war weapons tests remains in soils around the world. Until recently, lead was one of the most common materials in industrial use. It was used to seal our foods, paint our homes, and power our cars. Lead is toxic, especially for children. Although invisible, lead is now in our soils, in our cities, and even in our blood. By contrast, concrete is virtually everywhere, yet we rarely think about it. We drive on it, work in it, and the foundations of this very museum are built using it. More than half of the concrete ever produced was manufactured between 1995-2015. Concrete requires enormous energy to mine, transport, and produce. These consequences are as invisible to us as the material is abundant. As you finish your journey through the exhibit, consider how many other “invisible” materials influence our lives and connect us to the global environment. Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. 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 Pumping Station Description An account of the resource The geoengineering of natural waterways has been a long-standing hallmark of the global Anthropocene.1 In fact, Donald Worster, a leading figure in environmental history, considered water management to be “the dominant symbol of humankind’s power over nature.”2 From ancient Mesopotamia to the 20th-century American city, the environmental histories of nearly every rapidly growing urban metropolis revealed some form of manipulation of hydrological systems.3 These modifications consistently raise questions about the power dynamics of resource ownership and management, specifically regarding private and public ownership models. The water municipalization debates in Omaha, Nebraska mirror these broader global discussions about public and private water ownership. As a result of growing sanitation concerns, the city of Omaha commissioned the development and construction of the Florence Water Works and Minne Lusa Pumping Station. Constructed approximately seven miles north of downtown Omaha in the town of Florence, the new water management facility included multiple high-service pumps and boilers that filtered out sediment, chemically treated, and dispersed clean water to meet the growing demand for water in Omaha.4 At its peak, the water treatment plant supplied upwards of 28 million gallons to the citizens of Omaha per day.5 The plant’s ability to provide water resources at a substantially lower cost, along with its improved quality, ultimately enabled the continued growth and development of the city of Omaha. However, as the rapidly urbanizing Omaha continued to grow, the privately owned and operated plant could not keep up. This contributed to rapidly declining infrastructure, sewage leaks, enormous amounts of wasted water, and, most concerning to the public, rising prices. As the problems continued to worsen during the early 20th century, the citizens of Omaha campaigned for the municipalization of Omaha’s water resources. This culminated in the creation of the Metropolitan Utilities District and their subsequent acquisition of the assets of the Omaha Water Company in 1912. This transition ultimately contributed to improved operations and crucial cost reductions, which expanded clean water access in Omaha. The story of the municipalization of the Florence Water Works and Minne Lusa Pumping Station revealed the growing desire across the United States and the globe for publicly owned and operated water resources. These global and national transitions demonstrated the comparative advantage of municipalized water, which consistently contributed to lower costs for households and improved service quality. These crucial improvements expanded water access to marginalized communities, who were otherwise unable to afford this basic necessity under the private, corporate model. Ultimately, with 21st-century initiatives to return to the corporatized natural resources model, ownership and distribution of water will continue to be one of the unique challenges faced throughout the Anthropocene, especially in the face of environmental degradation and the global depletion of freshwater resources. Making Minne-Lusa: The development and construction of the Florence Water Works and Minne Lusa Pumping Station reflected the importance of artificially controlled water resources for urban expansion and population growth. Throughout the late 1800s, Omaha’s population increased by 360%.6 This contributed to a hyper-concentrated urban center that lacked adequate sanitation systems to accommodate the growing, densely packed population.7 The absence of a working sewage system led residents to dump garbage and human waste into the streets.8 Furthermore, current waste management, primarily taking the form of privies and cesspools, contaminated the local drinking water supply.9 Public accounts from Omaha in the 1870s and 80s noted the rapid spread of communicable diseases such as dysentery, diarrhea, and typhoid fever, all of which finally prompted locals to draft over one hundred petitions and complaints aimed to garner the attention of the city council.10 The public upheaval generated by the contaminated drinking water convinced local politicians to commission the construction and development of the Florence Water Works and Minne Lusa Pumping Station in 1888. Constructed six miles up the river from Omaha due to the danger of contamination from the city, the plant was both an essential piece of infrastructure and an architectural marvel. Designed by the architectural firm Mendelssohn, Fisher, and Lawrie and managed by the American Water Works Company, the Pumping Station was constructed using Warrensburg sandstone: a material commonly found on the Missouri River and used frequently in construction throughout Missouri River states during the late 19th and early 20th century.11 With a distinctive four-story central tower and granite fountains adorned with monster heads, the facility’s architecture reflected the classical stylings of the 1898 Trans-Mississippi Exposition.12 In addition to the actual pumping and treatment station, the compound also included a superintendent’s mansion and numerous worker housing units.13 Figure 1, taken by photojournalist of the Omaha World-Herald Robert Paskach, depicted the unique architecture of the main treatment facility along the Missouri River, the central tower, and the superintendent’s mansion, displayed off in the distance (Figure 1).14 Significantly, the extraordinary design of the treatment plant was a key factor in compelling the populace to care about the ownership of the facility. Initially, the Florence Water Works and Minne Lusa Pumping Station catalyzed Omaha’s urban transition as a result of the lower utility costs. Developer CW Martin and architect Everett S. Dodds surveyed the plot in 1915, initially attracted by the presence of the Florence Water Works facility.15 In fact, the development was strategically named the Minne Lusa development to capitalize on the positive associations people had with the waterworks.16 An advertisement in the Omaha Daily Bee in 1915 used the water station as the primary selling point, chronicling how the water station brought with it the economic redevelopment of roads, easy accessibility to utilities, and proximity to working-class jobs.17 The construction of a cable car route (Figure 2) that passed right by the plant, and the urban design of the city, which runs perpendicular to the treatment site as if branching out from it, illustrated how the Minne Lusa facility was the focal point of the redevelopment of Florence, Nebraska.18 Furthermore, plant operators knew that the unique design of the plant would attract public attention and began offering tours of the facility, thus drawing in new residents and tourists to the town of Florence, catalyzing its economic and population growth.19 Despite its initial positive benefits, the privately owned and operated plant could not keep up with Omaha’s rapidly growing population, much of which it catalyzed itself. Historians Larsen and Cottrell noted that immediately after its opening, “serious problems plagued the new works.”20 For one, the American Water Works Company did not have the resources to appropriately and sufficiently maintain the plant’s infrastructure. Customers often found dead fish in their water mains and frequent raw sewage leakage in their taps.21 Furthermore, the plant was constructed without water meters resulting in enormous wastes of water.22 In other words, the company did not track individual household consumption, charging a flat rate to all customers regardless of usage. The lack of financial incentive for water conservation led to over-excessive water use and undetected leakages, putting a further strain on the plant’s ability to operate while maintaining financial viability.23 These problems contributed to both rising water rates and the installation and maintenance of new water mains only in areas where consumers were willing and able to pay these rising fees.24 Ultimately, the residents of Omaha, embittered about the American Water Works Company’s inadequate service and rising costs, began to fight for public ownership of water. At the turn of the 20th century, the Minne Lusa Pumping Station’s inadequate operations generated considerable civil unrest in Omaha. Historians Larsen and Cottrell noted that “it was no longer possible or fashionable to blame inaction on rapid growth.”25 The citizens of Omaha demanded a solution to the emerging and expensive water crisis. Therefore, in March 1897, at an Omaha City Council settlement to postpone municipalization until 1917, hundreds of Omaha residents flooded the meeting hall.26 In an over three hour discussion, the public strongly opposed the council’s proposal citing the exorbitant water rates and the impediment of future municipal ownership as the primary reasons.27 This meeting, and the city’s subsequent acquisition of the plant in 1912, reflected the Omaha citizen’s belief that public ownership would be more economically feasible and just. The improved management of the Florence Water Works and Minne Lusa pumping station after 1912 demonstrated the benefits of public ownership of natural resources. First, public utility ownership eliminated the American Water Company’s profit obligations to shareholders, and therefore led to substantial decreases in water rates. For example, between 1912 and 1916, “water rates were reduced by 50%.”28 Moreover, by eliminating the profit generation goal and gaining access to municipal funds, grants, and bonds, the newly created Metropolitan Utilities District’s management could comparatively invest more into maintenance and facility upkeep. These improvements also cut service costs for small consumers by 50%.29 Ultimately, public control of water in Omaha contributed to enhanced operationally efficiency and more equitable distribution. History of US Waterworks: More than just a hallmark of the growth, expansion, and urbanization of Omaha, the Florence Water Works and Minne Lusa Pumping Station served as a microcosm for both national and international developments in water management. Omaha’s private to public utility transition represents broader trends in the global anthropocene regarding the control of water. In the United States, water provision before 1830 was generally considered to be publicly controlled, as urban expansion had not yet necessitated the development of uniform, complex systems. Water was primarily obtained through individuals’ own devices, public wells, and occasionally private water merchants.30 As American cities struggled with fire control, poor sanitation, and the threat of disease, the need for development became apparent. Concurrently, Europe was going through a water revolution of their own. Through the early modern period (1500 - 1800) water systems and provision became increasingly viewed as a subsidiary of the industrial sector throughout Europe. Though mainly manifesting itself in Britain, European water systems transitioned from basic gravitational supply from distant sources to mechanical and eventual steam engine pumping from rivers and other freshwater sources.31 In accordance with increased globalization, these technological developments in water management were brought to North America in the mid to late 18th century. Despite the first pumping station being opened in Philadelphia in 1754, it did not become recognized as an integrated and functional waterworks until 1801. This development was seen as a relative anomaly, as it did not spark an immediate nationwide trend of cities developing waterworks.32 However, the propagation of integrated waterworks began to spread during the early to mid 19th century as the traditional methods of water collection could not keep up with communal demands for larger quantities of clean water and increased fire security.33 Concurrent to these developments, the sanitary revolution, 1830 - 1880, began to sweep through American cities, as public health was correlated with the presence of waste and decay in natural resources. Both city officials and sanitarians, then, became invested in the connection between these water systems and the new goals of environmental sanitation in order to get a handle on waterborne diseases. The overwhelming majority of these new waterworks were privately owned, 80% of all works in 1830, and relatively small compared to the systems that would later gain popularity.34 While relatively inefficient in disease mitigation, as bacteria was later identified as the cause of disease, the increasing importance of effective water provision during this time correlated to increases in the complexity and number of waterworks. In support of this emerging trend, there were only 45 unique works in 1830, but 599 in 1880.35 Municipalization: The implementation of additional systems, newly invigorated civil needs, and the requirement that systems be integrated within the entire urban area led to the skyrocketing of the costs of establishing and maintaining waterworks. Therefore, many city leaders throughout the US concluded that the continued control of sanitary water systems by private entities would be difficult to maintain. Additionally, they came to believe that the control of the public water supply could be profitable for city governments and would benefit the public, as this vital resource would no longer be controlled by for-profit businessmen.36 Mirroring the sale of the Minne Lusa Pumping Station to the city of Omaha, this transition to public ownership of water systems through city governments led to the first major shift in the history of waterworks, municipalization.37 Between 1830 and 1924, the percentage of publicly owned waterworks increased from 20% to 80%, representing the uniform nature of these changes throughout the United States.38 This transition to municipal ownership was perceived as a public good throughout areas of implementation. Low-income American households would spend 4.39% of their income on water resources in privately controlled sectors and 2.84% of their income in publicly controlled sectors as of 2007.39 Additionally, numerous studies demonstrate how municipalized systems ensure equitable access to water. One such study examined the effects of municipal water ownership on black communities from 1889 to 1921. It identified that rates of typhoid fever decreased by 9% in black individuals under public ownership without substantial impacts on white communities, highlighting the general increases in water quality and uniform implementation under municipal ownership.40 Although this transition was driven by financial and operational factors, it raised fundamental questions regarding whether profit-oriented private corporations could effectively manage vital natural resources.41 Moreover, these debates coalesced around the core issue of whether water should be treated as a commercialized commodity or a basic human right. Conclusion: The environmental history of the Florence Water Works and Minne Lusa Pumping Station demonstrated the national and global shift toward municipal ownership. However, as contemporary corporate interests seek to regain access to municipal utilities, it is important to keep in mind the benefits of Omaha’s municipal shift. On a national level, the 2014 Flint water crisis spurred many Americans to distrust municipally controlled water sources. While current understandings have placed the majority of the blame on individual government officials and not municipal control in general, the transition away from sourcing water from Lake Huron without modernized infrastructure under the Karegnondi Water Authority has raised the question of reprivatization in the face of aging infrastructure.42 On an international level, public opinion has generally aligned with municipal water resources. In regions of Latin America specifically, several instances of remunicipalisation have occurred from 2000 to 2005, as water prices spiked without increases in the availability or quality of the water provided through private ownership transitions a few years prior.43 By considering the themes of urbanization, globalization, and the consideration of natural resources as inherent human rights, the history of the Minne Lusa Pumping Station and the global municipal water transition should be taken into account. Though the immediate infrastructure boost under private ownership may be beneficial in the short term, public control of water sources will be essential in maintaining the supply of clean water to all individuals in the face of climate change, pollution, and the commodification of natural resources.   Figure 1: Robert Paskach, Missouri River Trip, 1967, Robert Paskach Collection, Durham Museum, Omaha, NE. Figure 2: Map of Florence in 1923 from: (Omaha: North Omaha History Blog, 2017), Minne Lusa Pumping Station Collection, North Omaha History Blog, Omaha. https://northomahahistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/florence-1923.jpg Figure 3: Tables recording the number of waterworks, the breakdown of ownership style, and the number of cities with waterworks (1800-1830 only) from 1800 to 1924 in the United States. From: Melosi, Martin. “Full Circle? Public Responsibility versus Privatization of Water Supplies in the United States.” In Urban Water Conflicts, edited by Bernard Barraqué, 39–56. Taylor and Francis, 2011. Endnotes 1) Donald Worster, “The Flow of Empire: Comparing Water Control in China and the United States,” RCC Perspectives, no. 5 (2011): 5. 2) Worster, “The Flow of Empire,” 15. 3) Worster, “The Flow of Empire,” 15. 4) “Omaha from the Air,” Omaha World-Herald, 1947. 5) Robert Lee Rayl, “A Study of Warrensburg Sandstone,” University of Missouri, (June 1952): 85-95. 6) Michael J. Harkins, “Public Health Nuisances in Omaha, 1870-1900.” Nebraska History 56 (1975): 478. 7) Raymond A. Mohl and Neil Betten, “The History of Urban America: An Interpretive Framework.” The History Teacher 3, no. 3 (March 1970): 30. 8) Mohl and Betten, “The History of Urban America,” 29. 9) Harkins, “Public Health Nuisances in Omaha,” 478. 10) Harkins, “Public Health Nuisances in Omaha,” 478. 11) Robert Lee Rayl, “A Study of Warrensburg Sandstone,” University of Missouri, (June 1952): pg. 85-95. 12) Federal Writers’ Project Nebraska, Omaha: A Guide to the City and Environs (Omaha: Omaha Public Library, 1939), 45. 13) Federal Writers’ Project Nebraska, Omaha: A Guide to the City and Environs, 25-27. 14) Robert Paskach, Missouri River Trip, 1967, Robert Paskach Collection, Durham Museum, Omaha, NE. 15) "Big Land Deal is Brought to Close," Omaha Daily Bee, April 3, 1915. 16) Jennifer Honebrink, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Minne Lusa Residential Historic District, register form, November 2013, national Reigster of Historic Places, accessed November 5, 2023, https://preservation.cityofomaha.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/HD-021-N_-Minne-Lusa-Residential-HD.pdf. 17) “The Water Board Appraisal,” Omaha Daily Bee, July 15, 1906, https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn99021999/1906-07-15/ed-1/?sp=10&q=florence+water+works&r=0.266,0.048,0.151,0.165,0. 18) Florence 1923 (Omaha: North Omaha History Blog, 2017), Minne Lusa Pumping Station Collection, North Omaha History Blog, Omaha. https://northomahahistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/florence-1923.jpg 19) “Purity of the City’s Water Supply and How it is Attained for Omaha” Omaha Daily Bee, April 5, 1908, p. 4F. 20) Lawrence Harold Larsen and Barbara J. Cottrell, The Gate City: A History of Omaha (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1982), 104. 21) Larsen and Cottrell, The Gate City, 104. 22) Larsen and Cottrell, The Gate City, 104. 23) Larsen and Cottrell, The Gate City, 104. 24) Larsen and Cottrell, The Gate City, 750. 25) “Talk About Water Works,” Omaha Daily Bee, March 16, 1897. https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn99021999/1897-03-16/ed-1/?sp=8&q=florence+water+w orks&r=-0.008,0.02,0.258,0.28,0. 26) “Talk About Water Works.” 27) “Talk About Water Works.” 28) Earl Alexander Everret, “Municipal versus Private Wwnership of Public Utilities,” (Masters thesis, University of Nebraska Lincoln, 1919), 11. https://www.proquest.com/openview/158d820bbab6df2d9689a78bdca47b91/1?cbl=18750&diss=y&pq-origsite=gscholar 29) Everrett, “Municipal versus Private Ownership,” 9-10. 30) Martin Melosi, "Full Circle? Public Responsibility versus Privatization of Water Supplies in the United States," in Urban Water Conflicts, ed. Bernard Barraqué (Taylor and Francis, 2011), 40. 31) James Douet, The Water Industry as World Heritage: Thematic Study (TICCIH, 2018), 26-35. 32) Melosi, “Full Circle?”, 40-41. 33) Charles Jacobson, Ties That Bind: Economic and Political Dilemmas of Urban Utility Networks, 1800-1990 (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2000), 33-34. 34) Melosi, Martin. The Sanitary City: Environmental Services in Urban America from Colonial Times to the Present. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2008, 73-89 35) John Croes, Statistical Tables from the History and Statistics of American Water Works (New York: Engineering News, 1884), 4-69. 36) Charles Jacobson, Steven Klepper, and Joel A. Tarr, "Water, Electricity and Cable Television: A Study of Contrasting Historical Patterns of Ownership and Regulation," Cahier / Groupe Réseaux 1, no. 3 (January 1985): 9. 37) Jacboson, Klepper, and Tarr, “Water, Electricity and Cable Television,” 8. 38) Melosi, “Full Circle?”, 41-42. 39) X. Zhang, M. González Rivas, M. Grant, and M. E. Warner, "Water Pricing and Affordability in the US: Public vs. Private Ownership," Water Policy 24, no. 3 (March 2022): 500-516. 40) Werner Troesken, "Race, Disease, and the Provision of Water in American Cities, 1889-1921," The Journal of Economic History 61, no. 3 (September 2001): 750-776. 41) Debora Spar and Krzysztof Bebenek, "To the Tap: Public versus Private Water Provision at the Turn of the Twentieth Century," Business History Review 83, no. 4 (2009): 675-702. 42) Benjamin J. Pauli, "The Flint Water Crisis," WIREs Water 7, no. 3 (March 2020): 1-3. 43) Germà Bel, "Public versus Private Water Delivery, Remunicipalization and Water Tariffs," Utilities Policy 62 (February 2020): 1-2. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Ben Jackson Logan Yogi Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Bel, Germà. “Public versus Private Water Delivery, Remunicipalization and Water Tariffs.” Utilities Policy 62 (February 2020): 100982. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jup.2019.100982. "Big Land Deal is Brought to Close." Omaha Daily Bee, April 3, 1915. Croes, John. Statistical Tables from the History and Statistics of American Water Works. New York: Engineering News, 1884. Douet, James. The Water Industry as World Heritage: Thematic Study. TICCIH, 2018. Federal Writers’ Project Nebraska. Omaha: A Guide to the City and Environs. Omaha: Omaha Public Library, 1939. Florence 1923. Omaha: North Omaha History Blog, 2017. Minne Lusa Pumping Station Collection. North Omaha History Blog, Omaha. https://northomahahistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/florence-1923.jpg. Harkins, Michael J. “Public Health Nuisances in Omaha, 1870-1900,” Nebraska History 56 (1975): 471-492. http://www.nebraskahistory.org/publish/publicat/history/full-text/NHOmaHealth.pdf. Honebrink, Jennifer. National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Minne Lusa Residential Historic District. Register form, November 2013. National Register of Historic Places. Accessed November 5, 2023, https://preservation.cityofomaha.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/HD-021-N_-Minne-Lusa-Residential-HD.pdf. Jacobson, Charles. Ties That Bind: Economic and Political Dilemmas of Urban Utility Networks, 1800-1990. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2000. Jacobson, Charles, Steven Klepper, and Joel A Tarr. “Water, Electricity and Cable Television: A Study of Contrasting Historical Patterns of Ownership and Regulation.” Cahier / Groupe Réseaux 1, no. 3 (January 1, 1985): 2–31. https://doi.org/10.3406/flux.1985.1615. Larsen, Lawrence Harold, and Cottrell, Barabara J. The Gate City: A History of Omaha. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1982. Melosi, Martin. “Full Circle? Public Responsibility versus Privatization of Water Supplies in the United States.” In Urban Water Conflicts, edited by Bernard Barraqué, 39–56. Taylor and Francis, 2011. Melosi, Martin. The Sanitary City: Environmental Services in Urban America from Colonial Times to the Present. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2008. Mohl, Raymond A., and Neil Betten. “The History of Urban America: An Interpretive Framework.” The History Teacher 3, no. 3 (March 1970): 23-34. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3054423. “Omaha from the Air.” Omaha World-Herald. 1947. https://www.historicomaha.com/aerial5.jpg. Pauli, Benjamin J. “The Flint Water Crisis.” WIREs Water 7, no. 3 (March 12, 2020). https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1420. “Purity of the City’s Water Supply and How it is Attained for Omaha.” Omaha Daily Bee. April 5, 1908. p. 4F. Rayl, Robert Lee. “A Study of Warrensburg Sandstone.” University of Missouri (June 1952): 1-108. https://mospace.umsystem.edu/xmlui/handle/10355/87444. Robert Paskach. Missouri River Trip. 1967. Robert Paskach Collection. Durham Museum, Omaha, NE. Spar, Debora, and Krzysztof Bebenek. “To the Tap: Public versus Private Water Provision at the Turn of the Twentieth Century.” Business History Review 83, no. 4 (2009): 675–702. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0007680500000878. “Talk About Water Works.” Omaha Daily Bee, March 16, 1897. https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn99021999/1897-03-16/ed-1/?sp=8&q=florence+water+works&r=-0.008,0.02,0.258,0.28,0. Accessed October 9, 2024. “The Water Board Appraisal.” Omaha Daily Bee, July 15,1906. https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn99021999/1906-07-15/ed-1/?sp=10&q=florence+water+works&r=0.266,0.048,0.151,0.165,0. Accessed October 9, 2024. Troesken, Werner. “RACE, DISEASE, and the PROVISION of WATER in AMERICAN CITIES, 1889–1921.” The Journal of Economic History 61, no. 03 (September 1, 2001): 750–76. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0022050701030066. Worster, Donald. “The Flow of Empire: Comparing Water Control in China and the United States.” RCC Perspectives, no. 5 (2011): 1-23. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26240326. Zhang, X., M. González Rivas, M. Grant, and M. E. Warner. “Water Pricing and Affordability in the US: Public vs. Private Ownership.” Water Policy 24, no. 3 (March 17, 2022): 500–516. https://doi.org/10.2166/wp.2022.283. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource Fall 2024 Subject The topic of the resource Should water be publicly or privately owned? For centuries, cities across the world have asked this question, and Omaha is no different. In the 1800s, Omaha’s waste flowed into the river, leading to dirty drinking water and disease spread. To fix this, Omaha took inspiration from other US cities. In 1889, they built the Florence Water Works and Minne Lusa Pumping Station. The privately owned plant could provide 28 million gallons of clean water to the growing Omaha city. The private company, however, could not keep up with the growing population. This led to sewage leaks and rising costs. In 1912, the people of Omaha finally took control of the plant’s operation, and with it came better management and lower costs. The history of the Minne Lusa Pumping Station shows that when people around the world control water, it's cheaper, easier to get, and better for the entire public. pumping station Water treatment https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/d9cd6a72f1791abb1695b5ba3c804357.png be80ccb6b939ba94d33ff12950034c13 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 Ferndell Iced Tea Tin - Sprague, Warner, & Co Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kyrsten Mata Katarina Wilson Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Durham Museum Permanent Collection https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/ca3a27bd8a72729e023099f606fb22e4.png 265dce9a1332dd9efe8282a1fc5f5997 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 Ferndell Iced Tea Tin - Sprague, Warner, & Co Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kyrsten Mata Katarina Wilson Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Durham Museum Permanent Collection https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/3e73e79663b2c93a07a98513ec4c2a6d.png 3e1c321fd3e6cb5280fbcfec365a30a6 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 Ferndell Iced Tea Tin - Sprague, Warner, & Co Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kyrsten Mata Katarina Wilson Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Durham Museum Permanent Collection https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/ee1006c304cf1dfc1d99c9923525b082.png c89f41d176856ecda20ea9b4d4bf2259 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 Ferndell Iced Tea Tin - Sprague, Warner, & Co Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kyrsten Mata Katarina Wilson 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 Taming the Landscape Subject The topic of the resource The Early Anthropocene<br /><br /> <img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4740/38752446300_776a102fdd_o.jpg" 100="" width="100% height=" /> <span style="font-size: 3;"> </span> Description An account of the resource When did people begin to take control of the global environment? Humans have shaped their local environments for hundreds of thousands of years. As populations increased, their impacts expanded. Two changes greatly accelerated human influence on a global scale: the movement of hunting societies and the development of agriculture. By the end of the last ice age, humans had migrated across much of Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Whenever humans appeared, a wave of extinctions followed. In the Americas, large animals such as the Mastodon and Giant Beaver went extinct shortly after the arrival of people. Although scientists debate the origin of these mass extinctions (changing climate likely played a role), hunting was a significant factor. The development of agriculture played an even more important role in global environmental change. People began domesticating plants and animals around the world roughly 12,000 years ago. The stone (“lithic”) tools in our exhibit speak to this dramatic change. Agriculture often required clearing forested lands, irrigating, or fertilizing landscapes to make them suitable for crops. These changes were the foundation for settlement and later the rise of complex civilizations all over the world. Agriculture and hunting continue to reshape environments on a global scale today. The bison in this exhibit represents the consequences of modern overhunting and the single-wheel hoe represents our continued reliance on agriculture. These objects remind us that “taming the landscape” revolutionized societies, but they also produced global environmental consequences. They connect us to a deep past and symbolize a transformation that continues to shape the modern world. Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. 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 Tea Tin Subject The topic of the resource Tea is one of the oldest drinks on Earth. According to Chinese legend, emperor Shen Nung discovered tea. In the following centuries, tea spread to every populated continent through global trade. The silk road was a common route used. Due to high demand, plantations mass produced tea in the late nineteenth century. This ignited the plantationocene. The plantationocene is the global and local effect plantations have on the environment and communities. It has decreased biodiversity and often exploits workers. In the early twentieth century, mass transportation helped connect goods with the public. Tea culture made its way from Chicago to Omaha through the Union Pacific Railroad. Union Pacific's headquarters are in Omaha. Various products, like tea, were connected by the wide access to industrial transportation. As the world adapts to global products and cultures, an impact continues to be made on the earth’s climate and ecosystems. Description An account of the resource In China, tea is said to be a gift from the Great Mother Goddess herself. It is supposed to bring health and longevity to the drinker. Tea is one of the oldest drinks on Earth, and its popularity has lasted to the modern day. Longevity could be said to be the beverage’s preeminent historical characteristic. Today, almost every culture has its own variety of tea. Cultural and social rituals surrounding the cultivating, preparing, and drinking of tea mirror human diversity. From Japanese tea ceremonies to British High Tea, the tea leaf sunk its teeth into globalized society hundreds of years ago and has not let go. Much can (and has) been said about the rich cultural and even spiritual significance of tea, but as with so many global commodities, the story is complex. Its elevation to a beverage of global significance has come with immense ecological and social costs that extend to the present. Tea connects China to Omaha, NE, and everywhere in between. The tea once contained in the canister held in The Durham Museum collection was a long way from its home, but the artifact is a reminder of the journey from seed, to plantation, to train, to cup. Tea has a deep connection to the plantationocene, which is the global and local effect plantations have on the environment and communities. As one of the many legends have it, tea was discovered by a Chinese healer and emperor, Shen Nung in the year 2732 (Hohenegger, 2006). He and his traveling party were taking a rest from a long journey, and they needed to boil water to ensure its drinking safety. All of a sudden, leaves from a nearby tea bush landed in the pot. Ever inquisitive, Shen Nung took a sip and was delighted with the taste. He had just had the first sip of tea. (Hohenegger, 2006) This is one of many stories of the origin of tea, and many others emphasize tea’s stimulative or healing properties. The rich green of the tea plant held spiritual significance for some. It was a “good color” that would bring health and longevity to its consumer. Tea also had practical appeal. Chinese monks drank tea to stay awake during long hours of meditation (Hohenegger, 2006). Nomads dried and compressed leaves from the tea bush into solid bricks. It became an easily transportable and nutritious drink for mobile societies. Tea became an object of intrinsic value as well; traders used tea as currency from China to Russia. (Pomeranz, 2006) The plant Camellia sinensis, or the tea bush, is native to southern China, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, and northeastern India. (Xiao 2016) We will never know the national identity of the person who actually brewed the first cup of tea, but written accounts place its origin in the southwest of China. These are also the regions where agriculturalists allegedly transformed the wild plant into a agriculture crop. Regardless of its exact origin, tea was an incredibly valued resource in ancient China, both for its people’s consumption, and for consumption elsewhere. In the Tang Dynasty (618-906), tea was made the national drink of China and the already popular drink sunk its teeth even deeper into Chinese society. To satisfy the high demand, farmers replaced preexisting ecologies with fields of tea bushes. Eventually, farmers shifted from foraging to cultivating the plants to maximize output. (Zhong 2010) By year, tea was a mass agricultural crop. The Tea-horse Road was instrumental in the commerce of tea in ancient China, beginning in the Tang dynasty (Pang 2022). Consisting of two major paths in the neighboring Sichuan and Yunnan southwestern areas of China, this road connected Tibetan markets with central China, and was a central route in tea trade. Many towns and shrines were erected along this route, as commerce flowed through the towns regularly (2014). The popularity of tea stayed consistent. Even the Mongol invasion of China in years presented only a temporary reduction in volume (Perdue 2015). Tea eventually found its way off the mainland and into Japanese arms around the year 800 CE. (Varley 1989) With its rise in popularity, tea plant farming practices shifted to meet higher demand. Traditional cultivators planted tea bushes in standing forests. These “tea gardens” were ecologically sustainable. This polyculture naturally repelled pests and nourished the soil (Qi 2013). In ancient China, as a result, tea cultivation required no mass deforestation. From ancient times into modern times, tea became an increasingly global product, however, these tea gardens became harder and harder to maintain locally. Europeans discovered tea around the seventeenth century and have been hooked since. The Dutch East India Company pioneered this early trade, but European taste aesthetics did not yet favor the beverage (Rappaport 2019). Demand skyrocketed during the late eighteenth century when the British East India Company got involved. The British East India company conquered lands, enacted monopolies, and stimulated trade for much of the world (Pomeranz 2018). Tea entered the European markets as a medicinal product, but by the early 1800s, it became a British obsession (Rappaport 2019). As British demand increased and its imperial dominion expanded, global demand for the leaf went up. Cultivation shifted again to meet this new demand. The tea bush grows in any tropic climate. The colonization of many new tropical British territories gave British businessmen new landscapes and populations to exploit. European export-oriented production favored plantation to mass produce tea (Dey 2021). Plantations favor monocultures which require the near or complete removal of indigenous ecosystems. The harmony of the tea garden was lost to capitalistic gains, but the people working the field also lost as well. The days of plantation workers are long and hard, and often the conditions of their work are brutal (Konings 2012). The larger implications of this system are communities that rely on one dominating company in the area, that could pull their support or funding at any second. This rise of plantations is the beginning of the Plantationocene, where the world started to significantly shift its means of food production to monocultures and mass produced products. Eventually, tea made its way to America. In the eighteenth century, Dutch colonists established a tea ritual in the upper-class households of America. Tea symbolized wealth and tea consumption took on the trappings of class. Teapots, tea trays, and tea tables became symbols of conspicuous consumption. The US “opening” of Japan in 1859, established a stronger connection between Asia and America. When the United States initiated Japan to engage in trade with the West, U.S. tea merchants included Japanese green teas in their trade. According to Jane Pettigrew, by 1880, “47 percent of all tea imported by American tea traders came from Japan” (Pettigrew 2015). During the nineteenth century, consumers incorporated tea into American culture. “Afternoon tea” became popular and was often associated with the upper classes and casual company. (Pettigrew 2015) As the demand for tea in this growing country increased, more efficient methods of cultivation were required. Intercontinental trade supplies most of the tea consumed around the world. In the US, the majority of tea comes from China and India (Micheal 2021). Expansive shipping routes are used every day in order to make this trade possible. Our object of focus, the iced tea tin, was produced by Sprague Warner & Company. Located in Chicago, “this modern manufacturing, warehousing, and merchandising plant occupies the largest building in the world devoted to the production and sale of food supplies” (Chicagology 2003). This food distribution company had sold production in bulk of certain brands, that specialized in canned goods, spices, baking powder, jams and jellies, and more, such as Richelieu, Batavia, and Ferndell, in which Ferndell is the origin brand of our object of focus. That is quite the distance of travel from Chicago to Omaha. It is not certain, but it is possible that tea had made its way from the distribution center of Chicago down to the fields of Omaha through the Union Pacific Railroad. The Union Pacific railroad is a “freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over 32,000 miles routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans” (Union Pacific). This provides accessibility for connections between the global supply chain, especially when it comes to crucial industries for survival, like the food industry. In fact, the Union Pacific Railroad has built and stationed its headquarters to be in Omaha, Nebraska. It would be reasonable to say that it is possible that the culture of tea had made its way to Omaha from Chicago through the Union Pacific Railroad, for this wide access to industrial transportation introduced other various foods to states around the country. The Union Pacific Railroad allowed for the interconnection of various cultures, which is why tea culture continues to spread around the world today, including Omaha. As the world continues to adapt to the various cultures that communities all around the world have to offer, such as tea culture, this demonstrates that we are still living in the Anthropocene today. With these adaptations, humanity continues to make an impact on the world, on its climate, and on its ecosystems, for they are ever-changing. The introduction of new ideas of cultivation, such as plantation, is what allowed for the thriving of tea culture, especially in Omaha, where there are more tea cafes and shops surfacing as the years pass. Omaha is one of the more prominent cities in Nebraska that have taken a liking to the culture of tea, with other neighboring cities to soon follow. With the urbanization of cities all around, such as Omaha, many are still managing to transition to the customs of the other half of the world that are beneficial, therefore this could indicate that the Anthropocene is now. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Anderson, James. 2009. “China’s Southwestern Silk Road in World History.” University of Illinois Press. Accessed November 2, 2022. https://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/f/J_Anderson_China_2009.pdf Behal, Rana P. “Power Structure, Discipline and Labour in Assam Tea Plantations during Colonial Rule.” India's Labouring Poor, 2007, 143–72. https://doi.org/10.1017/upo9788175968349.008. Chicagology. 2003. “Sprague Warner & Co. Warehouse.” Chicagology. Accessed November 2, 2022. https://chicagology.com/skyscrapers/skyscrapers040/ Dey, Arnab. “Bugs in the Garden: Tea Plantations and Environmental Constraints in Eastern India (Assam), 1840-1910.” Environment and History 21, no. 4 (2015): 537–65. https://doi.org/10.3197/096734015x14414683716235. Dey, Arnab. Tea Environments and Plantation Culture: Imperial Disarray in Eastern India. CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS, 2021. Gunathilaka, R.P. 2016. “The tea industry and a review of its price modeling in major tea producing countries.” Journal of Management and Strategy. Accessed November 1, 2022. doi:10.5430/jms.v7n1p21 Hohenegger, Beatrice. Liquid Jade: The Story of Tea from East to West. New York, New York: St. Martin's Press, 2006. Konings, Piet. Gender and Plantation Labour in Africa: The Story of Tea Pluckers' Struggles in Cameroon. Bamenda, Cameroon: Langaa groupe d'intiative commune en recherche et publication, 2012. Pettigrew, Jane. 2015. “The Evolution of American Tea Culture.” Teforia. Accessed November 1, 2022. https://medium.com/@teforia/the-evolution-of-american-tea-culture-e4e3d493f7c 9#:~:text=Tea%20was%20introduced%20to%20America,to%20become%20the%20city's%20governor. Pang, Kelly. “The Ancient Tea Horse Road.” Chinese Ancinet Tea-Horse Road, Discover the Ancient Tea Horse Route in China, 4 Jan. 2022, https://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/special-report/tea-horse-road/. Perdue, Peter C. “Tea, Cloth, Gold, and Religion: Manchu Sources on Trade Missions from Mongolia to Tibet.” Late Imperial China, vol. 36, no. 2, 2015, pp. 1–22., https://doi.org/10.1353/late.2015.0005. Pomeranz, Kenneth, and Steven Topik. The World That Trade Created: Society, Culture and the World Economy: 1400 to the Present. Routledge, 2018. Published by Statista Research Department, and Jul 27. “Global: Annual Tea Consumption 2012-2025.” Statista, July 27, 2022. https://www.statista.com/statistics/940102/global-tea-consumption/. Qi, Dan-Hui, Hui-Jun Guo, and Cai-Yu Sheng. “Assessment of Plant Species Diversity of Ancient Tea Garden Communities in Yunnan, Southwest of China.” Agroforestry Systems 87, no. 2 (2012): 465–74. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-012-9567-8. Rappaport, Erika Diane. A Thirst for Empire: How Tea Shaped the Modern World. Princeton University Press, 2019. Spengler, Robert N. Fruit from the Sands: The Silk Road Origins of the Foods We Eat. Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2020. S. S, Sumesh, and Nitish Gogoi. “A Journey beyond Colonial History: Coolies in the Making of an ‘Adivasi Identity’ in Assam.” Labor History 62, no. 2 (2021): 134–47. https://doi.org/10.1080/0023656x.2021.1877263. “Tea Plant – Camellia Sinensis.” Science Learning Hub. Accessed December 9, 2022. https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/images/2040-tea-plant-camellia-sinensis. The Tea and Horse Trade with Inner Asia during the Ming.” From Yuan to Modern China and Mongolia, 2014, 59–88. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004285293_005. Union Pacific. “Company Overview.” Union Pacific. Accessed November 2, 2022. https://www.up.com/aboutup/corporate_info/uprrover/index.htm Varley, Paul, editor. Tea in Japan. University of Hawaii Press, 1989. Warner, Mason. 1912. “Sprague, Warner & Company, incorporated.” Sprague, Warner & Co. Accessed November 2, 2022. https://archive.org/stream/spraguewarnercom00warn/spraguewarnercom00warn_djvu.txt Xiao, Yan. 2016. “Study on Industrialization Prospects of the Silk Road Tea Culture.” Atlantis Press. Accessed November 1, 2022. doi: 10.2991/msetasse-16.2016.407. Xiong, Yuan, Qianwen Kang, Weiheng Xu, Shaodong Huang, Fei Dai, Leiguang Wang, Ning Lu, and Weili Kou. “The Dynamics of Tea Plantation Encroachment into Forests and Effect on Forest Landscape Pattern during 1991–2021 through Time Series Landsat Images.” Ecological Indicators 141 (2022): 109132. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2022.109132. Xiao, Yan, and Zhaoyu Liao. “Study on Industrialization Prospects of the Silk Road Tea Culture.” Proceedings of the 2016 4th International Conference on Management Science, Education Technology, Arts, Social Science and Economics (msetasse-16), 2016. https://doi.org/10.2991/msetasse-16.2016.407. Zhong, Weimin. 2010. “The roles of tea and opium in early economic globalization: A perspective on China’s crisis in the 19th century.” Frontiers of History in China. Accessed November 2, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11462-010-0004-0 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The Durham Museum Permanent Collection Ferndell plantationocene Sprague Warner and Co. Tea https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/23f397e1fc7db3b6cfd18ca86d383067.jpg 77fb12369de5bea08f5741721e9d6896 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 This is a map from 1869 that depicts Union Pacific’s first large scale railroad track. Map by Colton & Co. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Colton & co. Nebraska. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~209055~5003979:Nebraska- Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1869 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource David Rumsey Historical Map Collection https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/f26df60c7c7618915f662d6ae9daea7d.jpg fa9eb03ec1eb0881fd0e465c9c42073a 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. Subject The topic of the resource Douglas County. Description An account of the resource This is a map from 1885 showing the additional 4 tracks that Union Pacific built since its conception. Map by Everts and Kirk Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Everts and Kirk. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived http://www.davidrumsey.com/maps1130175-28225.html Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1885 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource David Rumsey Historical Map Collection https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/5940bd2d82beaccaa0c9ffe88c3d4d9f.jpg b2738967766d6029709486a54330c252 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. Description An account of the resource View of top of broadhead ax missing wooden handle. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hannah Juday Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The Durham Museum Permanent Collection https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/9c70ea1d14c291b8d466a6af48e3dc9c.jpg 27a4452080e3fd49518e984b65c8d8da 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 A close-up image of the beveled edge of the broad ax. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hannah Juday Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The Durham Museum Permanent Collection https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/fb19100f2156eed9029cc27dff580af6.jpg b05eff8501c964bbaba5ccbe6be3c904 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 Full view of the iron broad ax head in the Durham Museum’s collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hannah Juday Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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 Taming the Landscape Subject The topic of the resource The Early Anthropocene<br /><br /> <img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4740/38752446300_776a102fdd_o.jpg" 100="" width="100% height=" /> <span style="font-size: 3;"> </span> Description An account of the resource When did people begin to take control of the global environment? Humans have shaped their local environments for hundreds of thousands of years. As populations increased, their impacts expanded. Two changes greatly accelerated human influence on a global scale: the movement of hunting societies and the development of agriculture. By the end of the last ice age, humans had migrated across much of Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Whenever humans appeared, a wave of extinctions followed. In the Americas, large animals such as the Mastodon and Giant Beaver went extinct shortly after the arrival of people. Although scientists debate the origin of these mass extinctions (changing climate likely played a role), hunting was a significant factor. The development of agriculture played an even more important role in global environmental change. People began domesticating plants and animals around the world roughly 12,000 years ago. The stone (“lithic”) tools in our exhibit speak to this dramatic change. Agriculture often required clearing forested lands, irrigating, or fertilizing landscapes to make them suitable for crops. These changes were the foundation for settlement and later the rise of complex civilizations all over the world. Agriculture and hunting continue to reshape environments on a global scale today. The bison in this exhibit represents the consequences of modern overhunting and the single-wheel hoe represents our continued reliance on agriculture. These objects remind us that “taming the landscape” revolutionized societies, but they also produced global environmental consequences. They connect us to a deep past and symbolize a transformation that continues to shape the modern world. Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. 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 Broadhead Axe Subject The topic of the resource The late nineteenth-century was the great age of railroad construction. In America and around the world, they increased transportation efficiency. Like all industrial processes, railroads required an enormous amount of natural resources. This included wooden planks to hold the rails together. This broad head ax, or one like it, shaped these planks, also known as ax-ties. The amount of wood the railroads needed required wide-scale deforestation. Omaha was an important part of this story. It was the eastern edge of the Transcontinental Railroad and the home of Union Pacific. The rise of railroads drove Omaha’s growth, and the presence of railroads are globally seen. The general use of railroads has declined. The broad ax played a significant role in the establishment of railroads. This is important to the Anthropocene because it symbolizes the effects of industrialization on the environment. Description An account of the resource There have been many inventions and innovations throughout human history, but few have been as instrumental to human advancement as the ax. The ax has played a key role in acquiring wood and shaping it for uses besides fire and fuel. There are many different types of axes, and their form follows their function. Felling axes chop down trees, and pickaxes skimming and chopping through roots. The ax in The Durham Museum collection is the broad ax. Broad axes were and are used for hewing wood or turning round logs into more rectangular shapes for building. Our ax was found in the Omaha area, but there is one problem with finding an ax here. Why would an ax be in an area that has historically had few trees? We believe the ax was used to shape logs into small planks, or rail ties. Omaha’s historic role as a center of continental railroad construction justifies this claim. The broadhead ax was instrumental in constructing railroads when the Union Pacific railroad was expanding across the Midwest, and similarly influential to global rail development. The broad ax was a tool of labor. Many households had access to this tool, and it could also be found at worksites. As seen in Figures 4, 5, and 6, the ax features a very long, or broad, shaped blade. The blade almost looks like a fan, with rounded edges and a narrower base. One side of the blade is a straight, flat edge. The other side of the blade is beveled, meaning that there is a slant in the iron to create a sharp edge. The broad ax in The Durham Museum collection is made of iron, though it is missing its wooden handle. Most broad axes had a shorter handle which would slide entirely though the metal ax head, as seen in Figure 4 (Sloan 2002, 14). The broad ax was a common belonging of early Euro-American settlers. While it was not the ideal tool for felling lumber, it was useful to create wooden beams to structure houses or cabins. The ax operated as a sort of chisel, where the flat edge of the blade drove into the wood, creating a straight edge. The beveled edge would then cut through the excess wood, cleaving it from the straight edge (Sloan 2002, 15). Nebraska and other states of the Great Plains do not have a large number of trees useful for widespread lumber use. Settlers had to build homes, but the supply of trees was few compared to other states further north or east. However, as white settlers began expanding westward following the Louisiana Purchase, they needed resources and tools in order to build homes. Permanent structures often required square beams, ideally suited to the broad ax. As the settlers moved into what would become Nebraska throughout the first half of the nineteenth-century, small settlements like Council Bluffs, IA and Bellevue, NE took shape. Omaha was established in 1854, and by 1860 had a population of 1,883 (“Population of Nebraska Incorporated Places, 1860 to 1920” 2010). The broad ax was a fundamental tool of this early period of settlement and urbanization. The broad ax had an even more significant role in Omaha’s history: the construction of railroads. Railways were introduced to the United States in Massachusetts in the early nineteenth-century. While the locomotive steam engine was still being developed, a series of small wooden tramways appeared in the Northeast primarily as a temporary mode of transport for construction or mining (Grant 2005, 2). The first commercial railroad was called the Baltimore and Ohio Railway, founded in 1827 out of Maryland (Previts and Samson 2000, 6) and the first commercial locomotive built in the United States was finished in 1830 in New York (Middleton 1941, 37). By the outbreak of the American Civil War, interest in constructing railroads in the vast interior of the continent gained support. The Union Pacific railroad was the middleman in connecting both sides of the continent by rail. The company started in 1862 and Omaha was its terminus. In order to have railroads though, you have to have wooden planks for railroad ties (Union Pacific, 2022). With numerous tracks laid, the broad ax surely had widespread use because of rail ties. Ties are wooden boards that are anchored to the earth as a foundation to hold the steel rails. Lumber would be cut into long square slats with the assistance of the broad ax, squaring off the rounded edges of the logs. After being cut, the ties were then dried, ridding them of any moisture and then treated with a wood preservative (Middleton 1941, 20). Railroad construction demanded millions of cross ties, making the production of such items critical for rail’s success (Union Pacific). Beyond railroad construction, railroad maintenance required the replacement of cross ties. Nebraska and other Great Plains states did not have a ready supply of timber, however. The lumber required to build the railroads likely had to be shipped to Omaha via the Missouri river or nearby small railroads. Finding wood for construction turned out to be one of the biggest problems for the early years of Union Pacific (Union Pacific). Any adequate wood was used, but Cedar trees were primarily chopped down in North Platte and hewn in Wyoming once the railroad made it to those locations (Union Pacific). Those resources sufficed the railroad for a while before they turned to getting their wood from the Pacific Northwest and Canada like they do in today (Union Pacific). By the 1940s, there were more than a billion cross ties in use across the United States, and millions needed replacement annually (Middleton 1941, 20). Figure 1, which is from 1869, shows the slow start Union Pacific had as it was only able to make 1 track in its first 7 years. We can see there was some more progress as Union Pacific made an additional 4 to 5 tracks between 1869 and 1885; the year Figure 2 was created. Omaha as a city was also shaped by the railroads. The city expanded around the train depots, with the downtown area developing just beyond the railroad for accessibility and convenience. Just as the needs of Union Pacific altered the layout of the city, the population experienced rapid change and development due in part to the rail system. The city grew from less than 2,000 people in 1860 to 16,083 people in 1870, a growth of over 750%. Over the next two decades, the population exploded to 140,452 (“Population of Nebraska Incorporated Places, 1860 to 1920”, 2010). The next 130 years would prove to be prosperous for Union Pacific. The company is now the largest rail company in the country with over 32,000 miles of tracks spanning the western two thirds of the U.S. (Union Pacific). In the process, Union Pacific has also formed relationships with other companies to enhance their shipping capabilities to reach parts of the world beyond their homeland. For the most part, the Omaha community has benefited from the many railroads that have been laid down. The widespread use of locomotives was a pivotal moment in history for most western societies. Railroads moved people, manufactured goods, and raw materials across the country rapidly, without the labor, livestock, and supporting supplies previously needed for large scale transport (Ellis 1968, 19). Railroads required heavy industry to manufacture the locomotives and steel rails. They also needed large amounts of lumber and coal to lay down the tracks and to fuel the enormous furnaces of commercial engines (Lewis 1998, 81). Railroads were one of Omaha’s earliest industries and created steady jobs for its residents as engineers, support staff, and manual laborers (Peterson, 2011). Some community members most likely handled the broadhead axes themselves when they worked for Union Pacific. The broad ax was used to literally lay the foundations for railroads. But how has humanity's desire for growth impacted its relationship with the environment? The rail system in the U.S was a key component in our early advancement. Railroads were necessary for transporting large amounts of resources nationally and internationally. Railroads simultaneously connected people with far off lands and made travel easier and far more convenient. As with all human advancement, there have been unforeseen negative consequences in the form of maltreatment and environmental damage. Resources had to be shipped across the country to construct the railroads. This means there has to be large-scale deforestation going on in order to supply railroads with the necessary wood. One company in the Appalachian Mountains chopped down as much as 1,162,900 feet of sawed lumber and 57,749 railroad ties in the span of a year (Lewis, 1998, 43). The Pacific Northwest encountered rapid and reckless deforestation, as seen in Figure 7, which contributed to the erosion of the mountainsides of the Cascade Mountains (Ellis 1968, 139). Additionally, railroads affect the process of deforestation. Railroad systems are used in Siberia to transport lumber from Russian forests to consumers in China. Over 16 million acres of Russian forests were cut in 2018 for economic gain, leading the world in deforestation rates (Kramer 2019). Railroads have been a prime mover of goods, resources, and people since the nineteenth-century, and thus have served as drivers of anthropogenic changes to the landscape and environment. A myriad of natural resources is needed to construct the railroad tracks, not to mention the large quantity needed to maintain the rail system. The amount of land that has been devoted to railroads and the businesses surrounding railroads is immense, with just under 140,000 miles of tracks in the United States alone (U.S Department of Transportation, 2020). Internationally, “the most basic environmental impact from…rail is the destruction of habitat to create a transportation corridor” (Losos, et al. 2019, 8). Devotion of linear infrastructures like railways directly correlates to rates of deforestation (Losos, et al. 2019, 14). Other parts of the world have been impacted too. In India, much of the deforestation that is seen today can be dated all the way back to the nineteenth-century when railroad construction began (Das 2010, 38). Today there are roughly 67,546 miles of rail on the Indian landscape (Indian Railways, 21). In Europe, the Deutsche Bahn (DB) rail system seems to blanket the continent with 643 million miles of railroads being laid by 2013 (Marketline Industry Profile 2015, 18). Furthermore, it is projected that global rail networks will increase in size because of advancing energy sources (Popp and Boyle 2017). Overall railroad construction has terraformed the surface of the earth to fit the needs of growing consumers. It therefore promotes the notion of the Capitalocene: a geological change that has been driven by the effects of capitalism. The need for transportation has long been an idea with the notion of profit at the forefront of companies. The siphoning of resources for the sake of economic progress has taken its toll on the earth, a toll that will be seen for many years to come. The iron ax head represents the impact that rail has had on the environment and promotes the notion that humans have changed earth’s natural systems for their own gain. Since the booming days of railroads and the industrial revolution, axes at large have decreased in use. This is largely in part to human advancement and creating more efficient ways to cut down trees. The mechanization of the world now allows us to befall larger trees at faster rates with less laborers. Now people and corporations use chainsaws or circular saws to cut their railroad ties. Compared to the broadhead ax, this saves a lot of time and increases efficiency. Axes today are commonly used to chop wood for fires or for hobbies. In fact, Ax throwing has become a popular activity across the western world. While axes are less popular, railways for personal use are more active than ever. In 2019, Amtrak trains carried over 3 and a half million passengers across the United States (Lazo 2019). Subway and elevated rail systems exist within larger cities internationally, moving commuters and tourists. Elsewhere in the world, railroad technology has evolved to use metal tracks, thereby eliminating the need for the broadhead ax. High-speed rail is developing at a rapid rate, allowing people to travel at unthinkably fast speeds. For example, in Japan, there is a passenger rail system that can move people at hundreds of miles per hour, as opposed to the early steam engines which a horse could outrun. Some even argue that railways are a more ecologically conscious form of transportation than cars due to its concentration of access points. If a person can only access trains from spread out points, the population grows around that point and does not spread elsewhere. If they do not go elsewhere, more land is left untouched by humans (Losos et al. 2019, 19). While the hewing ax is no longer common, it is undeniable that it had a major impact when it came to the creation of rail systems across the world, similar to the railroads found here in Omaha. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Colton Miller Hannah Juday Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Carpenter, T. G. The Environmental Impact of Railways. Chichester, Sussex: John Wiley & Sons, 1994. Colton & co. Nebraska. 1869. Das, Pallavi. "Colonialism and the Environment in India: Railways and Deforestation in 19th Century Punjab." Journal of Asian and African Studies (Leiden) 46, no. 1 (2011): 38-53. Dilts, James D. The Great Road: The Building of the Baltimore and Ohio, the Nation's First Railroad, 1828-1853. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1993. Ellis, Hamilton. The Pictorial Encyclopedia of Railways. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1968. Everts and Kirk. Douglas County. 1885. “Freight Rail Overview.” Federal Railroad Administration. U.S. Department of Transportation, Last modified July 28, 2020. https://railroads.dot.gov/rail-network-development/freight-rail-overview. Grant, H. Roger. The Railroad: The Life Story of a Technology. Greenwood Technographies.Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2005. “Indian Railways: Lifeline to the Nation.” Indian Railways. Ministry of Railways-Railway Board, July 15, 2021. https://indianrailways.gov.in/railwayboard/view_section.jsp?lang=0&id=0%2C1%2C261 Klein, Maury. Union Pacific. 1st ed. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1987. Kramer, Andrew E. “As the Chinese Cut down Siberia's Forests, Tensions with Russians Rise.” The New York Times. The New York Times Company, July 25, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/25/world/europe/russia-china-siberia-logging.html. Lazo, Luz. “Amtrak touts record ridership, revenue for fiscal 2019.” The Washington Post. Nash Holdings, November 8, 2019. Lewis, Ronald L. Transforming the Appalachian Countryside: Railroads, Deforestation, and Social Change in West Virginia, 1880-1920. 1998. Link, Alessandra. “Editing for Expansion: Railroad Photography, Native Peoples, and the American West, 1860–1880.” Western Historical Quarterly 50, no. 3 (2019): 281–313. https://doi.org/10.1093/whq/whz043. Losos, Elizabeth, Alexander Pfaff, Lydia Olander, Sara Mason, and Seth Morgan. “Reducing Environmental Risks from Belt and Road Initiative Investments in Transportation Infrastructure.” World Bank Group, January 2019. https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/700631548446492003/pdf/WPS8718.pdf. “Market Line Industry Profile: Railroads in France.” 2014. Railroads Industry Profile: France, January, 1–35. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=shib&db=bth&AN=95032145&site=ehost-live. Middleton, P. Harvey. Railways and the Equipment and Supply Industry. 2nd ed. Chicago: Railway Business Association, 1941. Peterson, Jess. “A Short History of the Early Development of Omaha, Nebraska.” Historic Omaha, (2011). http://www.historicomaha.com/hstrypag.htm#:~:text=Early%20industry%20in%20Omaha%20also,prevention%20and%20water%20delivery%20services. Popp, J. N., and S. P. Boyle. “Railway Ecology: Underrepresented in Science?” Basic and Applied Ecology 19 (March 2017): 84–93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2016.11.006. “Population of Nebraska Incorporated Places, 1860 to 1920.” Nebraska State Government, (January 13, 2010). https://opportunity.nebraska.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Places-Populations_1860-1920.pdf Previts, Gary John, and William D. Samson. “Exploring the Contents of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Annual Reports: 1827–1856.” Accounting Historians Journal 27, no. 1 (June 2000): 1–42. Roberts, J. C. D. “Discursive Destabilization of Socio-Technical Regimes: Negative Storylines and the Discursive Vulnerability of Historical American Railroads.” Energy Research & Social Science 31 (September 2017): 86–99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2017.05.031. Sloane, Eric. A Museum of Early American Tools. Mincola, New York: Dover Publications, 2002. Union Pacific. Union Pacific System Map. 2022 Union Pacific Railroad. “Station Map of South Omaha. Douglas and Sarpy Counties, Nebraska. P-4003-13.” David Rumsey Historical Map Collection. Cartography Associates, 1945. https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~329418~90097880:Station-Map-of-South-Omaha-Douglas?sort=Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No&qvq=q%3AOmaha%3Bsort%3APub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No%3Blc%3ARUMSEY~8~1&mi=3&trs=125. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The Durham Museum Permanent Collection Axe Deforestation Railroad Union Pacific https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/b55c2345327dfc6b59fff90a60d34a0c.jpg 7a95a61fce027b54d790d6b85d88ee4d 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/. Description An account of the resource This is an image of our object, a Memorex VHS tape with a recording of Merry Tuba Christmas, 1991. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Durham Museum Permanent Collection, Merry Tuba Christmas, 1991 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 Living in a World of Our Own Making Subject The topic of the resource <a href="http://www.igbp.net/images/18.950c2fa1495db7081ebd1/1421396650502/GreatAcceleration2015igbpsrclowres.jpg" title="IGBP - The Great Acceleration Dashboard" target="_blank">The Great Acceleration</a> <img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4721/40562555551_972c132773_o.jpg" 100="" width="100% height=" /> <span style="font-size: 3;"> </span> Description An account of the resource The Anthropocene means “The Age of Humans,” but what does it mean to live in a world of our own making? Humanity has flourished in past two centuries. Two thirds of every person ever born lived between 1945 and today. Scientists call this era of expanding population, economic development, and environmental impact the “Great Acceleration.” People are now more numerous and powerful than ever before. Mining moves more rocks and soils than all of the worlds rivers combined. Artificial fertilizers have doubled the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus in our soils. Plastics can now be found on mountain tops and the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Paradoxically, many of the most profound changes to global environments pass virtually unnoticed. Nuclear fallout, for instance, is invisible to the naked eye, but radioactive evidence of cold war weapons tests remains in soils around the world. Until recently, lead was one of the most common materials in industrial use. It was used to seal our foods, paint our homes, and power our cars. Lead is toxic, especially for children. Although invisible, lead is now in our soils, in our cities, and even in our blood. By contrast, concrete is virtually everywhere, yet we rarely think about it. We drive on it, work in it, and the foundations of this very museum are built using it. More than half of the concrete ever produced was manufactured between 1995-2015. Concrete requires enormous energy to mine, transport, and produce. These consequences are as invisible to us as the material is abundant. As you finish your journey through the exhibit, consider how many other “invisible” materials influence our lives and connect us to the global environment. Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. 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 VHS Tape Subject The topic of the resource This is a VHS tape of a 1991 Christmas concert in Omaha. It was donated to the Durham Museum by the Omaha Musician’s Society. This tape serves as a record of people's experience that Christmas in 1991 and many recordings like this one help keep people’s memories alive. This VHS tape connects Omaha’s history to global environmental history because of what VHS was and how it was used. VHS gave people a new way to access and share information. As this technology progressed, people everywhere became able to preserve their lives on tape. VHS is no longer used today but it stands as an example of cycles of consumption and growth during the Anthropocene. Now we have phones and the internet to record and share our experiences but ultimately the modern media appetite is thanks to the humble VHS. Description An account of the resource The VHS tape is a significant artifact in Omaha’s environmental history because VHS was an important medium people used to record their lives and preserve the events happening in Omaha. It links Omaha’s environmental history to the global history of the Anthropocene because it was a major step in informatics and consequently, human cultural evolution as it increased the average person’s ability to record and consume information through media. It was used widely to preserve the past, including here in Omaha, as well as around the world. Dating back to their conception, magnetic strip cassette tape recorders were first developed by Ampex in the 1950s for the news media industry (Mix Staff 2011, others). However, it was not until later that VHS arose out of a hard won “format war” in corporate competition with the Betamax format developed by Sony in 1975 (Knight 2015). While bulkier and of lower image quality, VHS ultimately won out over Betamax as the dominant home video system format because of its greater recording duration. VHS was developed by JVC in 1976 and became the leading technology with a majority market share by 1980, for use both by businesses and private households (Knight 2015). The tape itself consists of plastic and metal pigment layers, “the plastic layer consisting mainly of polyethylene terephthalate” (Pontynen, 2019). PET is the most common polymer used in the production of the various components of a VHS unit. The metal pigment layers supported the analog technicolor capabilities of early VCR sets. The plastic shell of a VHS tape is also of a basic hard plastic; a “semicrystalline thermoplastic that comes from refining petroleum as most all plastics do” (Aslan et al, 1997.). These plastic components of VHS beg their own environmental impact analysis, given the effects of oil refining on the Anthropocene. A majority of plastics are made of fossil fuel hydrocarbons which comes from an industry that has uniquely contributed to the anthropogenic climate crisis to an unequivocal extent. The polymer used is also a very durable form of plastic which makes it more difficult to reuse and recycle. It will not naturally degrade on its own. Despite the materials argument, it is the social impact which has made the VHS such an interesting lens through which to view the Anthropocene. VHS was a landmark technology especially given its broad availability and novelty to customers across the globe. Counting Betamax too, it was the first readily available means for people to record themselves or the things they experienced for later viewing. Earlier mediums like photography, phonography and silent film could capture reality in one or two dimensions (imagery, audio and time, and imagery and time), but this was the first time imagery, audio, and time were all able to be recorded onto a single analogue record. As explained in the 1992 article “Camcorders'', this technology would put portable recording devices in the hands of anyone who could afford it, at first supporting only the bulky VHS format, but then eventually shrinking down to the more manageable VHS-C format that offered video recording devices that could be operated with one hand weighing in at only 2lbs (“Camcorders'', 1992.) The artifact we have in particular is a tape recording of a 1991 Christmas Pageant that occurred here in Omaha at the Western Heritage Museum. This object was in the collection at Durham because it was donated by the Omaha Musician’s Association, the tape is titled Merry Tuba Christmas Western Heritage Museum 1991. The Omaha Musician’s society was originally chartered on November 19th, 1897, and has continued to provide music and culture to the Omaha community for 125 years (〖American Federation of Musicians〗^). This particular Christmas concert in Omaha was recorded as a piece of Omaha’s history and how the community gathered together for the holidays and for music. The VHS tape itself is not especially unique to Omaha’s history. VHS tapes were ways for people temporally or spatially displaced from the actual recorded event to gain or relive experiences both commercially and privately. In particular, the ability to record audio and video dramatically changed the way people experienced music (Mallinder 2015). This is evident here as well, the Christmas concert that was played in Omaha in 1991 is recorded on this tape and to experience it you neither have to time travel nor have been alive in Omaha in 1991. It is a connection to the past for the people of Omaha and a glimpse into life here 30 years ago. This tape is simply an example of thousands like it that were created here in Omaha and of many more like it around the world that are now relics of a previous era. VHS in its time was exceptionally commonplace and could be found in every American’s home (Boucher, 2008). Although not especially unique due to its ubiquity, VHS was culturally impactful and quickly became a part daily life with commercial movies and home videos. Part of its appeal and rise to popularity was the accessibility of the tapes and the multiplicity of their purpose. VHS allowed people to record and rewatch their favorite shows, games, and events in a way like never before. While this one contains a Christmas concert, going to any thrift store or estate sale around the country, one could find someone's eighth-grade musical from the 80s or a 1979 championship game. The ubiquity of VHS is what solidified its impact and although it finally died its commercial death in 2008, it remains relevant to so many people due to the moments and memories stored on them. Although VHS was deeply relevant to people around the country, including Omaha, the manufacturing was done elsewhere. This tape was made by Memorex which was a major technology start-up corporation in Silicon Valley. Their products were widely distributed around the world so this was not made in Omaha, but it could easily have been purchased at a Nebraska retailer. The financial impact of VHS in Omaha did not come from production but rather from distribution. Video stores such as Blockbuster, and electronics stores like RadioShack, used to be found all around the city commercially distributing movies and VCR technology. A search through the Yellow Pages reveals that there were once at least nine different video stores in the city of Omaha. They have all since closed. The last reviews on the Saddle Creek Blockbuster were left in 2008 before they shut their doors for good after 32 years in business (C., Crystal, 2008). The death of the VHS was also effectively the death of video stores and the commercial economy of personal media, but this corner of the market was naturally replaced with cellphone stores as the technology passed onto better things. While they did eventually fade from common use, VHS was once a major form of entertainment and record keeping for people and organizations alike. VHS tapes were used recreationally in two major ways; the first was through home video recordings where people documented special moments in their lives, and the second was for Hollywood. The preservation of the human experience and all it entails such as weddings, concerts, or something as simple as playing with the dog were a part of this first use. The 1982 Memorex commercial's slogan was “Is it live or is it Memorex?” was an attempt to sell customers on the clarity and the vividness of their VHS tapes (Memorex VHS Tapes Ad from 1982). The second way VHS tapes were used recreationally was for entertainment through recorded movies, television, and music. Hollywood mass-produced and distributed its films and recorded its TV series for the public to consume. Either through purchase or rent, VHS tapes became the main form of multimedia consumption at home for many people, being the preferred option to going out to the movies etc. For the people living in the VHS era; “going to the movies meant staying home” (Yue, 2013) and this became an widely popular choice. Video recording was an important tool occupationally from Hollywood scales to local businesses. VHS allowed movie video productions to make larger profits by selling their films rather than simply playing in theaters. Businesses were also able to record commercials and presentations and distribute those changing marketing practices. New occupations even came about from the invention of VHS ranging from production to television shows like America’s Funniest Home Videos. The tapes are continuing to create new occupational uses as they are recycled and digitized now that their format has gone out of style. While hotly debated, it’s simple enough to say that the Anthropocene is the accumulated impact of anthropogenic cycles of consumption and production, from the use of wood for the fire that dates back over 120,000 years ago, to the industrialized production paradigm of capitalism. The production paradigm is the notion that cycles of production and consumption are the end goal of a growth oriented self-replicating system. How the VHS is situated in this greater socio-ecological constellation is up to interpretation. VHS tapes can serve as a symbol of technology and industrial capitalism in a western media-based society as it represents the first practical commodification of AV multimedia. As a marvel of western consumerism, it stands conceptually as a ledger, a testament of record, to the happenings of a time of anthropocentric thought and social-economic development as well as to itself (evident in the Memorex commercial being recorded on Memorex). The VHS, a symbol of the 1980s and 90s, represented a global urge to gather, store and disseminate visual information. The VHS was originally developed for use by News agencies but came to represent a ubiquitous item common to all “western” idyllic households. Now it stands as a relic of the mistakes and achievements of a time of rapid global industrialization and commodification. As referenced in a number of articles (Boucher, 2008. Knight, 2015. Paige, 1998. Verna, 1996. Solheim, 2003. Wloszczyna, 2002.) This is largely an object of the past, albeit the recent past, but the past nonetheless. Sony ceased Betamax equipment production in 2002 (Knight, 2015.) while the best-known date for the end of VHS seems to be 2016 (Walton, 2016.). I think it’s best to say that the historical relationships that link VHS to the Anthropocene have accelerated since its heyday as today media is recorded, shared, and consumed at an unthinkable rate. To demonstrate this point, if you can excuse a brief disregard for formality, I’ll step out of the writing to cite myself as evidence: even I can’t even fully realize how incredible it is that I can just search up topical articles in a heartbeat for the research component of writing this very piece! So, if VHS represents the personalization and commodification of media catered recreationally to individuals, then what we have today with smartphones, YouTube, DVD, and streaming is that same concept on crack, if you’ll excuse my colloquial language. In some sense the VHS was unique, it was somehow more idealistically pure than the hodgepodge that is contemporary media. It obviously was a commodity that cornered the market that was produced and licensed by private enterprise but, at the same time, it represents something greater today, abstracted from what it physically was, the object itself an artifact of something that has more or less disappeared from the cultural diet. The anthropogenic socioecological connection has infinitely broadened from the product it once was but if we forget the connections it has to the development of the modern media appetite, as a plastic, highly industrialized, commodity good; it still had an impact that may not have disappeared when it ceased to be physically produced. On a different note, one could argue that as long as a single VHS exists out there, the material basis for judging its anthropological importance remains. Plastic is a product of the technology and innovation that has marked the Anthropocene as an anthropogenic (possibly a capital-o-genic) epoch and few things are as idyllically plastic as a VHS tape which is made almost entirely of plastic polymers and can be used, molded, into any shape the user pleases whether it be documentary or a silly video of one’s child playing with their dog. So, this argument that the plastic itself physically has to disappear for the connection to truly be severed, or under the argument that the VHS tape was symbolically plastic (moldable and long lived) made it unique for one reason or another for which reason it hasn’t completely disappeared with its usefulness. The VHS tape was invented as a direct reaction to capitalism and industrialization. These two themes are very closely related and intertwined throughout the Anthropocene and its many creations and inspirations. The VHS was initially developed and rapidly advanced to fill the consumer need for video technology and information consumption that it could provide (Shiraishi, 1985). The first form of commercial VHS hit the market in 1956 and only 15 years later the technology had advanced from expensive commercial equipment to home video recorders. Just as quickly as it rose though, VHS tapes would fall out of favor to be replaced by DVDs and later streaming (Yue, 2013). These fast-paced changes are a result of the consumer-driven capitalistic society which is always looking to advance and find the next best thing. This mass production and distribution of the VHS is also related to the Anthropocene in its own way. The materials that make up VHS and the production process were costly both financially and environmentally. The tapes are made up of plastics formed from polyester resins (Aslan, 1997). Plastic production has undoubtedly had a major impact on the environment. The plastics in the VHS were chemically synthesized and, as a result, tend to be difficult to recycle leading to pollutant factors on both ends. The production of the resins also results in carbon outputs which contributed to the carbon-climate crisis we face today. The mass production and subsequent decline of VHS tapes is evidence of cyclical obsolescence, which is a critical component of the production paradigm of the Anthropocene. This VHS tape is a representation of both human culture and innovation. Industrialization and technological advancements made it possible for its invention. On the other hand, its practical use in the media and in individual homes made it a valuable means of record keeping and sentimental value. This is connected to the Anthropocene because it changed the way humans interacted with each other with the addition of personal recordings and a societal shift to multimedia. These same kind of records also contributed to the global economies and capitalist infrastructures of the present which today drive the ongoing global environmental impact of humans and consequently the Anthropocene. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Donald Brorson Victoria Farrington Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Aslan, S, B. Immirzi, P. Laurienzo, M. Malinconico, E. Martuscelli, M. G. Volpe, M. Pelino, and L. Savini. “Unsaturated Polyester Resins from Glycolysed Waste Polyethyleneterephthalate: Synthesis and Comparison of Properties and Performance with Virgin Resin.” Journal of Materials Science 32, no. 9 (May 1997): 2329–36. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1018584519173. Boucher, Geoff. “VHS Era Is Winding Down.” Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, December 22, 2008. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-dec-22-et-vhs-tapes22-story.html. “Camcorders.” 1992. Consumer Reports 57 (3): 161–69. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=shib&db=aph&AN=9204131129&site=ehost-live. C., Crystal, and nape9393. “Blockbuster - Closed in Omaha , NE.” YP.com, June 4, 2008. https://www.yellowpages.com/omaha-ne/mip/blockbuster-4821900. Knight, Shawn. “Sony Finally Decides It's Time to Kill Betamax.” TechSpot. TechSpot, November 10, 2015. https://www.techspot.com/news/62733-sony-finally-decides-time-kill-betamax.html. Mallinder, S. “Live or Memorex? Changing Perceptions of Music Practices.” The Digital Evolution of Live Music, July 28, 2015, 55–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-08-100067-0.00005-1. Memorex VHS Tapes Ad from 1982 - Is It Live Or Is It Memorex? YouTube. YouTube, 2008. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZyFcJcZiaU. Mix Staff. “1956: Ampex VRX-1000 First Commercial Video Recorder.” Mixonline, January 1, 2011. https://www.mixonline.com/technology/1956-ampex-vrx-1000-first-commercial-video-recorder-383723. Myers, Fred, and Lisa Stefanoff. “‘We Never Had Any Photos of My Family’: Archival Return, Film, and a Personal History.” Language Documentation and Conservation Volume Special, no. Issue 18 (2020): 217–38. "Visual Deficiencies of Digitized Analog Video-a Study of a Video Home System (VHS) Archive.". “Omaha Musicians' Association.” Local 70-558 - Omaha Musicians' Association :: Official Website of the American Federation of Musicians. Accessed November 3, 2022. https://members.afm.org/locals/info/number/70-558. Paige, Earl. “Used-Tape Business Flourishes.” Billboard 110, no. 22, May 30, 1998. Pöntynen, Simo. “Chemical Recycling of Magnetic Tape.” LUTPub, January 1, 2019. https://lutpub.lut.fi/handle/10024/160223. “The Rise and Fall of the VHS.” Southtree. Accessed November 3, 2022. https://southtree.com/blogs/artifact/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-vhs. Sawyer, T., R. Anderson, and G. McCuaig. 1986. "Is it Live Or is it Memorex?". doi:10.1145/324239.324295. Shiraishi, Yuma. “History of Home Videotape Recorder Development.” SMPTE Journal 94, no. 12 (December 1985): 1257–63. https://doi.org/10.5594/j03317. Solheim, Mark K., and Joan Goldwasser. 2003. “From Grooves to Gigabytes.” Kiplinger’s Personal Finance 57 (9): 98. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=shib&db=aph&AN=10515105&site=ehost-live. Verna, Paul. “`No Format Reigns Forever,' but Tape's Future Is by No Means a Wrap.” Billboard, July 13, 1996, Vol. 108 edition, sec. Issue 28. Walton, Mark. “Last Known VCR Maker Stops Production, 40 Years after VHS Format Launch.” Ars Technica, July 21, 2016. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/07/vcr-vhs-production-ends/. Whiteman, W. and B. Mathews. 2007. "Is it Real Or is it Memorex: A Distance Learning Experience." Wloszczyna, Susan. “VHS Is so Familiar, It Can Be Scary.” USA Today. October 15, 2002. Yue, Genevieve. “Book Review: Killer Tapes and Shattered Screens: Video Spectatorship from VHS to File Sharing.” Film Quarterly 67, no. 1 (2013): 91–92. https://doi.org/10.1525/fq.2013.67.1.91. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The Durham Museum Permanent Collection media memory Plastic VHS https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/aaaa3a776d204afbb0d68f69a0d166bc.jpg 1b4476cd886150262d0aaa742ed80eba 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 Branding Iron Subject The topic of the resource Our object photographed at the Durham Museum on 9/10/22 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Elise Gooding-Lord Bridget Courtney Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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 Taming the Landscape Subject The topic of the resource The Early Anthropocene<br /><br /> <img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4740/38752446300_776a102fdd_o.jpg" 100="" width="100% height=" /> <span style="font-size: 3;"> </span> Description An account of the resource When did people begin to take control of the global environment? Humans have shaped their local environments for hundreds of thousands of years. As populations increased, their impacts expanded. Two changes greatly accelerated human influence on a global scale: the movement of hunting societies and the development of agriculture. By the end of the last ice age, humans had migrated across much of Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Whenever humans appeared, a wave of extinctions followed. In the Americas, large animals such as the Mastodon and Giant Beaver went extinct shortly after the arrival of people. Although scientists debate the origin of these mass extinctions (changing climate likely played a role), hunting was a significant factor. The development of agriculture played an even more important role in global environmental change. People began domesticating plants and animals around the world roughly 12,000 years ago. The stone (“lithic”) tools in our exhibit speak to this dramatic change. Agriculture often required clearing forested lands, irrigating, or fertilizing landscapes to make them suitable for crops. These changes were the foundation for settlement and later the rise of complex civilizations all over the world. Agriculture and hunting continue to reshape environments on a global scale today. The bison in this exhibit represents the consequences of modern overhunting and the single-wheel hoe represents our continued reliance on agriculture. These objects remind us that “taming the landscape” revolutionized societies, but they also produced global environmental consequences. They connect us to a deep past and symbolize a transformation that continues to shape the modern world. Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. 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 Branding Iron Subject The topic of the resource Branding irons marked cattle ownership. Ranchers used brands on the Great Plains to prevent theft or miscommunication. This is indicative of an era when producers and consumers of beef spread across vast distances. The iron is not specific to a ranch but symbolizes changes in the cattle economy during the 19th and 20th centuries. As demand for red meat grew- the supply could not keep up. Sources of meat grew more distant. Foreign environments came to feed American appetites and similar changes took place around the world. Shipping meat across distances hides its economic and environmental costs. These costs do not disappear but become a dept paid by future consumers and the planet. This branding iron symbolizes the relationship in the Anthropocene. Description An account of the resource While a device that was created to permanently burn cattle with an identifying symbol may not sound important in relation to the environment, that isn’t actually the case. The branding iron may not seem like a lot at first glance, but in reality, it is an important artifact in not only Omaha’s environmental history, but also global environmental history. This is because it serves as a symbol of the significance of the cattle ranching industry. The cattle ranching industry has had major effects on not only the environment in Nebraska and the rest of the United States, but the world environment as well. The demand for red meat in the United States accelerated the cattle ranching industry. As the consumer demand for meat rose- the requirement of materials to produce beef, such as pastureland, laborers, feed, all increased exponentially. These concerns were addressed by outsourcing red meat production, which has led to food production becoming more environmentally impactful. This same phenomenon took place worldwide and has created the global food web that we have present in today’s society. Therefore, the branding iron, while relatively small, symbolizes the large effect that its industry has had on global history and therefore the Anthropocene. Branding cattle is necessary on ranches to differentiate between two herds that share the same grazing space (Lombard 226). Brands are also useful when it comes to preventing the theft of livestock, as a permanent mark on the animal would make it impossible for anyone to try to claim it as their own, if the brand doesn’t belong to them (“Livestock Brands”). These brands often represent the owners “character” given there are no requirements for the symbols to represent anything specific such as the name of the ranch or owner, though they should be decently simple and recognizable (“Livestock Brands”). Once a brand is designed it can be registered for in states that have brand registers, so long as it is a unique symbol that no other ranch is using, which can be difficult to achieve due to the large number of existing brands (“Livestock Brands”). Due to the fact that not all states register their brands and the fact that there is no national brand registration book, it is difficult to determine both where our brand comes from. The simplicity of the branding iron has allowed for it to be used for centuries; however it also makes dating our branding iron problematic as there have seemingly been little changes to the structure of the branding iron since its introduction to the New World (“Livestock Brands”). The brand itself appears to be intact, though the exact symbol may not be obvious. While it appears to be a lowercase “h”, which is what the Durham Museum describes it as, brands are typically composed of capital letters, which means that it is possible that our brand depicts something other than a “h” (“Livestock Brands”). Branding symbols can also be made up of multiple characters or pictures, with brands today often being made of at least three symbols due to the number of existing brands, this means that our brand may not be one symbol, but multiple combined together to make one picture that happens to look like an lowercase “h” (“Livestock Brands”). It is a little humorous that something that was created to assist with identification can be so hard to identify, but the value that the branding iron holds as a symbol of anthropogenic environmental change is still clear. Branding irons in general played an important role in the history of cattle ranching. The origin of cattle branding can be traced back to Egypt in 2700 B.C., but it made its way to the New World from Europe because of Hernando Cortez in 1541 (“Livestock Brands”) This happened because many Spanish and Portuguese colonies in Latin America participated with cattle ranching, and their techniques would have eventually been observed by Texans due to their proximity and eventually adopted by them (“The Origin” 122). The original brands from Spain tended to be complicated with beautiful designs, which made them not very practical, leading to American ranchers to create brands that were more simplistic, easy to remember and produce, while also being effective and difficult to change (“Livestock Brands”). When cattle ranching first became prominent in the United States it was primarily in the Texas and California areas (“The Overemphasis” 2). While ranchers from both areas tried to get their ranching methods spread across the country, with Texas targeting the Great Plains and California the Great Basin neither method lasted past the end of the nineteenth century (“The Overemphasis” 9). At that point a new cattle ranching culture started to rise in popularity, this being the midwestern system of cattle ranching. This new system originated in the Midwest and mountain South, and primarily deviated from the ranching culture in Texas and California with its use of methods originating from the British highlands, instead of ones of Spanish influence (“The Overemphasis” 9). The midwestern system also tended to have more of a focus on the welfare of the cattle and had practices in place that helped the cattle survive through winters and harsh weather, while the Texas and California systems didn’t (“The Overemphasis” 9). This system can be traced back to the 1850s, specifically in Nebraska with its “road ranches” that were set up along the trails, but it only started to spread across the country after the collapse of the Texas and California systems, both of which happened around the 1880s (“The Overemphasis” 12). With the midwest system of cattle ranching being the most popular by the end of the nineteenth century, it would eventually be the system that most ranchers or future ranchers would adapt once they moved out west for the new opportunities that were promised to them by the United States following the Civil War. The end of the Civil War in the United States opened opportunities for Euro-American settlers to move out West. The United States Government incentivized people to move with the Homestead Act of 1862 that allowed for any US citizen to claim 160 acres of land (Homestead Act). The act had requirements of “improving” the land in the first five years, but the Homestead Act was very indistinct about how the land had to change in order to meet these requirements. Individuals and companies began abusing The Homestead Act, for economic and personal gain, and by the end of 1934 10% of all US lands were distributed into individual hands (Potter 360). These lands were not the US government’s to distribute however- the vast majority of them were inhabited by Native peoples, with established communities, hunting practices and lifestyles (Pritzke 8). The Homestead Act did not account for this and there was a mass displacement of Native peoples in a violent manner. This led to conflict throughout the country as Natives defended their homes, this time period is known as the Indian Wars (Michno 364). As Euro-Americans started occupying this land, the native bison were seen as a nuisance, untamable, and most importantly not profitable (Hornaday 457). Moving forward the bison were killed off in order for the preferred bovine cattle to take their place (Hornaday 466). There was lots of new business in the West including mining, farming, and cattle ranching (Kivette 177). The colonial practices that encouraged a complete change in landscape and lifestyle by displacing the current ecosystems made the ideal conditions for cattle ranching to thrive. Cattle ranching had lots of potential because during the Civil War, the populations of cattle in Texas had gone unchecked and were now substantially large (Russel 6). The cattle were unbranded as well, making them easy targets for theft (Gard 1). Cattle are not suited for every climate, they require large grazing areas and moderate temperatures which can be seen throughout the central and northern plains, making it seemingly ideal for cattle ranches. (Kim 112). However, cattle also required moving each season to keep the grass plentiful and the cattle alive through the winter (Niedringhaus 18). This led to the development of a rotational grazing system for cattle ranches (Niedringhaus 20). Cattle ranching also requires immense amounts of resources to be brought in such as feed, laborers, ranching equipment, and more (Beef Checkoff 9). The ranching system along with many other emerging economic systems, all needed an efficient way to receive goods quickly- and the answer was the railroad system (Kinbacher 194). The Pacific Railroad Act in 1862 marked the creation of the largest rail system in the US, one that started construction in Omaha, Nebraska (Pacific Railroad Act). The formation of this railroad was the start of a new transportation method that accelerated the production and consumer market. The terminal end in Omaha meant numerous economic opportunities for development, and at one point in the mid-20th century Omaha had the largest stockyards in the country (Kivett 178). Once the basics of cattle ranching were understood and the optimal conditions were met, cattle ranching could flourish into the start of the 20th century. By the start of the 20th century, cattle ranching was an economic powerhouse, and all the kinks had worked out in order to create the most profit per carcass. In 1909 the US was producing 6,915 million pounds of beef alone each year and imported a mere 2 million (USDA). This mass production of meat was creating a sudden availability of red meat on the market, which made the everyday consumer more eager to consume red meat (Holecheck 119). The US kept up with the demand for red meat until the start of the first World War (Holecheck 118). The war meant less men to work, and more mouths to feed each day. This was the first time that the US decided to outsource their meat production and open the trade doors for the beef to come from non-domestic lands, in 1914 the US imported 328 million pounds of beef compared to 45 million pounds the year before (USDA). The importation of beef slowed down dramatically after the end of the first world war and the American government encouraged the consumer to buy from a local source and support their hometown (Hulse 681). Then came the second World War, and with it another loss of the working class, creating a lack of red meat on the market. And in response the United States had a second uptake in beef imports. In the final year of the war, 1945, the US imported 130 million pounds of beef, and the very next year only imported 20 million pounds (USDA). This lull in imports did not last long however, in 1958 the United States established trade routes with Australia, Canada, and many others. This was in order to establish a constant red meat supply to US consumers and that year imported 1,184 million pounds of beef (USDA). After the United States had created the precedent of getting their meat from somewhere else, they got used to letting someone else do the work for them. The United States shipped the process of red meat production globally, but the costs did not disappear. The costs were instead paid by the planet, and other less wealthy countries (Ritchie 4). The exportation of this process played a key role in the destruction of world's forests becoming graze lands, as the time period of 1900 to present was when 23% of all natural surviving forests surviving on earth were converted to agricultural land-including crops and grazing land (Ritchie 5). This led to the creation of a global food web, allowing consumers to eat a cow that was butchered all the way across the world for dinner and not know any different (Boucher 45). However ignorant the consumer may be, the costs of outsourcing are innumerable and environmentally deleterious. The impacts of a global food web are compounding, and the price tag when purchasing a package of red meat from the grocery store does not include how many trees were cut down in order to allow that cow to graze (Dubay 2). Now that food is no longer being consumed on a local scale, there are transportation emissions, refrigeration processes, and added preservation stops along the way that all create a negative effect on the environment (Dubay 3). This shift from locally sourced beef to global food webs created a massive impact on our planet that can be seen here in the US and all over the world. Even though we might not know that many specific history or details about this branding iron, we know that the branding iron symbolizes the cattle ranching industry and the effects that it has had on Omaha and global history. The popularity of the cattle ranching industry helped to put Omaha on the map due to the industry’s reliance on railroad systems like Union Pacific and it helped give Omaha some of the biggest stockyards in the country. Globally the cattle ranching industry spread once it essentially got too big for the United States, who turned to outsourcing to keep up with the demand for red meat. This outsourcing would have large effects on the global environment which can still be seen and added on to today. As the population grows the need for red meat most likely will too, which would logically mean that the global environment and therefore the Anthropocene will continue to be affected by cattle ranching, or in a way, the branding iron. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Bridget Courtney Elise Gooding-Lord Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Act of May 20, 1862 (Homestead Act), Public Law 37-64 (12 STAT 392); 5/20/1862; Enrolled Acts and Resolutions of Congress, 1789 - 2011; General Records of the United States Government, Record Group 11; National Archives Building, Washington, DC. [Online Version, https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/homestead-act, November 18, 2022] Act of July 1, 1862 (Pacific Railroad Act), (12 STAT 489); 7/1/1862; Enrolled Acts and Resolutions of Congress, 1789 - 2011; General Records of the United States Government, Record Group 11; National Archives Building, Washington, DC. Anderson, Bruce. “Grasslands and Forages of Nebraska.”Rangelands, vol. 21, no. 1, 1999, pp.5–8. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4001500. Accessed 6 Oct. 2022. Beef Checkoff. “Quality Care and Handling Guidelines.” Beef Quality Assurance. Boucher, Doug, et al. “Cattle and Pasture.” The Root of the Problem: What’s Driving Tropical Deforestation Today, Union of Concerned Scientists, 2011, pp. 41–49. http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep00075.11. Accessed 3 Nov. 2022. Dubay, Adrianna, et al. The Water Footprint of Livestock | Mathematics of Sustainability. 16 Sept. 2018, muse.union.edu/mth-063-01-f18/2018/09/16/the-water-footprint-of-livestock. Gard, Wayne. “The Impact of the Cattle Trails.” The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, vol. 71, no. 1, 1967, pp. 1–6. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30237939. Accessed 3 Nov. 2022. Haggerty, J. H., M. Auger, and K. Epstein. "Ranching Sustainability in the Northern Great Plains: An Appraisal of Local Perspectives." Rangelands, vol. 40, no. 3, 2018, pp. 83-91. doi:10.1016/j.rala.2018.03.005. Hiller, Tim L., et al. “Long-Term Agricultural Land Use Trends in Nebraska, 1866—2007.” Great Plains Research, vol. 19, no. 2, 2009, pp. 225–37.http://www.jstor.org/stable/23780131. Accessed 3 Nov. 2022. Holechek, Jerry L., et al. “Macro Economics and Cattle Ranching.” Rangelands, vol. 16, no. 3, 1994, pp. 118–23. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4001044. Accessed 1 Nov. 2022. Hornaday, William Temple. The Extermination of the American Bison. United States, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1889. Hulse, David, and Robert Ribe. “Land Conversion and the Production of Wealth.” Ecological Applications, vol. 10, no. 3, 2000, pp. 679–82. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2641036. Accessed 1 Nov. 2022. Iverson, Peter. When Indians Became Cowboys: Native Peoples and Cattle Ranching in the American West. University of Oklahoma Press, 1994. Jordan, Terry G. “The Origin and Distribution of Open-Range Cattle Ranching.” Social Science Quarterly, vol. 53, no. 1, 1972, pp. 85-92. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42858856. Accessed 6 Oct. 2022. Jordan, Terry G. "Overemphasis of Texas as a Source of Western Cattle Ranching." (1992). Social Science Quarterly, vol. 53, no. 1, 1972, pp. 105–21. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42858856. Accessed 6 Oct. 2022. Kim, S., et al. “The Effect of Socioeconomic Factors on the Adoption of Best Management Practices in Beef Cattle Production.” Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, Soil and Water Conservation Society, 1 May 2005, https://www.jswconline.org/content/60/3/111/tab-article-info. Kivett, Marvin F. “The Nebraska State Historical Society.” History News, vol. 22, no. 8, 1967, pp. 177–79. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42646071. Accessed 1 Nov. 2022. “Livestock Brands.” Cowboy Showcase, https://www.cowboyshowcase.com/brands.html#.Y2MbUy-B06W. Lombard, Carol G., and Theodorus Du Plessis. “Beyond the Branding Iron: Cattle Brands as Heritage Place Names in the State of Montana.” Names, vol. 64, no. 4, 2016, pp. 224–233., https://doi.org/10.1080/00277738.2016.1223119. “Major Land Uses.” USDA ERS - Major Land Uses, https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/major-land-uses/. Makkar, H P S. “Review: Feed demand landscape and implications of food-not feed strategy for food security and climate change.” Animal : an international journal of animal bioscience vol. 12,8 (2018): 1744-1754. doi:10.1017/S175173111700324X Michno, Gregory. Encyclopedia of Indian Wars: Western Battles and Skirmishes, 1850-1890. Mountain Press Pub. Co., 2005. Niedringhaus, Lee I. “The N Bar N Ranch: A Legend of The Open-Range Cattle Industry 18 85-99.” Montana: The Magazine of Western History, vol. 60, no. 1, 2010, pp. 3–92. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25701715. Accessed 2 Nov. 2022. Potter, Lee Ann and Wynell Schamel. "The Homestead Act of 1862." Social Education 61, 6 (October 1997): 359-364. Pritzke, Frank. A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples. Oxford University Press, 2000. Ritchie, Hannah, and Max Roser. “Forests and Deforestation.” Our World in Data, 9 Feb. 2021, ourworldindata.org/forests-and-deforestation. Russell, John C. “Holding the Herd: Nelson Story’s 1866 Cattle Drive.” Montana: The Magazine of Western History, vol. 68, no. 4, 2018, pp. 4–92. http://www.jstor.org/stable/45200812. Accessed 1 Nov. 2022. Starrs, Paul F. Let the Cowboy Ride: Cattle Ranching in the American West. Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 2000. “Texas Cattle Trade in Omaha.” History Nebraska, https://history.nebraska.gov/texas-cattle-trade-in-omaha/. Thornton, Philip K. “Livestock production: recent trends, future prospects.” Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences vol. 365,1554 (2010): 2853-67. doi:10.1098/rstb.2010.0134 Union of Concerned Scientists. Cattle, Cleared Forests, and Climate Change: Scoring America’s Top Brands on Their Deforestation-Free Beef Commitments and Practices. Union of Concerned Scientists, 2016. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep17253. Accessed 2 Nov. 2022. USDA ERS - Food Availability (per Capita) Data System. www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-availability-per-capita-data-system. USDA ERS - Livestock and Meat International Trade Data. www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/livestock-and-meat-international-trade-data/livestock-and-meat-international-trade-data. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The Durham Museum Permanent Collection 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 &amp; Co.,Engravers and Printers, Chicago. (1890) David Rumsey.com <span style="font-size: 3;"> </span> </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 <p>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. &nbsp;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.</p> <p><span></span>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.</p> <p><span></span>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.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>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. &nbsp;</p> <p>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. &nbsp;</p> <p><span></span>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.</p> <p>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.</p> <p><span></span>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. &nbsp;</p> <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>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 &nbsp;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.</p> <p>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.</p> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Charlie Clarke Thomas Haggstrom Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <p>"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>.</p> <p>&nbsp;Aldrich, Tim.<em> About Time Speed, Society, People and the Environment</em>, edited by Aldrich, Tim E., Will Hutton. Sheffield: Sheffield : Greenleaf Pub, 2005.</p> <p>&nbsp;Bartky, Ian. "The Adoption of Standard Time." Technology and Culture 30, no. 1 (1989): 25.</p> <p>&nbsp;Binkley, Sue. <em>Biological Clocks: Your Owners Manual</em>. Harwood Academic Publishers, 1997.</p> <p>&nbsp;Boliang, Lin, Chang Liu, and Huijun Wang. "Modeling the Railway Network Design Problem: A Novel Approach to considering Carbon Emissions Reduction." <em>Transportation Research Part </em><em>D</em>56 (2017): 95-109.</p> <p>&nbsp;Levinson, Martin H. <em>Time-Binding Time: A History of Time-Measurement and Time-</em><em>Management in America</em>, April 2014, 1-11.</p> <p>&nbsp;Ogle, Vanessa.<em> The Global Transformation of Time : 1870-1950</em> Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England : Harvard University Press, 2015.</p> <p>&nbsp;Osterhammel, Jürgen.<em> The Transformation of the World : A Global History of the Nineteenth Century</em>, edited by Camiller, Patrick Princeton : Princeton University Press, 2014.</p> <p>&nbsp;Rigge, William F.<em> Memoirs</em>, edited by David E. Crawford, Stefanie Lierz February 1, 2008.</p> <p>&nbsp;Schmid, Jon, and Jonathan Huang. "State Adoption of Transformative Technology: Early Railroad Adoption in China and Japan." <em>International Studies Quarterly </em>61 (2017): 570-83.</p> <p>&nbsp;Sullivan, Rory, and Gouldson, Andy. "Ten Years of Corporate Action on Climate Change: What Do We Have to Show for It?" <em>Energy Policy</em> 60 (2013): 733-40.</p> 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/47352be44c6d1d9492e3d1fce2233952.jpg 850808ec128222fb6cadcd5eb79af5b0 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 Byron Reed Realty Housing Advertisement Description An account of the resource The original Bee-News housing ad that we are focusing on in this paper. We use this ad to connect suburbanization to the global Anthropocene. 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 Living in a World of Our Own Making Subject The topic of the resource <a href="http://www.igbp.net/images/18.950c2fa1495db7081ebd1/1421396650502/GreatAcceleration2015igbpsrclowres.jpg" title="IGBP - The Great Acceleration Dashboard" target="_blank">The Great Acceleration</a> <img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4721/40562555551_972c132773_o.jpg" 100="" width="100% height=" /> <span style="font-size: 3;"> </span> Description An account of the resource The Anthropocene means “The Age of Humans,” but what does it mean to live in a world of our own making? Humanity has flourished in past two centuries. Two thirds of every person ever born lived between 1945 and today. Scientists call this era of expanding population, economic development, and environmental impact the “Great Acceleration.” People are now more numerous and powerful than ever before. Mining moves more rocks and soils than all of the worlds rivers combined. Artificial fertilizers have doubled the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus in our soils. Plastics can now be found on mountain tops and the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Paradoxically, many of the most profound changes to global environments pass virtually unnoticed. Nuclear fallout, for instance, is invisible to the naked eye, but radioactive evidence of cold war weapons tests remains in soils around the world. Until recently, lead was one of the most common materials in industrial use. It was used to seal our foods, paint our homes, and power our cars. Lead is toxic, especially for children. Although invisible, lead is now in our soils, in our cities, and even in our blood. By contrast, concrete is virtually everywhere, yet we rarely think about it. We drive on it, work in it, and the foundations of this very museum are built using it. More than half of the concrete ever produced was manufactured between 1995-2015. Concrete requires enormous energy to mine, transport, and produce. These consequences are as invisible to us as the material is abundant. As you finish your journey through the exhibit, consider how many other “invisible” materials influence our lives and connect us to the global environment. 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 Housing Advertisement Subject The topic of the resource This housing ad from the 1920s represents the growth of Omaha’s suburbs. It advertises a house in Benson, which was a suburb of Omaha that was annexed into the city in 1917. Suburban growth in the early 1900s laid the foundation for the more famous boom of suburbanization that took place after World War II. This dramatic growth had negative effects on the environment. Automobile use increased because suburbs were more spread out and people had to drive farther to work in the city. People also lived in bigger houses that required more energy to heat and cool. Per capita greenhouse gas emissions remain higher in the suburbs than in urban cities. Greenhouse gas emissions are one of the major contributors to climate change. The housing ad reminds us of the connection suburban life has to the Anthropocene. Description An account of the resource <p>At 6520 Bedford Avenue, a two-story home stands equipped with seven bedrooms, fresh oak and maple floors, a brand new kitchen, and a garage that can accomodate a car comfortably. In the early 1990s, this house was sure to sell on sight, as described in the advertisement looking for new tenants. (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/admin/files/show/256">Figure I</a>) This paper analyzes that very Bee-News ad for the house at 6520 Bedford Avenue. The ad symbolizes the multiple annexations that took place in the Omaha area in the early nineteenth century, the city’s first period of suburbanization. Like most cities in the United States, Omaha grew tremendously during the period of 1880 to 1920, both in regard to population and area. From 1880 to 1920, Omaha’s population grew from 30,000 people to 200,000 people (Chudacoff 1972, 9). This first period of suburbanization laid the foundation for the more famous boom in suburbanization that took place after World War II. By serving as a reminder of suburbanization and its negative environmental effects, the housing ad connects Omaha to global environmental change in the age of the Anthropocene.</p> <p>The housing ad likely appeared in the 1920s. The house itself was built in 1912, but the ad reads that the house is “as good as new,” so it is likely the ad took place a few years later. The real estate company that put this house on the market was The Byron Reed Company. The history of The Byron Reed Company dates back to 1856 when the company was first founded, but Byron Reed had a significant presence in Omaha’s political councils long before establishing his company (Durham). The total price of the home is set at $4,650 with $40 monthly payments. These prices mirror the housing prices of the 1920s. Additionally, the house is referred to as a “Benson bargain.” Given that Benson was annexed into Omaha in 1917 in addition with all of the other factors, it is reasonable to assume the housing ad took place in the 1920s.</p> <p>Omaha’s public transportation system at the turn of the twentieth century drove Omaha’s increased land usage. (Chudacoff 1972, 9). It included <a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/admin/items/show/32">horse railways</a> and <a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/admin/items/show/2">railway lines</a>. The housing ad even mentions that the home is located near the Benson carline. The number of houses and total value of buildings in Omaha reflect this change in land consumption. By just 1884, there were 1174 new homes in Omaha (Chudacoff 1972, 14). In 1810, the total value of buildings was one million dollars. By 1890, the total reached 8 million (Chudacoff 1972, 14). Omaha experienced a construction boom from 1900 to 1920. Specifically, there were many lots available in Benson and Dundee, most of these being “ready-built” houses built by a single building firm with a standardized plan (Chudacoff 1972, 121).</p> <p>Initially, Benson was connected to the city by trolley lines (Chudacoff 1972, 18). In 1917, what was once “Benson Place” was annexed into the city of Omaha. This occurred simultaneously with annexation of Florence and two years after the annexation of South Omaha and Dundee. Benson and Florence were the first two suburbs that surrounded Omaha to be annexed under the state law, passed in 1917, that permitted annexation without a popular vote (Omaha World Herald 1977). The annexation movement during these years was driven by both business leaders and public administrators in an effort to grow Omaha and its tax revenue (Persigehl 2017). These annexations sometimes faced public opposition. For example, many people opposed annexing the city of South Omaha. In an article written in the Omaha World Herald titled <em>South Omaha Business Men Fight Annexation</em>, the author interviewed the president of the South Omaha Commercial club. In this interview, he expressed deep concern for the future of the city’s education system, real estate value, and economic debt (Omaha World Herald, 1906).</p> <p>Neighborhoods such as Benson and the growth of Omaha demonstrate the first stages of suburbanization. Today, the house advertised in the ad is be considered much closer to the center of Omaha than the metropolis’ western suburbs. Omaha now sits at 127.09 square miles with more suburban areas on the outskirts (United States Census Bureau). Omaha, like many industrial cities experienced suburbanization in the late 1800s and early 1900s and its first major suburban expansion took place in the 1920s. In 1922, 1,500 new houses were created in western neighborhoods (Larsen 2007, 197-198). The rich started to move to the suburbs around this same time. Larsen writes, “Builders, emphasizing the advantages of the automobile and the prospects of a cycle of rising land prices, lured rich Omahans away from the older north-side enclaves of Kountze Place and Miller Park to Fairacres and other western areas” (Larsen 2007, 197). As the Larsen quote hints at, the first few decades of the 1900s also saw an increase in the number of cars. In 1913 Nebraska had 25,617 registered vehicles and by 1920 there were 100,534 (Larsen 2007, 193). The increased popularity of the automobile caused a drastic reduction in the use of Omaha’s public transportation in the 1920s.</p> <p>Omaha’s first period of annexation and slight suburbanization is comparable to other cities across the United States as well. The increased popularity of the automobile across the country meant that people did not need to stay near streetcar lines. Because of this, urban development began to spread outward (Williams 2000, 5). Donald C. Williams writes in <em>Urban Sprawl: A Reference Handbook</em>, “Some of these early suburbs were absorbed by the older cities as each grew ineluctably toward the other over the ensuing decades” (Williams 2000, 5). Just like in Omaha, Williams argues that many of these suburbs were resistant to urban annexation (Williams 2000, 5). Additionally, the increase in houses being built in Omaha parallels the national scene. Under the Hoover administration, developers built twice as many homes in 1925 (937,000) than in 1922 (Rome 2001, 23). Though major suburbanization took place in the post World War II era, this large jump would not have taken place if it was not for the initial suburbanization in the early 1900s.</p> <p>The boom in suburbanization after World War II was much bigger than the first. Before WWII a mere 13% of Americans lived in the suburbs but, just over seven decades later, that number would rise to half of the U.S. population (Nicolaides and Wiese 2017, 1). The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History states that there were “two key chronological stages in suburban history since 1945: the expansive, racialized, mass suburbanization of the postwar years (1945–1970) and an era of intensive social diversification and metropolitan complexity (since 1970)” (Nicolaides and Wiese 2017, 1). During the first era of post-WWII suburbanization, the rise in populations that invaded the suburban neighborhoods caused a dramatic boost in real estate production. (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/admin/files/show/257">Figure II</a>) This likely resulted in an increase in housing ads similar to the one examined in this paper and certainly accelerated the environmental impacts of development.</p> <p>Though suburbanization was especially prevalent in the United States, the trend of suburbanization is not isolated to the United States. It was felt by many cities in different countries across the world. Cities in Europe, New Zealand, Japan, and Australia have all witnessed a decline in city populations due to increased popularity of the suburbs (Mason and Nigmatullina 2011, 317). For example, in West Germany, the average living area per person grew from from 22 square meters to 42 square meters from 1965 to 2010 because of suburbanization (Rontos et al. 2006). However, in places like Western Europe, the social and spatial segregation that is present in suburbanization in the United States, is less prevalent (Leetma and Tammaru 2007, 129). Though not every country has experienced suburbanization to the same extent as the United States has, the effects of it are still felt globally.</p> <p>Suburbanization is a major contributor to earth systems change in the Anthropocene. Various agricultural systems experienced change during suburbanization periods due to the overuse of rural and agricultural lands for the purpose of commercial real-estate (Wood 1988). A specific example of this can be seen through the conversion of farm lands in the state of New Jersey to urban establishments during the postwar period (Lopez et al. 1988). Once rich, fertile lands used to harvest economically and environmentally essential crops increasingly transformed into lightly populated suburbs. In hindsight, the transition from rural land to populated neighborhoods could have been beneficial for the regions surrounding high-density cities. It has been theorized that living in cities where there are smaller homes and public transportation is heavily utilized can be very beneficial for the environment (Owen 2009, 2-4). However, because of the supplemental costs, like those involving increased gasoline consumption and household energy footprints, the benefits of suburbanization did not outweigh the consequences.</p> <p>Construction efforts reached new levels in the years following the war and in order to meet the increased housing demand many trees and nearby forestry had to be utilized (Wells 2012, 255). This depleted vital natural resources such as vegetation that provided an oxygen supply and destroyed ecosystems that were important in many biological processes such as the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles (Grimm et al 2008). During the second era of suburbanization after 1970, the amount of land used for real-estate development skyrocketed. Around 43 million acres of rural land was being consumed and an estimate stated that “the United States was losing two acres of farmland per minute to suburban development” (Nicolaides and Wiese 2017, 19). Land resources were quickly exhausted in many suburban communities to make way for houses similar to the “Benson Bargain.”</p> <p>The move to suburbia expanded commuting distances for those who still retained jobs in the urban city but relocated their families to the suburbs. Commuting back and forth from homes, such as the one in the housing ad, used to involve public transportation. However, once reliance on personal automobiles increased, there was a shift away from public transportation in the suburbs. Norman G. Palhous and Jerry D. Ward argue that this is because with the further development of the suburbs, less travel is aimed at the city center (United States Department of Transportation 74, 25). Global car use rose significantly as suburbanization expanded through some of the nation’s most populated urban cities. As put by David J. Cieslewicz, “To a large extent, to determine the environmental impact of sprawl we need to simply follow the cars” (Cieslewicz 2002, 24).</p> <p>In an article titled <em>The Environmental Impact of Suburbanization</em> by Matthew Kahn, he states that “suburbanites drove 31 percent more than central city residents in 1995” (Kahn 2000, 4) and contributed to the higher emissions that were reported in his study. The release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere has detrimental effects on many of Earth’s ecosystems. As private car use transitioned from a luxury to a necessity in the U.S., the atmosphere and the environment began to deteriorate. Cieslewicz argues that the increased use of cars cannot be attributed simply to population growth, since the number of automobile miles traveled increased 140 percent from 1950 to 1990 while the United States population only grew 40% (Cieslewicz 2002, 24).</p> <p>Suburbanization and all its effects are still present today. By now, many are aware of the environmental impacts of urban sprawl, however the benefits of suburbia keep the suburbs populated and ever growing. To this day, it still rings true that the suburbs furthest from the city cause the most environmental damage. In 2013, Christopher Jones and Daniel M. Kammen conducted a study on this very issue. They found that US households contribute 20 percent of annual global greenhouse gas emissions (Jones and Kammen 2013, 895). The Environmental Protection Agency states that 11 percent of greenhouse gas emission has commercial and residential causes and that 28% comes from transportation (EPA). The increased size of houses also plays a key role in elevated energy consumption in the suburbs. The housing ad boasts that the second floor has three large bedrooms. More spacious bedrooms means more space to heat and cool, requiring more energy. (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/admin/files/show/258">Figure III</a>)</p> <p>Using Atlanta as an example, Jones and Kammen (2013) argue that even when factors such as pricing and weather are the same, “The zip codes with the highest energy-related emissions are concentrated in a tight band of suburbs between 15 and 45 miles from the city center” (Jones and Kammen 2013, 898). To provide an example from Omaha, central Omaha has an average of household carbon footprint of 27.40, compared to 57.45 in West Omaha (Jones and Kammen 2013). The difference is even more noticeable in regard to transportation related emissions, ranging from &lt;10 tCO2e per household in the center of the city to &gt;25 tCO2e in the suburbs farthest from the city (Jones and Kammen 2013, 898). As for Omaha, residents of Central Omaha drive an average of 9,392 miles per year while residents of West Omaha drive an average of 24,057 (Jones and Kammen 2013).</p> <p>Depicting suburbanization in Omaha, the housing ad also represents the the connection Omaha has to global history and the Anthropocene. Suburbs demanded increased energy and land consumption, releasing more greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere than city cores. Our best bet at combating the negative environmental effects of suburbanization might be a return to city life. Jones and Kammen argue that in large metropolitan areas with dense populations, even if the city center has low household carbon footprints, the surrounding suburbs with large household carbon footprints “more than [offset] the benefit of low carbon areas in city centers” (Jones and Kammen, 899). It is thus clear that the conversion of rural lands, increased car use, and increased energy consumption are all result in negative environmental change caused by suburbanization in the age of the Anthropocene.</p> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kealohi Corpos Emery Staton Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived “Benson and Florence Were Annexed in ‘17”. Omaha World Herald. (Omaha, NE). December 7-8, 1977. <br /><br />Chudacoff, Howard P. 1972. Mobile Americans: Residential and Social Mobility in Omaha 1880-1920. New York: Oxford University Press. <br /><br />Cieslewicz, David. J. 2000. “The Environmental Impacts of Sprawl.” In Urban Sprawl: Causes, Consequences, and Policy Responses, edited by Gregory D. Squires, 23-38. Washington, DC: The Urban Institute Press. <br /><br />The Land Grab 1855. 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