1 10 34 https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/2b2f89653fc0231cc74b330a688be351.jpg c4e5bbc72ad5b3891b4c316de0212baa 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 Samantha Arrowheads Description An account of the resource Images of the arrowheads located at the Durham museum. From the shape of these, it can be determined what region of the United States they most likely came from. Photograph by Ali Cunningham. 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 <img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4740/38752446300_776a102fdd_o.jpg" 100="" width="100% height=" /> 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. 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 Arrowheads Subject The topic of the resource Arrowheads are one of the most recognized tools from the Native American tribes. Along with fire, tribes in Nebraska like the Omaha likely used them for hunting. Native Americans used fire and projectile weapons to herd and hunt animals. This resulted in significant environmental changes in the Omaha area. Fire use changed plant communities. Some became more fire-tolerant while large, long-lived trees declined. This turned large forests into grasslands. Scientists and historians argue that overhunting led to the endangerment or extinction of many species. This is part of a long, and contested, theory of overkill whose implications stretch back over 20,000 years. These changes were not only seen in Omaha. Arrowhead use and burning practices took place all over the world. If arrowheads are the start of the Anthropocene, this new age started tens of thousands of years ago. Description An account of the resource The Anthropocene is a new age defined by a changing environment, due to the presence of human action. Anthropocene discourse is largely Eurocentric, privileging changes wrought by European Empires, the expansion of global capital, or industrial transformations of the environment (Carrington, 2016). Global modifications of the environment have a deeper lineage, however. One such lineage is the use of Arrowheads and other tools by native American tribes. Arrowheads are an important artifact for many Native American tribes, including the Omaha tribe. Arrowheads are important in Omaha’s environmental history because they represent pre-Columbian management of the Plains landscape. These arrowheads link Omaha’s environmental history to the global history of the Anthropocene because they represent the changes produced by human hunting. The peoples of the Plains used projectiles and fire mold the environment to their needs. Although distinctly American, they point to the larger implications of these tools on global environments. The territory of Nebraska was home to diverse peoples long before the arrival of Europeans. The city of Omaha takes its name from the Omaha tribe who originally migrated west from modern Ohio (Wakeley, 1917). Originally, they were mainly hunters and farmers, then they took part in fur trading, and eventually came under the control of their powerful allies, the Pawnee tribe (Fletcher, 2013). During the tribe’s history they are noted to have faced hardships from the enemies of the Pawnee tribe, who were the Sioux tribe. They also faced hardships from smallpox and other disease. From war and disease, they had a population of under 300 in the early 1800s, from almost 3,000 a few decades earlier (Legends of America - The Omaha Indians). The arrowheads were used for hunting by most indigenous people who lived on the Great Plains of North America, like the Omaha. Arrowheads are made in a variety of shapes, most often based on the region in which they were made. Based on the size and color of the arrowheads presented at The Durham Museum (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/admin/files/show/229">Figure I</a>), our arrowheads are most likely Samantha Arrows, which are primarily found in the Northern Plains of the United States (Samantha Arrowhead). Arrowheads are historically important because many tribes were migratory, which required that they find ways to carry their belongings and possessions with them. They often camped near rivers where they hunted for bison and found edible plants in the spring (Fagan, 1994). These indigenous people used a wide variety of materials to produce arrowheads. Obsidian, for example, was a volcanic glass found in the Rocky Mountains. Chert, a crystalline quartz, had razor-sharp edges which was also used to make arrowheads. Antler was also used to make arrowheads when suitable rock material wasn’t available. Some arrowheads were also reusable. Analysis from the Gila River in Arizona found that some arrow points were used to hunt large animals and they could be retrieved and used again while other unnotched points were only used one time and were usually used to kill people (Loendorf, 2015). This gives more context behind how the arrowheads were used. Most often though, these Indigenous people of the plains found use for the arrowheads in hunting, specifically for bison. Hunting was integral to Native American culture and it tied Plains peoples to the land in diverse material and spiritual ways. Anthropologist David Lewis argues that Plain peoples built relationships with the land that transcended settlement; relationships that proved central to their identities (Lewis, 1995). Perhaps due to this close connection to the land, they used the environment as tools for many purposes. They planted many types of crops to feed themselves and their animals, they used the skin of hunted animals for clothing and shelter, hunted large game like bison, and fished river systems. They lived with, but also manipulated the land to provide food and shelter for themselves. Plains natives employed fire as one of these environmental tools. Charcoal layers provide archeological evidence that Native American populations all over the Midwest and in Omaha used fire regularly (Roos, 2018). The multiple charcoal layers’ present suggest frequent, large-scale burning around the time period when the Omaha tribe were present in the area. Archeologists often speculate as to the purpose of such wide-ranging fire use. Some argue that natives burned landscapes in spiritual traditions, to improve the range of sight over the landscape, or to open migration pathways (Lewis, 1993). Most agree they were used for hunting though (Delcourt and Delcourt, 1997). Tribes used controlled burning to drive the megafauna (including bison) into hunting areas. They controlled the migration of animals; thus, increasing the impact and effectiveness of hunting. This practice was especially important before the re-arrival of horses when hunting was done on foot (Hämäläinen, 2003). Fire opened diverse resources to human use such as animal meat, bones, buckskin, hair, rawhide, stomach, and horns; all of which had multiple uses including clothing, shelter, tools such as arrowheads, and many more (Natives - Native Americans). Plains burning drastically changed the composition of the land. Fire promotes plant species that are fire-tolerant, which tend to be fast-spreading, short-lived plants such as the prairie grasses that dominated much of the Midwest. Fire also suppressed large tree species that now are more prevalent (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/admin/files/show/230">Figure II</a>). In addition to promoting fire tolerant species, anthropogenic fire regimes cleared brush, promoted seed germination, and increased resources yields (Klimaszewski-Patterson and Mensin, 2016). All of these had a large impact on the environment of the prairies in and around Nebraska for centuries. In short, this increase in fire improved soil fertility, which favored native species. This increased biodiversification of plants, including grasses, forbs, and trees. Biodiverse vegetation promoted faunal biodiversity as well. Beyond hunting, fire use was beneficial for soil fertility, which improved Native agriculture. Arrowheads used for hunting had global impacts such as the overkilling of animals like American bison. This extinction not only included bison, but also the extinction of species such as birds, lemmings, and salamanders. It is unknown how many mammalian species disappeared, but it is estimated that at least thirty-five mammalian genera had vanished. Most mammals that weighed more than one hundred pounds became extinct because of how they would have been seen as attractive to hunters. Tusked mammoths and mastodons, ground sloths, rhinoceros-sized pampatheres, and giant armadillos also vanished. Other herbivores also vanished (Krech, 2018). The overkill hypothesis states that extinction is a result because of human hunting which in turn causes death rates to exceed birth rates. This implies that humans have a direct impact on overhunting and the extinction of animals. Koch and Barnosky (2006) similarly found that about fifty thousand years ago, ecosystems all over the world were populated with large animals, but they are now extinct. They stated that worldwide, 90 genera of mammals that weighed over 44 kg had disappeared. Specifically, in North America, there used to proboscideans, giant sloths, camels, saber-tooth cats, beavers, etc. By about 10,000 years ago, most of these animals had vanished. The extinction of these large animals provides strong support that humans contributed to the extinction of these animals and this shows the relation of mass extinctions to the Anthropocene. (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/admin/files/show/id/231">Figure III</a>) In addition, this extinction happened on a global scale. The Native American hunting patterns did influence the species composition, though not as much as other mass extinctions. Plains peoples have shaped the environment for centuries, but it is important to consider the dynamic world that the hunters were operating in during that time. For example, Isenberg (2000) looks at how the destruction of bison as the result of a complex process that involves the natural environment of Great Plains, the invasion of the Euro Americans, as well as the economy of the Plains Indians. There were natural causes of death such as fires, drowning, and competition from other grazers that all affected the population of bison on the plains. Natural mortality also could have aided in the catastrophic decline in the population of bison. The combination of the hunting practices in the Great Plains as well as the volatility of the natural environment both aided in the destruction of these herds of animals which is important to keep in mind. North American Native Americans were not the only peoples who used fire or projectiles to change and manipulate the landscape around them. In fact, use of fire as a tool for hunting likely predates the evolution of the species (Guthrie, 1970). Human communities on every inhabited continent wielded fire and many developed projectile hunting tools (James, et. al. 1989). All over the world there was environmental changes cause by fire because the fire was being controlled by humans. Indicating global environmental, anthropogenic changes. These changes, while not representing a traditional “golden spike” should be considered when talking about the anthropocene for several reasons. Some include that it was not localized to one area, there were large scale environmental effects, and the changes were caused by human influence. The ecological changes represented in the transition to increased fire regimes is something that has continued to be studied today. The “Anthropocene” designation claims that the earth has entered the “Age of Humans”. It is important, therefore, to consider the full measure of humanity’s long history of environmental impact. These arrowheads represent the impact of fire and hunting on the global environment. Current conservation efforts in the United States and Canada have been increasingly focused on restoring the landscape to its “pristine condition, which is often defined by the absence of people (Wooster, 1996). This has the unfortunate consequence of erasing the long history of people from the landscape. If the arrowheads teach us anything, it’s that people have played an integral part in creating these “pristine” areas. The modernist bias of the Anthropocene debate threatens that as well. Where the focus is on increasing fire regimes and megafaunal grazers such as bison. While increasing megafauna like bison would be considered more like when there were no humans, increasing fire use would actually be characteristic of when Native Americans were present, not when there were no humans in North America (Matlack, 2013). Despite these minor inconsistencies, it is evident that the impact of the Native American tools used for hunting, arrowheads and fire, have caused a global impact, which is why they should be considered when discussing the Anthropocene. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Ali Cunningham Kimberly Jurado Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Bohr, Roland. 2016. “Bows & Arrows.” Canada’s History 96 (5): 22–29 Carrington, Damian. 2016. “The Anthropocene epoch: scientists declare dawn of human-influenced age” The Guardian. Accessed December 8, 2018 <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/29/declare-anthropocene-epoch-experts-urge-geological-congress-human-impact-earth">https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/29/declare-anthropocene-epoch-experts-urge-geological-congress-human-impact-earth</a> Delcourt, Hazel R., and Paul A. Delcourt. "Pre-Columbian Native American Use of Fire on Southern Appalachian Landscapes." Conservation Biology 11, no. 4 (1997): 1010-014.<a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/2387336"> http://www.jstor.org/stable/2387336</a>. “Extinctions: Georges Cuvier.” Digital image. Understanding Evolution. Accessed November 6, 2018.<a href="https://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/history_08"> https://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/history_08</a> Fagan, Brian. "Bison Hunters of the Northern Plains." Archaeology 47, no. 3 (1994): 37-41. Accessed October 7, 2018<a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/41766565"> http://www.jstor.org/stable/41766565</a>.  Fletcher, C. Alice. Life among the Indians: First Fieldwork among the Sioux and Omahas ed. Scherer, C. Joanna, DeMallie, J. Raymond (University of Nebraska Press, 2013). Guthrie, R. D. "Bison Evolution and Zoogeography in North America During the Pleistocene." The Quarterly Review of Biology45, no. 1 (1970): 1-15. <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/2817929">http://www.jstor.org/stable/2817929</a>  Isenberg, Andrew C., The Destruction of Bison. New Jersey: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Jin, Y.G, Wang, Y, Wang, W, Shang, Q.H, Cao, C.Q, Erwin, D.H. “Pattern of Marine Mass Extinction Near the Permian-Triassic Boundary in South China” Science 21 (2000). Accessed November 6, 2018.<a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.289.5478.432"> https://doi.org/10.1126/science.289.5478.432</a> Klimaszewski-Patterson, Anna, Mensing, A. Scott. “Multi-disciplinary approach to identifying Native American impacts on Late Holocene forest dynamics in the southern sierra Nevada range California, USA.” Anthropocene 15 (2016): 37-48. Accessed October 8, 2018.<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213305416300327"> https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213305416300327</a>  Koch, P.L., Barnowsky, A.D. “Late Quaternary Extinctions: State of the Debate” The Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 37 (2006): 215-250. Accessed December 8, 2018. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.34.011802.132415">https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.34.011802.132415</a>                                                            Krech, Shepard. “Chapter One” The Ecological Indian: Myth and History (W.W. Norton and Company, 1999).<a href="https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/k/krech-indian.html"> https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/k/krech-indian.html</a> Laliberte, Andrea S., and William J. Ripple. “Wildlife Encounters by Lewis and Clark: A Spatial Analysis of Interactions between Native Americans and Wildlife.” BioScience53, no. 10 (October 2003): 994–1003. Lewis, David Rich. "Native Americans and the Environment: A Survey of Twentieth-Century Issues." American Indian Quarterly 19, no. 3 (1995): 423-50. doi:10.2307/1185599.  Lewis, David Rich. "Still Native: The Significance of Native Americans in the History of the Twentieth-Century American West." The Western Historical Quarterly 24, no. 2 (1993): 203-27. doi:10.2307/970936.  Loendorf, Chris, Lynn Simon, Daniel Dybowski, M. Kyle Woodson, R. Scott Plumlee, Shari Tiedens, and Michael Withrow. 2015. “Warfare and Big Game Hunting: Flaked-Stone Projectile Points along the Middle Gila River in Arizona.” Antiquity 89 (346): 940–53. doi:10.15184/aqy.2015.28. “Natives - Native Americans” All about Bison. Accessed November 4, 2018.<a href="https://allaboutbison.com/natives/"> https://allaboutbison.com/natives/</a>  Nowacki, Gregory J, Abrams, Marc. D. “The Demise of Fire and “Mesophcation” of Forests in the Eastern United States” Image. BioScience 58 no. 2 (February 2008).  Matlack, R. Glenn. “Reassessment of the Use of Fires as a Management Tool in Deciduous Forests of Eastern North America” Conservation Biology 27 no. 5 (September 2013). Accessed October 7, 2018.<a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cobi.12121"> https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cobi.12121</a>  Pekka, Hämäläinen; The Rise and Fall of Plains Indian Horse Cultures, Journal of American History, Volume 90, Issue 3, 1 December 2003, Pages 833–862,<a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/3660878"> https://doi.org/10.2307/3660878</a>  Roos, I. Christopher, Zedeno, N. Maria, Hollenback, L. Kacy, Erlick, M.H. Mary. “Indigenous impacts on North American Great Plains fire regimes of the past millennium.” National Academy of Sciences. August, 2018. Accessed October 7, 2018.<a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/115/32/8143/tab-article-info"> http://www.pnas.org/content/115/32/8143/tab-article-info</a> “Samantha Projectile Point, Samantha Arrowhead” Projectile Points Database. Accessed October 7, 2018.<a href="http://www.projectilepoints.net/Points/Samantha_Dart.html"> http://www.projectilepoints.net/Points/Samantha_Dart.html</a>  Steven R. James, R. W. Dennell, Allan S. Gilbert, Henry T. Lewis, J. A. J. Gowlett, Thomas F. Lynch, W. C. McGrew, Charles R. Peters, Geoffrey G. Pope, Ann B. Stahl, and Steven R. James, "Hominid Use of Fire in the Lower and Middle Pleistocene: A Review of the Evidence [and Comments and Replies]," Current Anthropology 30, no. 1 (Feb., 1989): 1-26.<a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/203705"> https://doi.org/10.1086/203705</a> “The Omaha Indians - True Nebraskans” Legends of America: Exploring history, destinations, people, & legends of this great country since 2003. Accessed December 8, 2018. <a href="https://www.legendsofamerica.com/na-omaha/">https://www.legendsofamerica.com/na-omaha/</a> Wakeley, C. Arthur. Omaha: The Gate City and Douglas County Nebraska (The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1917) Wooster, M. Martin. 1996. “The Digest: Science and environment.” American Enterprise. 7, no. 4: 90. Accessed October 8, 2018.<a href="http://eds.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=4e0b8517-15ba-420a-bde4-4c1d4d1767fd%40sessionmgr4007&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=9607104524&db=bth"> </a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The Durham Museum Permanent Collection Fire Hunting Lithic Tools Overkill Projectiles https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/296a0278f26102801617d860eb334553.jpg ccf7a5edefa676e1834d0a0787a0eb37 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: American Smelting And Refining Company Taken from Aksarben Bridge Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Bostwick, Louis Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Bostwick-Frohardt, Durham Museum, Omaha, NE. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1930 https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/d732722c3eaeca84e785e9576c1503c8.jpg bba2c362bdfc21578cdc3805b10c6c88 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: Omaha Lead Pollution Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Omaha Lead Registry http://www.omahalead.org/ 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=" /> 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 ASARCO Lead Refinery Subject The topic of the resource Louis Bostwick took this photograph in the 1930s, presenting a stark contrast to Omaha’s beautiful riverfront we see today. Lewis and Clark Landing was once home to a lead refinery controlled by the American Smelting and Refining Company (ASARCO), which operated for over 100 years. People later learned about lead’s threat to human health and the environment. In 1997, escalated public pressure closed ASARCO, but it had already left a lasting mark on the local community. In 2004, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) declared the area a Superfund site. A Superfund uses federal funds to aid the cleanup of hazardous areas. Since then, the EPA and local government have worked to restore the contaminated soil. Despite such efforts, exposure to lead continues to threaten local and global health. Omaha’s rejuvenated riverfront is an example of how communities can combat the lasting impacts of harmful practices and heal a toxic past. Description An account of the resource In a world where half of the population is urbanized, connecting to nature is essential for good mental health. (Bratman et al, 2015) The Midwest is a great place for people to find balance in their fast paced lifestyles by staying connected to the environment while living in a city. When the weather is suitable, downtown Omaha, Nebraska has several outdoor activities to enjoy. Many tourists and locals choose to spend time at the riverfront of the vibrant and historic Old Market. Every summer, thousands of baseball fans gather for the College World Series. On any given day it is quite common to see people enjoying a relaxing stroll through the Lewis and Clark Landing or walking across the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge. It is shocking to think about what the area looked like just 30 years ago (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/show/53" title="Figure 1" target="_self">Figure 1</a>). The park and greenspace on the riverfront disguises an unexpected and toxic history. Bostwick, Louis. American Smelting And Refining Company Taken from Aksarben Bridge”. 1930’s. Bostwick-Frohardt, The Durham Museum, Omaha, NE. Omaha is one of the many communities that experienced incredible expansion during the late 1800s. The establishment of this plant and the history that came to follow its opening, particularly at this time and location, was not coincidental. At this time, the “Second Industrial Revolution” was flourishing in Europe and the United States. Between 1870 and 1890, Omaha’s population jumped from 16,000 to 140,000. (Omaha, Nebraska Pop History) Omaha’s growth was driven by lead manufacturing, and other growing companies like the Union Pacific Railroad. (Larsen, 2007) This industrial agglomeration can be attributed to the waterfront advantage that the Missouri River provided these companies, as well as the development of the railroad enabling companies to connect resources across the country. This photograph captures the former location of one of the American Smelting and Refinery Company’s (ASARCO) lead refineries, which was taken by Omaha World-Herald photographer Louis Bostwick in the 1930s (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/show/50" title="Figure 2" target="_self">Figure 2</a>). (O'Connor, 2015) The plant was originally opened on the banks of the Missouri River in 1870 under the ownership of the Omaha Smelting Company. In 1882, the Omaha Smelting Company merged with the Grant Smelting Company to form the Omaha and Grant Smelting and Mining Company. This new ownership lasted for over 10 years, until another merger, including 16 companies in total, led to the formation of ASARCO. (Curry, 1949) The Omaha plant was part of a larger corporation, ASARCO, which was formed in 1899. (ASARCO) This corporation still operates today, but it does so as a subsidiary of Grupo Mexico. (ASARCO/Grupo Mexico) It is heavily involved in the mining of copper, lead, zinc, silver and gold. It is considered to be a global mining giant. Not only is it far reaching in its operations, which extends across several countries worldwide, but also regarding its total contributions to the respective metal markets. (ASARCO/Grupo Mexico) By 1925, ASARCO was the largest lead refinery in the world. It produced lead, but also radiation shields, bismuth and antimony oxide. (Rasmussen, 1992) The Omaha-World Herald reported that during 1924, the plant produced 165,000 tons of lead, 198,000 ounces of gold, 10,945 tons of antimonial lead and 148,711 pounds of refined bismuth. (OWH, 1925) While this plant was operational for a considerable amount of time in Omaha’s history, its existence was eventually met with strong resistance as the political battle for community and environmental health secretly raged in the heartland. In this discussion, we emphasize the effects of lead production and its significance in relation to the Anthropocene narrative. Lead mining and smelting is not a newly realized process. Human manipulation of lead has been traced back as far as 6000 years ago and its threat to human health was recognized dating back to 2000 BC. It’s negative impacts can be found scattered throughout history. For example, during the time of the Roman Empire, it could be found in many common household items of the wealthy such as dishes, utensils and food storage containers. In 17th century Germany, it was blamed for causing colic when litharge, a different form of lead, was used as a sweetener in wine. (Needleman, 1999) In more recent history, lead’s most common uses were in leaded gasoline, batteries, paints and plumbing pipes. Despite a plethora of historical knowledge available regarding the threat lead poses to human health, ASARCO continued its operations along the riverfront throughout a greater part of the 20th century. Starting in the early 1970s, human and environmental health risks came to light and the battle between Omaha and ASARCO began. Important environmental concerns at that time included air and potential water pollution. There was a great deal of attention drawn to the airborne threat due to the extensive exposure employees received, therefore significantly affecting their health. In one particular legal battle the company faced, three officials representing the Secretary of Labor visited the plant to investigate claims of hazardous levels of airborne lead. (LOC, 1974) The delegation found that airborne concentrations of lead in five of the seven areas tested were above the minimum threshold to be considered hazardous which was 0.2 mg/cm3. (LOC, 1974) As a result of this investigation, ASARCO received a citation with a sixty day reparation period and had to pay a fine of $600. (LOC, 1974) Another instance of this airborne threat was discovered in the elevated blood levels of workers in the plant. In 1985, the Omaha World-Herald reported that there were workers found to have blood lead levels above 50 μg/100 g blood.(OMH, 1985) These workers were sent home until the levels in their blood dropped to 40 μg/100 g blood. Additionally, these blood lead levels have significant consequences on the central nervous system. Employees reported to experience body tremors and tiredness. (LOC, 1974) Water pollution was another concern requiring investigation, specifically from the time the plant was operational to the demand for remediation. In the past, intense ambiguity revolved around the levels of toxicity and the overall impacts of the discharge into the river when the plant was in operation. In 1994, a toxicologist from the Nebraska Department of Health suggested that there had not been enough studies completed in order to completely understand how discharge from the plant affected both human and aquatic life. (Thomas, 1994) Although researchers lacked any concrete evidence that ASARCO polluted the water, there was a lawsuit in the works at the time to fine ASARCO $25,000 per day should they continue discharging waste into the Missouri River without installing a specialized filter. (Thomas, 1974) In 2001, the US Geological Survey published a technical report regarding toxic metals in the Missouri River adjacent to the plant site. (Chapman, 2001) Though there were elevated levels of lead in sediment at one of the areas studied, the sediments, pore water and river water did not reach exceed maximum acceptable levels set by the EPA. Considering the negative environmental and health consequences discussed above, it is easy to demonize the ASARCO, but its employees continued to stand with this destructive company. The ASARCO plant was recognized as a positive economic force in the Omaha area. In 1995, officials estimated that the plant annually contributed $15 million to the Omaha metro economy. (Powell, 1995) The ASARCO’s economic contributions played a significant role in the battle against site closure. It was estimated that closure would result in a loss of $22 million in taxes and wages. (Anderson, 1996) There were many people who wanted to keep the plant to prevent job loss and preserve economic profits that ASARCO contributed to Omaha. Despite the knowledge of the significant health risks imposed on employees, the reliable income ASARCO provided was enough for the union to fight to keep the company alive. (Anderson, 1996) Before the final closing of the plant, there was considerable deliberation regarding which actions should take place in order to ensure effective cleanup of the contaminant. In early 1996, the Omaha World-Herald reported that there were ten possible plans in deliberation. At that time, ASARCO wished to use a six foot cap on the soil to prevent further contamination, and would cost the company $15 million. (Anderson, Manager, 1996) On September 4, 1997, the city of Omaha approved ASARCO’s proposal to tear down the plant and cap the soil. After decades of tension, the ASARCO lead refinery was finally closed in 1997. (OPL) Throughout its long history in the Omaha area, the ASARCO was subjected to a great deal of public debate, legal battles, fines and reparations with specific scrutiny on its lead smelting activities. To this day, the Omaha metro area experiences environmental and human health effects from the ASARCO emissions of the past. The establishment of this specific region of Omaha as a Superfund site was finalized on December 15, 2004. (EPA Omaha Lead Site) The particular focus of the Superfund program is remediation of lead proliferation, which was heavily attributed to this particular ASARCO plant. A map of this area today shows that there are various sites that have experienced said remediation, but some areas have not been tested at all, and some are known to be contaminated and yet to be cleaned up (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/show/51">Figure 3</a>). (Omaha Lead Registry) Omaha’s cleanup efforts impact the economy from the decreasing property values in the area. (Decker, 2005) The contaminated areas experiencing a decline in the housing market is due to “Right-to-Know” laws, which require the homeowner to know the environmental hazards they are exposing themselves to. (Decker, 2005) Although ASARCO boasts a large presence on the mining industry stage, they are not alone in the collective effort to gain access to natural resources through various extraction methods. There are many other resources that are have been long mined and remain so to this day. These include: copper, silver, iron, etc. When viewing the mining industry from a broader perspective, it is important to understand the impacts that these activities have on the environment to better understand how the threat to public health is driven. Today, lead exposure continues to be a significant environmental threat to human health. Lead smelting itself has been linked to increases in ADHD in children living close to smelting operations. (Kim, 2013) Across the board, children have been seen as the primary concern in regards to elevated lead levels and the health impacts it may cause. Some reasons for this heightened threat include: children take in a higher ratio of lead versus their body weight because they are smaller, they are likely to ingest lead more than adults do simply based on the amount of times they put their hands in their mouth, and also the fact that they are still going through physical development and it makes them more susceptible to the effects of lead. (Shilu and Prapamontol, 2000) A more comprehensive description of effects of lead poisoning include harm to cognitive, behavioral and nervous system health. (Sullivan, 2015) While it is important to address the human related health issues related to mining practices, it is also important to understand the human driven force behind these operations in the first place. The Industrial Revolution and the years following it are recognized as a significant contributor to the human impacts on the environment. The increased mechanization allowed for more efficient and large scale methods to extract the planet’s natural resources. The Industrial Revolution increased human’s desire to gain capital through the continued and expanded extraction operations, particularly in the mining industry. The consequences of these extractive activities are often only recognized in response to crisis, but only when such activities and their impacts cannot be successfully swept under the rug. Examples may include but are not limited to large scale mining disasters, pipeline leaks, and public water contaminations. In such instances the companies involved often try to minimize the fallout from disasters in order to continue operations regardless of the continued impact on both environmental and community health. We have drawn attention to the Omaha area and its increased lead levels due to the presence of ASARCO and its operations. However, the critical piece of this argument is that the negative consequences caused by this specific company were not isolated. They combine with other instances worldwide to compose a much larger global issue that has gone unnoticed for hundreds of years. It is imperative to highlight the long term health effects caused by both Industrial Revolutions on a global scale. The World Health Organization published research specifically unveiling substantial long-term effects of lead on global health. Before the Industrial Revolution, estimated concentrations of blood lead levels in people were 0.016 μg/dl. (Shilu and Prapamontol, 2000) The world post-Industrial Revolution has increased the blood lead levels in even the most remote parts of the world to 0.78 μg/dl. This article also noted that the “body lead burden of today’s populations is 500-1000 times greater than that of their pre-industrial counterparts.” (Shilu and Prapamontol, 2000) As exhibited throughout this narrative, it was a long, drawn out process to decide the fate of the ASARCO site, which included many discussions and debates between the company, the city, and the public. Ultimately, the City of Omaha and ASARCO decided that the space would be transformed into a public park, which we know today as Lewis and Clark Landing. The proposed park plan was finally agreed upon by all parties on April 13, 1992 (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/show/52" title="Figure 4" target="_self">Figure 4</a>). (Rasmussen, 1992) Examination of the history of the ASARCO site on the Omaha Riverfront has allowed us to shed light on human’s relationship with the environment. However, there is always room to improve our relationship with the environment and clearly there is more work yet to be done. Specifically, in Omaha, there are many residential sites within the Superfund site waiting to be decontaminated. (Kemp, 2016) The decisions we make when we interact with the environment can have dramatic and tangible long-term consequences on the health of both the environment and the public. While public health is an important facet of this particular case, it should not be the only driver of environmental awareness and change. We have learned that our short term motivations to keep something we profit from can be lethal in the long run. This calls for a cultural change that needs to start with the understanding that the public and the environment are deeply intertwined, especially when it comes to profit driven decisions. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Annie Klein Jenna Mucci Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Anderson, Julie. “Manager: Asarco wants to speed up cleanup plan.” Omaha World-Herald, February 1996. “American Smelting And Refining Company Taken from Aksarben Bridge.” Bostwick-Frohardt Collection, Durham Museum Archives. http://durhammuseum.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15426coll1/id/3845/rec/11 “ASARCO Incorporated History.” Funding Universe. http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/asarco-incorporated-history/. Bratman, Gregory N., Hamilton, Paul J., Hahn, Kevin S., Daily, Gretchen C., and James J. Gross. “Nature experience reduces rumination and subgenual prefrontal cortex activation.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 112.28 (2015). 8567-8572. Chapman, Duane C., et al. “Toxicity and Bioavailability of Metals in the Missouri River Adjacent to a Lead Refinery.” USGS, January 2001. http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA408607 City of Omaha, Nebraska “Omaha Lead registry”. https://www.dogis.org/Html5Viewer/?viewer=omahaleadregistry/ Curry, Emmett, “Biggest Lead Refinery.” Omaha World-Herald, April, 3, 1949. Decker, et. al. “Residential Property Values and Community Right-to-Know Laws: Has the toxics Release Inventory had an impact?” February 1, 2005. Growth and Change, vol.36 iss.1, winter 2005, pp.113-133. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2257.2005.00269.x Dukes Lee, Jennifer. “Asarco’s Cleanup Plan Wins Approval From State.” Omaha World-Herald, September 1997. Kim, Stephani et. al.“Lead, mercury, and cadmium exposure and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children.” Environmental Research no. 126 (2013):105-110, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2013.08.008 Lawrence H. Larsen, “Upstream Metropolis: An Urban Biography of Omaha and Council Bluffs”. (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2007), 185. Markel, Howard. “Remember Flint.” Milbank Quarterly, 19 no. 2 (2016): 229-236, doi:10.1111/1468- 0009.12188. O’Connor, Michael. “Who was Louis Bostwick?” Omaha World-Herald, April 2015. http://dataomaha.com/bigstory/go/revisiting-early-omaha Omaha Public Library. “American Smelting and Refining Co., Omaha, Ne.” Nebraska Memories. http://www.memories.ne.gov/rights/opl.html Powell, Joy. “ASARCO Manager Defends Plant as Economic Mainstay.” Omaha World-Herald, June 30, 1995. Rabinowitz, Michael B. "Lead isotopes in soils near five historic American lead smelters and refineries." Science of The Total Environment346, no. 1-3 (2005): 138-48. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2004.11.021. Rasmussen, Jim. “Refinery Wary of Gateway Concept.” Omaha World-Herald, March 1992. Rasmussen, Jim. ”Riverfront Plans Retain Refinery: Concerns on Cost Compel Redesign.” Omaha World-Herald, April 1992. “Safety Order Includes Omaha Lead Refinery.” Omaha World-Herald. July, 1985. Shilu, Tong, von Schirnding,Yasmin E., and Tippawan Prapamontol. “Environmental Lead Exposure: A public health problem of global dimensions.” Bulletin of the World Health Organization 78.9. (Jan. 2000). 1068-1077. Sullivan, Marianne. “Reducing Lead in Air and Preventing Childhood Exposure Near Lead Smelters: Learning from the U.S. Experience.” New Solutions, 25 no.1 (2015): 78-101, doi:10.1177/1048291115569027 Thomas, Fred. “Effect of Omaha Firm’s Emissions Unclear”. Omaha World-Herald. July 1994. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 7. Interim Record of Decision, Omaha Lead Site. https://archive.epa.gov/region07/cleanup/superfund/pdf/web/pdf/ols_rod.pdf “ASARCO/Groupo Mexico Chronology”. Their Mines, Our Stories. http://www.theirminesourstories.org/?p=1225 “World’s Largest Lead Refinery is in Omaha.” Omaha World-Herald. April, 1925 Kemp, Steve. “Going Home to manage the final steps of Omaha’s historic lead cleanup.” EPA. May 25, 2016. https://blog.epa.gov/blog/2016/05/going-home-to-manage-the-final-steps-of-omahas-historic-lead-cleanup/. 501 F.2d 504 “AMERICAN SMELTING & R. CO. v. OCCUPATIONAL S. & H. R. COM'N.” Library of Congress, 1974. https://www.leagle.com/decision/19741005501f2d5041927 EPA Health Risks Invisible Pollutants Lead Mining Production https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/d6764bf36c8a796ded8acbfaca0e3526.JPG 0cc7856a7987afb2059240f05d5de5f3 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 Scout the Bison Description An account of the resource Scout, the North American Bison on exhibit at the Durham museum in Omaha, NE. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Courtesy of Chelsey Dizon and Kevin Vincent https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/4bd4d45183e12b08efbae31ec8bb0369.jpg 79ba8319364992dac06e370d71987141 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 Scout, the North American Bison on exhibit at the Durham museum in Omaha, NE. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Photo by Chelsey Dizon and Kevin Vincent 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 <img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4740/38752446300_776a102fdd_o.jpg" 100="" width="100% height=" /> 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. 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 Bison Subject The topic of the resource This is Scout, a symbol of the fall and rise of the American Bison. Before westward expansion in the 1800s, between 30-60 million bison roamed the Great Plains. They played an important role in the ecosystems. For example, bison ‘wallowed’ or rolled in the dirt to get rid of insects and to cool off. At the same time, this behavior created depressions that encouraged new plant growth. Bison are central to Native American cultures on the Great Plains. They used bison for food, shelter, clothing, and ceremonies. When European settlers moved west, bison became commodities and hunts grew in size. By 1889, less than 2,000 bison remained. But, recent conservation efforts are increasing their numbers. Nebraska is the second highest producer of bison in the U.S. Although bison will never return to the prominence they once held in the Midwest, their recovery story, which Nebraska is a part of, inspires hope for their future. Description An account of the resource Visitors of the Durham Museum begin their journey through history with Scout. Scout is a North American Bison who has been a part of the Durham collection since 2006 (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/show/33" title="Figure 1" target="_self">Figure 1</a>). Scout’s story is complicated. On the one hand, he represents bisons' past dominance of the prairies and their erased ecological system. Scout reminds us of the slaughter and near extinction of his species brought about by humans. On the other hand, Scout represents the Bison bison’s slow, but persistent recovery. Both stories are part of the Anthropocene narrative. Human activity, specifically Euroamerican settlement, were the main destructive force behind bisons' near extinction. Slaughtered in the millions for their hides, horns, and meat during the nineteenth century, the rapaciousness of western expansion was certainly culpable for their decline. However, people have also played a major role in bisons' recovery, an often untold but necessary narrative that inspires hope for the future of bison. The bison is an important artifact in Omaha’s environmental history because they were once the dominant keystone species of the grasslands, but now have been reduced to peripheral importance. It links Omaha’s environmental history to the global history of the Anthropocene by epitomizing human power over nature. Bison once dominated the Great Plains. According to Colonel Richard I. Dodge, the commander of Fort Dodge, KS in 1851, there were "60 million bison in primitive North America” (D. Lott, 2003). Twenty years after the Civil War, bison population was below two thousand. The dramatic decline of the keystone species had cascading influences across the Plains ecosystems. For example, bison urine, wallowing, and carcasses all uniquely contributed to the ecological health of the Great Plains. According to Flannery, a professor at the University of Adelaide in Australia and the director of the South Australian Museum, "the key to the bison's role in the prairie ecosystem lay in the fact that the great grasslands were piss-driven" (T. Flannery, 2001). Bison urine is essentially "a bath of nitrogen dissolved in water," which means that the urine leaves behind a high concentration of ammonium and nitrate in the soils (D. Lott, 2003). Wallowing, or rolling on the ground, relieved bison of insects and heat. More importantly, this created “compacted bowls of soil that hold rainwater, creating a microenvironment in which seeds can sprout” (D. Lott, 2003). Essentially, bison urine and wallowing laid groundwork for healthy plant growth and diversity. Last, bison carcasses played a key role in the ecology of the Great Plains. Not only are carcasses a food source for other animals, but they release fluids that eventually create “zones of high fertility" (A. Knapp, et. al. 1999). These characteristics exemplify the codependence between the bison and the prairie. The Native Americans were the first humans to interact with the bison. Soon, the tribes of the Great Plains became dependent on bison for hunting. Initially, Native Americans tactics involved disguises that allowed them to hunt with greater accuracy (V. Geist, 1996). However, the introduction of the horse in the 1600s made game driving the gold standard (V. Geist, 1996). Although bison hunting has been part of North American history for centuries, its height was during Euroamerican westward expansion in the 1800s. This expansion propelled the destruction of bison in numerous ways. First, natural catastrophes and Pre-Euroamerican activity impacted bison populations. From drowning when fording a river to the harsh winter weather of the plains, bison faced life-threatening situations constantly. As McHugh, a biologist and zoologist with a background in wildlife management, states, “the ravages of nature were taking a recurrent, at times disastrous, toll of the herds” (T. McHugh, 2004). For example, in 1867 “a herd of four thousand bison attempting to ford the Platte River in Nebraska walked into channels of loose quicksand" (T. McHugh, 2004). As the lead bison were slipping into the sand the remaining herd kept moving, causing the death of two thousand bison. Devastation surged with the increased influence of humans on the herds. For example, “[Paleoindians] would drive a bison herd into a gully, a canyon, or some other natural trap having inescapable sides” (H. P. Danz, 1997). This game driving (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/show/34" title="Figure 2" target="_self">Figure 2</a>), allowed hunters to easily kill large amounts of bison. Particularly, when bison were driven off cliffs and maimed, hunters could finish them off without using ammunition.  Lewis and Clark, two famous westward explorers of the 1800s, described this phenomenon in their journals when they observed a young Indian man deceiving bison herds by disguising himself: the skin of the head with the ears and horns fastened on his own head in such a way as to deceive the buffalo … the disguised Indian leads them on at full speed towards the river, when suddenly securing himself in some crevice of the cliff (H. P. Danz, 1997). This manipulation of animals and nature demonstrates the impacts humans had on bison populations during the period. Although Pre-Euroamerican impacts and nature decreased bison populations, it was the industrial revolution that put them in grave danger. The industrial revolution was an important precondition for the decline of bison herds. The introduction of the railroad through the Midwest provided quick and easy transport of people and material. This made the plains more accessible for Euroamericans, and with the romanticizing of bison hunting by many Europeans, much more popular. This idealistic view of wild animals paired with increased access and easy transportation propelled the destruction forward. With the introduction of railways and westward expansion, bison habitat shrank dramatically. With the landscape disappearing, bison herd bunched. This "resulted in harmful competition" especially during times of drought, food shortages, and heavy snow (H. P. Danz, 1997). Furthermore, crowded herds furnished an "easy route for the spread of parasites and disease" such as anthrax and tuberculosis (H. P. Danz, 1997). Prevalent disease paired with other human influences created excellent conditions for hunting, but, by the end of the nineteenth century, led to the near extinction of the North American bison. Slaughtering bison was as much a political act as it was economic and environmental. Euroamerican conflicts with Native Americans prompted the American government to actively hunt and kill bison. Great Plain tribes such as the Sioux, Blackfoot, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Arikara, Pawnee, Wichita, Kiowa, and Comanche depended on the bison for their very existence. The bison served many purposes for them. Although primarily used for food, bison also provided hide for housing, clothing, and bedding; bones, organs, and feces were used as fuel and markers (H. P. Danz, 1997). Native Americans placed religious importance and mystical symbolism on bison, especially white bison. Occasionally, an albino or light cream-colored bison would materialize in a herd “an event that nearly always resulted in the eventual killing, or sacrifice, of the animal, followed by ritualistic and religious ceremonies” (H. P. Danz, 1997). Knowing that these tribes revered and depended on bison, the American government targeted bison as a way to undermine Native American culture and reduce their populations. In 1873, for instance, President Grant's Secretary of the Interior, Columbus Delano wrote, "'I would not seriously regret the total disappearance of the buffalo from our western prairies, in its effect upon the Indians' … the destruction of the herds would have a beneficial effect in reducing Indian resistance"(S. M. Taylor, 2011). Although no official statement from the Army states they intentionally targeted bison, it was clear through their eagerness to break Indian resistance. Railroads, from a tactical perspective, also played a large role in their late nineteenth century decline. When it was discovered that the Union Pacific and Kansas Pacific railroads interfered with bison territory, military commanders increased their pressure on bison herds. This strategy cleared the path for railroads and undermined Native American societies in the area. In the words of Army General Philip Sheridan, "I think it would be wise to invite all the sportsmen of England and America this fall for a Grand Buffalo hunt" (D. D. Smits, 1994). Military commanders also deliberately permitted their troops to kill bison in order to decimate the Native American frontier. After all, the bison and the Plains tribes were inseparable and the bison were an easier target. The destruction of the bison was a political and economic act that fundamentally reshaped the human ecology of the Great Plains.  Even though human involvement and natural catastrophes devastated bison herds throughout the United States, the force driving the slaughter of bison was capitalism. Because the supply of bison was so plentiful and the railroads made shipping quicker, companies, such as the American Fur Company, could "sell the [bison fur] robes at a moderate price and still reap profit" (Isenberg, 2000). This, however, put "heavy pressure on the herds" themselves (Isenberg, 2000). Ultimately, profits depended less on the price of the robes than "on the sheer volume shipped east" (Isenberg, 2000). According to environmental historian Andrew Isenberg, the Native Americans participated in the bison robe trade. Native Americans also participated in the beaver fur trade that spanned between the late 1600s to the early 1800s. Similar to the bison trade, the Euroamericans prized beaver fur and Native American tribes hunted beaver for food. However, other game, such as muskrat, mink, otter, and lynx were available in the case of beaver shortages (A. J. Ray, 2017). The difference between the bison fur trade and the beaver fur trade was that the nomadic lifestyle of the bison was mirrored by the Native Americans on the Great Plains. Thus, even though Native American tribes participated in the beaver trade, the tribes on the Great Plains experienced greater difficulties when they transformed their main source of livelihood, the bison, into capital. From the Euroamerican perspective, Native American involvement benefited the American Fur Company so much that by 1835, “an average of over 130,000” bison robes were shipped per year (Isenberg, 2000). This, in conjunction with the fixed low robe prices, made profits dependent on the volume of bison robes rather than on their prices. These industrial pressures caused the western plains to become “a remote extension of the global industrial economy and an object of its demand for natural resources" (Isenberg, 2000). This exploitation nearly brought the North American bison to extinction, all the while fueling the United States’ global economy.  The story of the downfall of the bison is a sad one. By 1889, there were only “1,089 bison left in North America” (H. R. Harris, 1920). The diagram pictured above (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/show/36" title="Figure 3" target="_self">Figure 3</a>) shows the decline of bison herds after Euroamerican expansion in1889. However, a more recent history, of which Scout is a part of, is hopeful. Today, “approximately 500,000 bison live across North America” (Defenders.org, “Basic Facts About Bison"). Populations persisted in Canada and, surprisingly, on Catalina Island. 23 bison were brought to this foreign island to film a movie, but ended up staying when 22 new bison were imported to Catalina Island between 1969 and 1971 to mix with the island herd and maintain population health (R. A. Sweitzer, et. al. 2005). Again, bison were saved from near extinction “in the late 1800s by 5 private herds established by ranchers and by a sixth herd at the New York Zoological Park”, meaning that the present-day plains bison population is “descended from less than 100 founders” (P. W. Hedrick, 2009). Because the number of bison remaining on the continent was so limited, conservation promoted hybridization between bison and cattle. Breeding bison with cattle resulted in a changed population, however. A scientific study demonstrated that in both a nutritionally poor environment (Santa Catalina Island, California) and a nutritionally rich environment (Montana), bison with cattle mtDNA had lower body weights and were shorter than their counterparts with bison mtDNA (J. N. Derr, et. al. 2012). Although this decreases the bison's overall fitness due to the smaller stature, it keeps alive some degree of bison. Some critics complain that this does not stay true to conserving organic bison, but this is a critical step in the right direction for the conservation of bison in modern times.  These early successes prompted a wave of recent efforts to sustainably increase bison populations and reintroduce them to the American Midwest. In the late 1900s, organizations such as the National Bison Association and the Canadian Bison Association worked with individuals to promote raising bison in every state and nearly every province, especially those with plains (D. E. Popper and F. J. Popper, 2006). Wealthy entrepreneurs and conservations have even gone so far as to promote the recovery of large regions of the plains as a bison ecosystem, a movement known as Buffalo Commons. This movement has “coincided with numbers of important shifts: from a paradigm of mastery of nature to one of cooperation based on ecology… As one result… prairie dogs were saved from extermination in Lubbock, Texas, because of their identified role in the ecosystem” (D. E. Popper and F. J. Popper, 2006). These efforts are part of a global movement to “rewild” anthropogenic landscapes, breed endangered or even extinct animals.  Today, bison have reemerged as an economically significant source of food. A Nebraskan farmer, Dave Hutchinson, was recognized in September 2017 in the Omaha World Herald for promoting organic bison, "raised and finished on grass" (S. B. Hansen, 2017). His land “has been certified organic since 1980 and his animals since 1990” (S. B. Hansen, 2017). This is particularly notable for Nebraska because according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's 2012 Census of Agriculture, there's "about 23,000 bison in Nebraska and 88 operations raising the animals, making Nebraska the second highest producer, behind South Dakota" (S. B. Hansen, 2017). Certainly, the attitude towards bison is shifting towards an approach that encourages natural bison growth, in Nebraska, nationally, and internationally. Hutchinson’s farm attracts local, domestic, and foreign visitors that are intrigued by his dedication to organic farming and conservation. Hutchinson demonstrates how humans can positively employ their power to help conserve nature.  Nebraskans continue to be a leading force in bison conservation. Across the U.S., the bison is now considered the national mammal (World-Herald Editorial, 2016). Nebraskans recognize the bison’s impact on Great Plains ecology and Native American culture. U.S. Representative Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska, a sponsor of the National Bison Legacy Act, says, “bison have a storied history in Nebraska and are an important part of our nation’s frontier heritage… By naming bison as our national mammal, we are supporting the ongoing preservation of this majestic species and their essential tie to the American experience” (World-Herald Editorial, 2016). This admiration for the North American bison inspires a spirit of activism towards the bison that once roamed the Great Plains.  Bison will never reassume the prominence they once held in Midwest ecologies and human societies. From that perspective, a twenty first century bison like Scout serves as a culturally resonant reminder of past mistakes. The massive decline in the bison population demonstrates our selfish, greedy nature that drives us to push nature and its creatures to its limits. However, the bison recovery represents a different perspective on the Anthropocene. It shows that with conscious effort, humans also have the capability to create new relationships with nature. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Chelsey Dizon Kevin Vincent Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived “Basic Facts About Bison.” Defender.org. https://defenders.org/bison/basic-facts (26 November 2017). Danz, Harold P. Of Bison and Man: From the Annals of a Bison Yesterday to a Refreshing Outcome from Human Involvement with America's Most Valiant of Beasts. Niwot: University Press of Colorado, 1997. Derr, James N., Philip W. Hedrick, Natalie D. Halbert, Louis Plough, Lauren K. Dobson, Julie King, Calvin Duncan, David L. Hunter, Noah D. Cohen, and Dennis Hedgecock. "Phenotypic Effects of Cattle Mitochondrial DNA in American Bison." Conservation Biology 26, no. 6 (2012): 1130-136. doi:10.1111/j.1523-1739.2012.01905.x. Flannery, Tim F. The Eternal Frontier: An Ecological History of North America and Its Peoples. London: Penguin, 2001. Geist, Valerius. Buffalo nation: history and legend of the North American bison. Stillwater, MN: Voyageur Press, 1996. Hansen, Sarah Baker. "Nebraska Man Raises Organic Bison." Omaha World-Herald, September 17, 2017. Accessed November 7, 2017. https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/nebraska/articles/2017-09-17/nebraska-man-raises-organic-bison. Harris, H. R. ""John Full of Pep," Only Surviving Paleface to Hunt Buffaloes with Pawnees, Recalls Days when Hoof Beats Resembled Thunder on Plains." The Omaha Sunday Bee, August 29, 1920. Accessed December 10, 2017. Hedrick, Philip W. “Conservation Genetics and North American Bison.” Journal of Heredity 100, no. 4 (July 2009): 411-420. doi:10.1093/jhered/esp024 Isenberg. The Destruction of the Bison: An Environmental History, 1750-1920 (Studies in Environment and History). Cambridge University Press, 2000. Knapp, A., J. Blair, J. Briggs, S. Collins, D. Hartnett, L. Johnson, and E. Towne. "The Keystone Role of Bison in North American Tallgrass Prairie: Bison Increase Habitat Heterogeneity and Alter a Broad Array of Plant, Community, and Ecosystem Processes."BioScience, 1999. doi:10.1525/bisi.1999.49.1.39. Lott, Dale F. American Bison: a Natural History. University of California Press, 2003. McHugh, Tom. The Time of the Buffalo. New Jersey: Castle Books, 2004. Popper, Deborah E., and Frank J. Popper. "The onset of the Buffalo Commons." Journal of the West 45, no. 2 (2006): 29. Ray, Arthur J. Indians in the Fur Trade: their roles as trappers, hunters, and middlemen in the lands southwest of hudson bay, 1660-1870. Toronto: Univ of Toronto Press, 2017. Smits, David D. "The Frontier Army and the Destruction of the Buffalo: 1865-1883." The Western Historical Quarterly 25, no. 3 (1994): 312. doi:10.2307/971110. Sweitzer, RICK A., Juanita M. Constible, Dirk H. Van Vuren, PETER T. Schuyler, and FRANK R. Starkey. "History, habitat use and management of bison on Catalina Island, California." In 6th California Islands Symposium, Institute for Wildlife Studies, Ventura, CA. 2005. Taylor, M. Scott. "Buffalo Hunt: International Trade and the Virtual Extinction of the North American Bison." American Economic Review 101, no. 7 (2011): 3162-195. doi:10.1257/aer.101.7.3162. "World-Herald editorial: Bison are a fitting symbol for Plains, U.S." Omaha.com. May 18, 2016. Accessed December 10, 2017. http://www.omaha.com/opinion/world-herald-editorial-bison-are-a-fitting-symbol-for-plains/article_c6f22d14-e8a6-5f3a-9c30-b043011909b3.html. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Durham Museum Collection Bison Great Plains Ecology Overkill Prairie Ecosystem Rewilding Second Industrial Revolution Westward Expansion 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 <img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4740/38752446300_776a102fdd_o.jpg" 100="" width="100% height=" /> 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/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 <img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4740/38752446300_776a102fdd_o.jpg" 100="" width="100% height=" /> 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/b2a60ae98af11960e5ddb5e4eb5a3a5a.JPG 571e79a5860c782d16980ae853e6863b https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/5209f4b2e0866671cfd3166531f676e8.JPG 2e662b3ac695dd56ab3aa20292b3fbb4 https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/9f7cdc385f33b4557cec1ab086057669.jpg da2a739cbeff74cc719b21755fba1b2e Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Figure 1: Map of the state of Nebraska showing the lands of the Burlington & Missouri Riv. R.R. Co. in Nebraska, 1876 Description An account of the resource The shading on this 1876 map of Omaha details the land owned by the Burlington Railroad company at this time. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Photo Courtesy of the Library of Congress Subject The topic of the resource A map indicating in shading the land owned by the Burlington by 1876. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1876 https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/11f71a754a2826ba5bf76873abcd3205.jpg 8822b1d4ce3e6a5c6389c2d09a37ab1c Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Figure 2: Burlington Railroad Advertisements Description An account of the resource A set of advertisements released by the Burlington Railroad encouraging land acquisition around the railroads in Nebraska. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Courtesy of Olmanson, E. D. (n.d.). Promotion and Transformation of Landscapes along the CB&Q Railroad. Retrieved October, 2017, from http://www.environmentandsociety.org/exhibitions/railroad/settlement-promotion-burlington-railroad https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/2c411bb552774d376e1a31e3b1b5d496.jpg 4187ca525b6a7f3a10978f1e4e6c6d0e Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Graph 1: U.S Census Bureau Record of Nebraska Population Values, 1800 to 2000 Description An account of the resource The data displayed above helps illustrate the growth in Nebraska's citizen population from the 1800 to 2000. Notice the dramatic increase in population from 1860 to 1900s' which parallels the arrival and growth of the Burlington. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Photo Courtesy of the U.S. Census Bureau https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/dad605073741991d04ec917651789c65.jpg 8ae28fddcbb5b7cf7ac12fa5ea788446 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Figure 5. Description An account of the resource The Burlington Railroad introduced Vista Domes to customers as new way to consume nature and the beauty of the West. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Olmanson, E. D. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Retrieved October, 2017, from http://www.environmentandsociety.org/exhibitions/railroad/settlement-promotion-burlington-railroad https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/c9b07a5666a83584d00895bb0ae86b48.jpg f9a5cb82971419d90b60d3501916c7cd Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Figure 6. Description An account of the resource This man can be seen casually leaning against a rail with a Burlington Route Timetable in his breast pocket. This photograph was taken in 1909 by Louis Bostwick. At this point in time the Burlington was a household name, and many owned the timetables, as it was the most efficient means to traveling long distances at the time. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Durham Museum Photo Archive https://durhammuseum.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15426coll1/id/26607/rec/10 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Commercial use or distribution of the image is not permitted without prior permission of the copyright holder. Please contact The Durham Museum for permission to use the digital image. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Conquering Time and Space Subject The topic of the resource <div>Industrial Revolutions <img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4704/39667361775_2e3264c4bf_o.jpg" 100="" width="100% height=" /> <a href="https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~24266~880086:-Birdseye-view-Great-Plains-#" title="Bird Eye View - Rumsey" target="_blank">Detail(Birdseye view Great Plains)Knight, Leonard & Co.,Engravers and Printers, Chicago. (1890) David Rumsey.com </a></div> Description An account of the resource Industrial revolutions fundamentally transformed the world’s social and economic order. Beginning in Great Britain in the eighteenth century, European empires expanded industrialization into a global phenomenon that created spectacular wealth and unprecedent power for western countries, but also led to new social conflict and increased the gap between rich and poor. Industrialization also led to profound changes in the global environment. Advances in transportation and telecommunications expanded the reach of industrial powers. The railroad and the telegraph allowed people to tap distant natural resources more quickly and efficiently than ever before. Contemporaries praised this “annihilation of time and space” and Omaha was central to this story. The first transcontinental telegraph began in Omaha and was completed in 1861. In 1863, the Union Pacific chose Omaha as the eastern terminus for the transcontinental railroad. By 1867, the United States had built the world’s largest railroad network, business leaders communicated from coast to coast, and Omaha stood at the center. As railroads and the telegraph shrank time and space, cities expanded. Streetcars promoted urban growth and the rise of the first suburbs. The objects in this section show rail and the telegraph reshaped environments during this era of industrialization. As you move through this section of the exhibit, consider how transportation and telecommunication connects Omaha to the wider world and to global environments today. Physical Object An inanimate, three-dimensional object or substance. Note that digital representations of, or surrogates for, these objects should use Moving Image, Still Image, Text or one of the other types. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Burlington Railroad Timetable Subject The topic of the resource Railroads shrunk space and time during the nineteenth century. Before the growth of railroad networks, a trip from Chicago to Omaha took 5 days. By the twentieth century, railroads companies like the Burlington cut that time down to 8 hours. This was an important transition because railroads opened up new markets, new resources, and new environments to places like Omaha. As networks of railroads expanded, they created unified timetables which regulated time. This timetable, printed during the twilight of this railroad age, is symbol of this global transition. By the mid-twentieth century, railroads like the Burlington connected Omaha to the rest of America by encouraging economic growth and ecotourism. Description An account of the resource The railroad timetable annihilated time and space. It was America’s first-time keeper, and changed how people around the world considered travel. As intricate networks of railroads stretched across countries around the world, they introduced an era where distances were easily conquerable. People and goods were transported to the far reaches of countries. More importantly, the railroads brought with them timetables. The condensed pamphlets of arrivals and departures established a means of organizing time across the expanses the railroads covered. As railroads expanded the timetables were a means to unify how the country experienced time. Time is precious, and prior to the timetable there was no unified way of managing it. Towns prior to the railroad were limited in the amount of resources they had and had their own “temporal identities”. For example, London ran 4 minutes ahead of Reading, and 7 minutes and 30 seconds ahead of Cirencester, and a whole 15 minutes ahead of Bridgewater. (Schivelbusch, 1941) This system of localized time fared well prior to railroad due to the lack of travel and the long travel time between them. The main methods of transport in the 1800s were by boat through rivers and canals, or by carriage. These methods were not the most trust worthy and limited growth of cities to what they in their radius for the most part. The most striking issues was how slow and unreliable these methods of transport were. A fifteen-minute difference in time was not important if the time to travel to the area was measured in days. When railroads were introduced, traffic between cities increased and transit time shrunk. Railroad became an important mode of transport of goods and people. Resources once inaccessible to some towns were now easily shipped. Likewise, smaller towns grew into large cities by exporting their abundant good to other locations and gaining capital. A time difference between cities was longer plausible as it would mean confusion and inefficiency for the railroad and those who invested in it. Thus, the railroads implemented their own times and created timetables with them. Initially the time chosen was up to company, for example in 1871 the Central Pacific Railroad specified their timetable operated on Sacramento time, where its headquarters resided. (White, 2011) This allowed passengers to manage their time around a specific line, however it became inefficient when more than one train had to be taken. Having more than one time in a town also became inconvenient. In 1883, the United States officially standardized railroad time amongst all operating railroad companies, and people and businesses began to informally use it as a standard. (White, 2011) Timetables were a game changer for businesses and individuals alike. Omaha’s history can be traced back to railroads. Though the Union Pacific Headquarters currently resides in Omaha, the Burlington was more involved with the cities growth. The Union Pacific Railroad cut through Nebraska, pursuing a transcontinental railroad which passed through the country more so than branching to connect cities with one another. Though initially hesitant to expand to Nebraska, by 1868 The Burlington company saw it as a business opportunity after Charles Elliott Perkin, who would later become President of the Burlington Railroad, gave it a glowing review. (Kinbacher and Thomas, 2008) The Burlington Railroad acted on the 1864 Pacific Railroad Act which authorized the construction of a trunk line passing though territory south of the Platte River to intersect with the Union Pacific transcontinental route at or near the 100th meridian. (Kinbacher and Thomas, 2008) By 1872, a whopping 2,400,000 acres of land in Nebraska was granted to the Burlington Railroad by the U.S government to begin building railroad (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/show/67" title="Figure 1" target="_self">Figure 1</a>). (Overton, 1976) Thus, the Burlington Railroad threw open the doors to the West and ushered in a new wave of settlers. Initially upon receiving its land grants the Burlington launched an effort to sell it to prospective settlers. By successfully selling land around the area they use to build railroads up the Burlington increases the value of the railroad land they acquired. The Burlington was also granted more land due to its success in advertising the Midwest. (Overton, 1976) The Burlington created programs based on credit to sell the land around the railroads, and the area was advertised in the East though various exhibits, pamphlets, and maps. (O'Neil, 1956) A colonizing campaign was created and lured in potential settlers with special such as reduced prices for settlement (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/show/99" title="figure 2" target="_self">Figure 2</a>). In addition, the Burlington shipped in resources required to build the city, and to jump start farming, while advertising Nebraska’s potential at agricultural fairs in both the US and England. (Fisher, 1931) Despite being in competition with Union Pacific, overall the Burlington sold more land to potential settlers and investors. (Kawashima, 2010) These early promotional efforts were extremely effective and in time Nebraska became a well settled agricultural area. In 1872 alone, farmers shipped a quarter million bushels of wheat through across Burlington rail, and they were of such quality that the price easily paid for the cost of transportation. (Jones, 1957) The growth of the Burlington route, in a very real sense, both mirrored and prompted the growth of Nebraska, and Omaha. The growth of the city can be seen in census data. Though correlation does not mean causation, it is clear the growth of population in Nebraska coincided with the arrival of the Burlington Railroad (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/show/66" title="Graph 1" target="_self">Graph 1</a> and <a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/show/101" title="Figure 3">Figure 3</a>). By the 1900s, the Burlington its veered away from cargo and shifting its focus to passenger transportation. (Dorin, 1976) This was a response to the booming Second Industrial Revolution which came with a new-found interest in leaving the cities to experience nature. The Burlington made began to advertise the new concept of ecotourism to cater to the new American desire to explore the West. Improvements in the 1930s to its passenger service increased revenue and provided an economic boost to the Omaha after the depression. (Overton, 1941) The Burlington advertised Omaha as a gateway to West and promoted their line as a comfortable, exciting mode of travel for tourists. The Burlington released new trains such as the Exposition Flyer in 1939 which traveled for decades due to their popularity as a scenic draw (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/show/68" title="Figure 4" target="_self">Figure 4</a>). This inspired the Burlington to create more trains to cater to a new generation of ecotourists. (Retzinger, 1998) The emphasis on passenger rail services increased into the 1940s.Their Zephyr line, which ran from 1935 to 1960 featured air conditioning, vista domes, and in cabin luxuries (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/show/73" title="Figure 5" target="_self">Figure 5</a>). The Burlington Railroad aimed to make travel West easy and compelling. The growth of Omaha and Lincoln was undeniable, and correlated strongly with the establishment of the railroad. Atack et al. (2010), found a strong correlation between the expansion of railroads and the growth of cities. The Burlington Railroad created a network that connected almost everywhere in North America. Railroads even connected to seaports, which allowed for overseas transportation of commodities. (Milner, 1994) Atack et al. (2010) concluded that while the expansion of railroads did not have a significant enough correlation with population increase in the Midwest to be considered a cause of population growth, it was the most important factor behind urbanization in the Midwest. They cite three reasons as to why this is the case. First, railroads reduced the costs of transportation of goods, which led to increased trade. Second, they caused Midwestern wealth to increase which led to greater demand for industrial products. Lastly, they created “feeder lines”, which are connections between cities and towns, which encouraged people to settle into areas before railroads were constructed in those areas . In his book Nature’s Metropolis, William Cronon (1991) discusses how trains helped to urbanize Chicago. He states that distance was not as important a factor as time and cost in transportation. Because trains can travel much faster than many other modes of transportation, they greatly increased transportation of goods between Chicago and the surrounding rural areas. He states that many people were eager to use this new form of transportation because of its great speed. Interestingly, he states that many inhabitants of Chicago at the time believed that railroads had become “assimilated” to the natural landscape of the area . Railways also helped build many other Western cities (Milner, II et al. 1994). Railroads also advanced agriculture through their transportation speed. For a while, Texas Longhorn cattle were plagued by a tick-borne disease known as Texas fever. The ticks thrived in Texas, but could not survive the colder winters of the North. Because of this, the cattle were sometimes held in shipped north to be fattened up until they had become of Texas fever. A man named Joseph McCoy was noted for taking advantage of this situation using the railroad systems. He, along with many others, established cattle towns, such as Abilene, Kansas, where he could supply Texas Cattle to the Kansas Pacific railroad. Shipping of beef became an important industry for trains, especially when refrigerated train cars made shipment much more efficient, as it kept the beef fresher for longer. Gustavus Swift pioneered the use of refrigerated railroad cars and began to sell beef from Chicago in New York. Other agricultural products were shipped via trains, and railroad companies often encouraged farming near the railroad lines by providing economic incentives and some forms of compensation during periods of economic stress. Many of them encouraged dry-farming, which, as its name suggests, is farming pioneered by Hardy Webster Campbell that is productive in the dry environments of the northern Great Plains, in order to ensure that more farmers settled in. There were some people who accused railroad companies of exploiting the farmers. According to Milner, II et al. 1994, “along the rail system, farms sprang up like winter wheat in a Kansas spring.” As a result of the mass transportation of agricultural products brought about by trains, new opportunities opened up in industrial, urbanized areas, such as food processing plants and similar areas. (Milner, 1994) In addition to facilitating urbanization, trains later also made it easier for city-dwellers to commodify nature in another way. By moving people to different parts of the country faster, they allowed people to consume distant environments through tourism (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/show/74" title="Figure 6" target="_self">Figure 6</a>). During the twentieth century, the western United States became a popular tourist destination, mainly because it contained much truer wilderness than the East due to less human disturbance. National parks were often advertised by railroads to promote tourism. Often the trains would take hundreds of tourists to one spot, and the tourists would then reach the parks on horseback. Tourism became more popular in the 1920s thanks to Hollywood, although cars began to gain more popularity in this era, so it is unclear whether the 1920s was a prosperous era for the railroad industry or not. Union Pacific opened a ski resort in Sun Valley, Idaho in the 1936, which gained more popularity after World War II. Railroads also made exploitation of game animals much more efficient. Bison, for example, suffered from the westward expansion of railroads, by allowing hunters to transport their bison kills to the markets much more easily than before . This was furthered by the invention of refrigerated cars. Railroad companies even hired bison hunters to provide meat to their workers as well as fill their freight cars with numerous possible commodities. “Buffalo Bill” actually claimed to have killed 4,280 bison for Union Pacific. Railroads transported not only hunters’ quarries more efficiently, but also transported the hunters themselves to their quarries more efficiently and quickly than before. Bison were even shot for sport from the windows of trains. (Dolin, 2003). It is said that the railroads, along with the telegraph, were the most important contributors to the extinction of the Passenger Pigeon (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/show/72" title="Figure 7" target="_self">Figure 7</a>). (Burke, 2017) After World War II, other modes of transportation, such as cars and airplanes slowly became more popular, leading to the gradual decline of railroad tourism. (Milner, 1994) Omaha and its relationship with the Burlington railroad serves as a powerful example of the urbanizing power of railways and their impacts. The surrounding environment is both drained filled in with the human footprint, and thus its ecological changes become apparent. Trains drastically changed how people and businesses viewed transportation across vast distances. The Burlington timetable is a testament to how humans eliminated time as a constraining factor in the consumption and exploitation of new, distant, environments. Areas which were otherwise inaccessible without significant travel and hardship became easily accessible. Railroads facilitated the exploitation of nature by both bringing people to nature and bringing nature to people. They moved people seeking to urbanize to their cities, urban tourists to their scenic wilderness, and hunters to their quarry. In addition, they moved all kinds of natural resources from rural and wild areas into cities. This became the key to more urbanization and spreading of cities. More and more products of the area were shipped out and in demand, and more resources to fulfill that demand were shipped in. Resources included people who were ready to work, in addition to materials. The possibility for capital growth and success was increased significantly when railways were introduced to bring regions together to exchange resources. The ease of export also meant increased capital gains for those invested in the area and a drive utilize the earth for short term gain over long term upkeep. This sort of development lead to the ideas of Eugene Odum who observed cities as parasitic. This parasitic nature is only made possible by railways which act like extensive capillaries carrying capital, resources, and people one area to the next. This idea is further exemplified by the fact that many rural westerners felt that they were essentially a colony of the eastern urban elite, who drained the resources of the rural western United States for their own benefit. They often referred to the western United States as a “plundered province”. There were also many economic policies which favored easterners over westerners, such as tariffs. This led to some resentment of the East, whom the West often scapegoated for its problems, although, as noted before, sometimes rightfully so. (Milner, 1994) This situation prevails today, not just here in Omaha, but all over the world. The railroad, despite having given away to cars as the most popular means of transport, is still important for import of resources over long distance. The Burlington railroad left its footprint in Omaha, its headquarters taken over by KMTV still exist today. The crisscrossing of railroads correlated to the influx of people and capital which resulted in Omaha’s growth as a city. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource John Brennan Devika Prasanth Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Atack, Jeremy, Fred Bateman, Michael Haines, and Robert A. Margo. “Did Railroads Induce or Follow Economic Growth: Urbanization and Population Growth in the American Midwest, 1850-1860.” Social Science History 34.2 (2010): 171-197. JSTOR. Web. 17 Oct. 2017. Bostwick- Forhardt Collection, 1850-1964, compiled by The The Durham Museum (Omaha, Durham Museum Photo Archive, 2017 ). Burk, Theodore. Conservation Biology Lecture. 2017. Personal Communication. Cronon, William. Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and Great West. New York: W·W·NORTON & COMPANY, 1991. ebook. Dolin, Eric Jay. Smithsonian Book of National Wildlife Refuges. Old Saybrook: Konecky & Konecky, 2003. Print. Fisher, Chas. E. "The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company." The Railway and Locomotive Historical Society Bulletin, No 24 (1931): 4-43. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/43516939>. Jones, C. Clyde. "The Burlington Railroad and Agricultural Policy in the 1920's." Agricultural History, Vol. 31, No. 4 (1957): 67-74. Kawashima, Yasuhide. “Farmers, Ranchers, and the Railroad: The Evolution of Fence Law in the Great Plains, 1865-1900.” Great Plains Quarterly 30.1 .2010.: 21-35. JSTOR. Web. 7 Oct. 2017. Kinbacher, Kurt E. and William G. Thomas III. "Shaping Nebraska An Analysis Of Railroad And Land Sales, 1870-1880." Great Plains Quarterly 2008. <http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2374&context=greatplainsquarterl>. Loomis, Bill. Photograph. “Slaughtered to extinction: Passenger pigeons in Michigan.” The Detroit News. MediaNews, 31 Aug. 2014. Web. 13 Dec. 2017. Milner, II, Clyde A., Carol A. O’Connor, Martha A. Sandweiss, eds.. The Oxford History of the American West. New York: Oxford University P., 1994. Print. Olmanson, E. D. (n.d.). Promotion and Transformation of Landscapes along the CB&Q Railroad. Retrieved October, 2017, from http://www.environmentandsociety.org/exhibitions/railroad/settlement-promotion-burlington-railroad Overton, Richard C. Burlington West: A Colonization History of the Burlington Railroad. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1941. Retzinger, Jean P.. “Framing the Tourist Gaze: Railway Journeys Across Nebraska, 1866-1906.” Great Plains Quarterly 18.3 1998: 213-226. JSTOR. Web. 6 Oct. 2017. Schivelbusch, W., Railroad Space and Railroad Time. In The Railway Journey : The Industrialization of Time and Space in the 19th Century. 1941. (pp. 33-44). Berkeley: University of California Press. The California Zephyr. (n.d.). Retrieved December, 2017, from http://calzephyr.railfan.net/expoflyer.html White, R. Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America. 2011. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Burlington Extinction Railroad Second Industrial Revolution Tourism Transportation Westward Expansion https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/b4941ff5bde45dd5b6cbb7843fb42459.JPG b49a843759ac182188dcf25bae7f7e48 https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/ac74a129fb9e69405aa678a8aec8188f.JPG 19b762702ee7f74166e7346439ccb16e 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 Description An account of the resource Gas roasted coffee can. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Photo Courtesy of Trevor Schlecht and Zach Tapia 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 Consumer Revolutions Subject The topic of the resource Global Capitalism <img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4758/39538672694_da9d00eca7_o.jpg" 100="" width="100% height=" /> Butter-Nut Coffee Advertisement, Durham Photo Archive Description An account of the resource Globalization has brought the world to our doorstep. Expanding networks of trade bring goods from every corner of the world to our homes in Omaha. Although many of us associate globalization with the very recent past, those connections have a long history. This section of the exhibit takes us from the early history of globalization to the present and shows how our consumer decisions transformed economic and environmental relationships around the world. The first era of globalization dawned in the late sixteenth century when the Spanish Empire created the first global currency. The Spanish used gold and silver mined by indigenous peoples in Bolivia to trade for goods in China. Silver coins greased the wheels of early globalization and connected American mines, to tea fields in China, to the markets of Europe. Expanding wealth and power eventually opened up foreign landscapes to American use as well. By the nineteenth century, consumer networks allowed families in Omaha to consume tropical goods like coffee. Today, multinational corporations like ConAgra dominate food production. They use resources from every type of environment and ship their products globally. Consumer revolutions accelerated after the Second World War. Home appliances like televisions, refrigerators, and washing machines promised convenience and an increased quality of life, but new technologies sometimes produced unexpected environmental consequences. These objects remind us that modern consumerism was part of a long history of globalization that transformed global environments. Many of us still use objects like these on a daily basis. As you look through this section, ask yourself how many goods you have used or consumed today are connected in some way to foreign landscapes. 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 Coffee Cans Subject The topic of the resource Omaha businessmen William Paxton and Benjamin Gallagher started gas-roasting coffee in 1887. Their factory stood across the street from the current location of The Durham Museum on 10th and Jones. The pair launched Butter-Nut Coffee in 1916 and employed hundreds of Omahans. Although a local hit for decades, the coffee beans used by the “Butter-Nut” brand were anything but local. The coffee beans grew thousands of miles away. Butter-Nut farmed their beans on plantations in 18 different tropical countries. These plantations used either sun or shade-grown coffee. Sun-grown coffee is grown in the sun, whereas shade grown coffee grows under the canopy of trees. Large businesses, like Butter-Nut, preferred sun-grown coffee, which requires massive deforestation. This led to habitat loss, sometimes putting species at risk for extinction. Declines in tropical ecosystems and species diversity are part of the Anthropocene. Not only does coffee start our day, it changes the places where it is grown. Description An account of the resource Thomas Jefferson called it “the drink of the civilized world,” it has been cultivated since the fifteenth century, and there is a very good chance you started your day with it. It is consumed recreationally, to promote wakefulness and productivity, and often just for the taste. Today, coffee is the most popular beverage in the world, with 400 billion cups consumed annually. (Morris, 2013) Grown in the “Bean Belt-” the area between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn - and shipped globally, coffee can be found in our stores, our homes, and in the factories that process beans. It is no surprise why coffee is popular. It’s flavors... the cultural significance… its mild addictiveness… but how it achieved such prominence is a fascinating story that connects the rise of cities with different environments. It is a tale of the Anthropocene. We are surrounded by evidence of that story, whether in the form of coffee cans on our shelves or the immense fields of coffee beans in distant countries. You drink that story with every sip of coffee. The Butter-Nut Coffee can represents Omaha’s place in that story. The commodity chain developed over the last 150 years to bring coffee into our homes and businesses speaks to dramatic changes the coffee industry has had on the global environment. Coffee traveled long and far to end up in the roasters that supplied Butter-Nut Coffee. The bean was first described in writing to be a beneficial crop as early as 1000 CE by Avicenna of Bukhara (in modern-day Uzbekistan), and scholars have found evidence of widespread coffee drinking during the mid-15th century after it found its way to Mecca. From there, coffee traveled along trade routes and became an instant hit wherever it was available. Cafes became popular places to meet in 17th century Europe, and the beans were already being exported to America by 1668. (Luttinger and Dicum, 2006) A crop with such a global popularity does not enter our lives unnoticed. “Only a handful of consumer goods have fueled the passions of the public as much as coffee. [It] has inspired battlefields of economics, human rights, politics, and religion” while becoming a part of our everyday lives thanks to the chemical composition responsible for its habit-forming properties and enjoyable taste. (Luttinger and Dicum, 2006) By the early 18th century, obsession with coffee expanded to the US. Coffee consumption was on par with tea domestically until the 1880s, when an influx of immigrants hoping to have the economic ability to purchase coffee began to settle in the US. (Morris, 2013) It was not a specific taste for coffee that the immigrants sought, but rather, they yearned for the financial agency to obtain coffee - something that could be done in America, as argued by coffee historian Jonathan Morris, PhD. Around this time, various manufacturers of coffee began to notice an uptick in demand of an already popular product and acted accordingly, importing increasing amounts of beans from source countries like Brazil. (Figure 1) Speaking on the early dramatic rise of coffee consumption in America, notable coffee historian Steven Topik describes how “consumption ballooned from under one pound [per capita] at independence to nine pounds in 1882,” leading to the US consuming one-fifth of the world’s coffee at this time. (Topik, 2013) Paxton & Gallagher as suppliers would ultimately create a coffee powerhouse in the Midwest during this popularity surge - and would be the first producer to sell coffee in tin cans, as opposed to loose beans, in the state of Nebraska. (Landale, 1945) The story of coffee in Omaha began long after it was found that coffee beans could be stewed into an energizing elixir. Omaha businessmen William Paxton and Benjamin Gallagher enjoyed success across several industries and rose to prominence in the late nineteenth century thanks to their investments and ties to other prominent capitalist families like the Creightons. (NSHS, 2010) In 1879, the pair established a trading post that enjoyed success along the rail lines they helped to build, and by 1887 they were roasting beans for distribution on 10th and Jones streets in Omaha. (OWH. 1994)(Figure 2) The unique process used gas instead of coal to roast the imported green coffee faster, reducing the detrimental effects of prolonged heat exposure while still achieving the desired characteristics in an effort to preserve the freshness and flavor of the coffee. (OWH, 1915) Paxton & Gallagher used their method as a unique selling point, bragging to audiences about how they spare no expense to produce the best product. “Gas roasting means something,” says an ad in an April 1915 printing of the Omaha-World Herald. “The Omaha Gas Company will tell you that we are the biggest gas consumers in the city. You can use your own judgment, for we certainly would not pay them over $500.00 a month for gas to roast our coffee if we could do it by using coal for $50.00 a month.” (OWH, 1915) This advertisement reveals to us the efforts that Paxton and Gallagher made in creating their product, while also showcasing their immense gas consumption. This braggadocio with respect to energy consumption is a trait of the Anthropocene, as it demonstrates the ideal of producing as much product as possible with little thought to possible impacts. Beans first arrived via railroads and were stored onsite. (OCCJ, 1936) After being fed through pneumatic tubes in 120 pound increments, the beans were dumped into one of several sixty-foot-long roasters. (The Spice Mill, 1911) After twenty minutes of roasting, the roasted and ground blend of coffee was then packaged in two pound red coffee cans vacuum-packed to preserve taste - a new development for coffee in the early 20th century that gave Paxton & Gallagher a marketable advantage. (The Spice Mill, 1911) These cans were emblazoned with “PAXTON GAS ROASTED COFFEE,” much like the first coffee can artifact from The Durham Museum, which can lead one to reasonably conclude that this can was created around 1915. (Figure 3) This can lands a spot in The Durham thanks to the large role that Paxton & Gallagher had in shaping the Omaha economy through their roastery, among other ventures. Their coffee brand would only grow for most of the 20th century. Shortly after the production of this can, Paxton & Gallagher launched the Butter-Nut line of foods, which included coffee. Named after a tree nut, this rebranding was an attempt to describe their sweet-smelling product and launch a successful effort that would increase its reach to other states. The number of employees at the roastery on 10th street grew with increased demand, doubling in size to 150 between 1939 and 1942. (Landale, 1945) Butter-Nut directly impacted the economic scene in Omaha by employing a steady, local workforce. As demand for coffee increased and Butter-Nut’s sales grew, competitors began eyeing the corporation. In 1958 the coffee line was bought by Clark and Gilbert Swanson, and was then acquired by Coca-Cola in 1964 thanks to a stock transition worth $30 million. (Coca-Cola, 1969) It is during this time under Coke that the second coffee can was produced - likely in the late 1960s.(Figure 4) Its design changes reflect ideals of modernization that were driven by the commercial consolidations that produced the can. With company structures changing through acquisitions and time, the can designs were periodically updated to appeal to consumers. In 1989, Butter-Nut was sold to an investor working for Maryland Club Foods, and later that year was finally sold to Procter & Gamble, where a Butter-Nut variant of Folger’s was produced. (United Press International, 1989) The flavor was discontinued and Folger’s was sold to Smucker’s, which accounts for 69% of today’s coffee sales along with the remaining “Big Five” coffee producers. (Morris, 2013) Butter-Nut Coffee distinguished itself from the competing brands of its time through its unique taste and aroma. As its popularity grew exponentially, the Butter-Nut Coffee swiftly established itself as a common household brand and found its way into millions of homes across the Midwest. Butter-Nut faced two primary obstacles that blocked the growing company’s path in maximizing their profit margins, both of which were derived from the biological nature of the coffee bean itself. One limitation is the fact that coffee beans will only grow in tropical climates that exist in certain geographical locations. The collective growing sites of coffee around the world is known as the coffee belt which, “spans the globe along the equator, with cultivation in Central and South America; the Caribbean; Africa; the Middle East; and Asia. Brazil is now the world’s largest coffee-producing country.” (Scott, 2015) (Figure 5) While Butter-Nut could process and distribute its product in North America, they had to import the coffee beans, “from the 18 producing countries in Central America, South America, and Africa.” (OWH, 1959) The second obstacle the company encountered was the unpredictable events affecting coffee yields from Butter-Nut’s eighteen producing countries. The motivation to overcome this challenge is due to the rising demand and the consumer’s expectation of the product’s quality which both had to be met in order to maintain the company’s gain in capital. This is evident in the Seventy Fifth Anniversary Cook Book, produced by the Paxton and Gallagher company in 1939. (Figure 6) When describing the origin of their coffee they state that maintaining adequate amounts of their product, “accurate knowledge of the world’s supply, day by day, month by month in and month out, from season to season, and year to year in spite of crop failures, revolutions, and other unpredictable occurrences.” (Paxton and Gallagher, 1939)They go on to say, “In the Butter-Nut Coffee you drink today there is sure to be coffee grown thousands of miles apart and from all, or almost all, of the eighteen countries that supply us. Next day, or a week from now, still another combination is necessary the distinctive flavor of Butter-Nut Coffee for you.” (Paxton and Gallagher, 1939) This reveals that the climate sensitivity of the coffee bean, the ever-increasing demand, and quality expectations of the consumer for the product forced Butter-Nut to uptake resources from around the globe. The Butter-Nut Coffee commodity chain expanding into these foreign locations exemplifies how the coffee industry have dramatic environmental impacts on a global scale. The methods of cultivations represent the strongest influential factors that contributed to the coffee industry’s environmental effects. These methods vary in the intensity of deforestation which is directly linked to a change in the biodiversity and the release of carbon emissions into the earth’s atmosphere. The most profound differences between cultivation practices are apparent in the system management of the coffee farm landscapes. (Morris, 2013) Coffee farming locations around the globe vary in the how they control production, giving rise to a broad collection of landscapes. The coffee fields that are considered rustic denotes plantations that are completely covered with natural tree species that shroud the coffee plants in shade. Sun grown coffee represents the opposite side of the spectrum where there are little to no trees are present in the area of cultivation. Due to their small size, coffee plants store very little carbon. Plantations consisting of sun grown coffee, where the fields have almost no trees, create an ecosystem in which very low amounts of carbon are being taken out of the atmosphere by vegetation. One possible way to lower coffee’s carbon footprint, “is to store more carbon in the trees on the farm.” (Morris, 2013) Therefore, shade grown coffee’s use of trees on the landscape offers environmental benefits by lowering the global levels of atmospheric carbon. Of the 18 coffee producing countries utilized by Butter-Nut, many were in Central America. In the article, “Paxton and Gallagher Company’s Coffee Train”, Mexico is listed as one of their main coffee producing countries. (Paxton & Gallagher's Company Coffee Train, 1901) Much research has been conducted comparing the shade and sun grown coffee’s influence on biodiversity in Mexico, which can make implications on Butter-Nut’s environmental impacts in the region. In his article Robert Rice comments on the landscapes of shade grown coffee and its effects on biodiversity stating, “It is the managed shade covered, essentially a biodiversity managed by the farmer, that in turn allows promotion and presence of an associated biodiversity.” (Morris, 2013) He goes on to refer to a study conducted in Chiapas, Mexico that compared biodiversity between the two coffee managing systems. The authors of the study concluded that “it is imperative to highlight the ecological function of shade farms, not only in providing refuge for native tree fauna, but also in preserving connectivity and gene flow processes essential for reforestation by native tree species.” (Morris, 2013) Where habitat fragmentation can have inhibitory effects of species population growth, the studies provide evidence that more shade-grown coffee farms can be beneficial to the maintaining of species diversity among the surrounding native forests as well. The evidence for the effects of agroforestry systems and may be helpful in understanding how Butter-Nut coffee influenced its coffee producing regions. There tend to be trends that relate the size of the coffee farms and the management systems they utilize. Rice states that larger farms tend to use sun grown coffee because “less tending of the shade trees means that more time can be spent on tending to the coffee bushes.” (Morris, 2013) According to these trends, Butter-Nut, being a large company and producing massive amounts of coffee to meet the public demand, would have used sun grown coffee. Therefore, it is likely Butter-Nut coffee contributed to the loss of biodiversity, an increase in coffee’s carbon footprint, and habitat fragmentation. Clearly, analysis of Omaha’s Butter-Nut Coffee commodity chain reveals the coffee industry’s dramatic effects on the global environment, which are proportional to the historical changes in consumption and production of the product. Coffee drinkers and, in the case of Butter-Nut, Omahans specifically, have been participating in an intricate process that has gained complexity over time. The story of commodification and consumption requires players that desire a product. Our examination of the process in which Butter-Nut acquired beans, imported them, and processed the final product shows how cities can have far-reaching effects on the global environment by requiring resources from increasingly further places. Coffee is a clear example of how high demand for a product changes the environment where it is produced, while creating a complex and competitive market for the final product. This is demonstrated by coffee growing fields in the tropics, and brands like Paxton & Gallagher’s line of Butter-Nut Coffee. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Baker, Peter S. “Coffee as a Global System.” Coffee: A Comprehensive Guide to the Bean, the Beverage, and the Industry, (2013) 26-29 "Butter Nut Coffee Roasted Far From Growing Fields." Omaha Chamber of Commerce Journal, May 1936, 4-5. Coca-Cola Company Foods Division. "The Coffee Processing Story at the Butter Nut Coffee Plant." News release, Houston, TX, May 1969. The Coca-Cola Company. "Coffee-Roasting Equipment of Paxton & Gallagher." The Spice Mill, Vol. 34 No. 1, January 1911, 359. "Ex-Butter-Nut Workers Brew Omaha Reunion." Omaha World-Herald , October 8 , 1994. Landale, Ted . "Coffee Business Cures Its Own Wartime Headache ." Omaha World-Herald , January 21 , 1945. Landale, Ted . "Oldest or Youngest ." Omaha World-Herald , March 1 , 1959. Luttinger, Nina, and Gregory Dicum. The Coffee Book: Anatomy of an Industry from crop to the last drop. New York: New Press, 2006. "Maryland Club Foods completes coffee acquisition." United Press International, February 1, 1989. Michon, Scott. "Climate and Coffee." Climate.gov. June 19, 2015. Accessed November 7, 2017. https://www.climate.gov/news-features/climate-and/climate-coffee. Morris, Jonathan. “Coffee, a Condensed History”. Coffee: A Comprehensive Guide to the Bean, the Beverage, and the Industry. Maryland: Rowman and Littleton, 2013. 215-224. "Notable Nebraskans." Nebraska State Historical Society. June 3, 2010. "Paxton & Gallagher's Company Coffee Train." September 1 , 1901. Paxton and Gallagher Co. Seventy Fifth Anniversary Cook Book. Paxton and Gallagher, 1939 Rice, Robert. “Shade Coffee Farms and Biodiversity.” Coffee: A Comprehensive Guide to the Bean, the Beverage, and the Industry, (2013) 42-49 "To Our Dealers ." Omaha World-Herald , April 24 , 1915. Topik, Steven. “Why Americans Drink Coffee”. Coffee: A Comprehensive Guide to the Bean, the Beverage, and the Industry. Maryland: Rowman and Littleton, 2013. 234-244. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Trevor Schlecht Zach Tapia Bean Belt Benjamin Gallagher Biodiversity Loss Butter-Nut Coffee Commodity Chain Creighton Deforestation Paxton & Gallagher https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/7b84093ebd3dbed55bf673db051b738b.png 59fd432bcef33983d0dd728184dd1e77 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Conquering Time and Space Subject The topic of the resource <div>Industrial Revolutions <img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4704/39667361775_2e3264c4bf_o.jpg" 100="" width="100% height=" /> <a href="https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~24266~880086:-Birdseye-view-Great-Plains-#" title="Bird Eye View - Rumsey" target="_blank">Detail(Birdseye view Great Plains)Knight, Leonard & Co.,Engravers and Printers, Chicago. (1890) David Rumsey.com </a></div> Description An account of the resource Industrial revolutions fundamentally transformed the world’s social and economic order. Beginning in Great Britain in the eighteenth century, European empires expanded industrialization into a global phenomenon that created spectacular wealth and unprecedent power for western countries, but also led to new social conflict and increased the gap between rich and poor. Industrialization also led to profound changes in the global environment. Advances in transportation and telecommunications expanded the reach of industrial powers. The railroad and the telegraph allowed people to tap distant natural resources more quickly and efficiently than ever before. Contemporaries praised this “annihilation of time and space” and Omaha was central to this story. The first transcontinental telegraph began in Omaha and was completed in 1861. In 1863, the Union Pacific chose Omaha as the eastern terminus for the transcontinental railroad. By 1867, the United States had built the world’s largest railroad network, business leaders communicated from coast to coast, and Omaha stood at the center. As railroads and the telegraph shrank time and space, cities expanded. Streetcars promoted urban growth and the rise of the first suburbs. The objects in this section show rail and the telegraph reshaped environments during this era of industrialization. As you move through this section of the exhibit, consider how transportation and telecommunication connects Omaha to the wider world and to global environments today. Physical Object An inanimate, three-dimensional object or substance. Note that digital representations of, or surrogates for, these objects should use Moving Image, Still Image, Text or one of the other types. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Columbia Dry Cell Battery Subject The topic of the resource Telephones, clocks, and flashlights all have one thing in common: energy. In 1896, the Columbia Dry Cell Battery ushered in a new age of portable power. The dry cell battery made it easier for people to use everyday items and develop new technologies, helping cities like Omaha thrive. They also had environmental and human health impacts. Most batteries, including dry cells, end up in landfills or burned. The zinc in dry cell batteries can harm cells and slow plant growth. Later inventions, like lead-acid and lithium-ion batteries, worked better but created new environmental problems. Over one hundred years of battery improvements have made storing energy easier, but the problem of battery waste remains. The Columbia Dry Cell Battery shows that the real challenge is not creating power but figuring out what to do with the waste it leaves behind. Description An account of the resource The Columbia Dry Cell Battery played an instrumental role in the groundbreaking advancements in energy storage, use, and technology introduced in the 1890s. The creation of the dry cell battery ushered in a new age of items for both recreational and domestic use, relying on innovative, portable energy. From clocks and children’s toys to railroad signaling systems, this invention fostered a newfound sense of power within society. The Durham Museum, located in Omaha, Nebraska, is home to an array of artifacts relating to Omaha’s industrial history. Among this collection, is the Columbia Dry Cell Battery. This seemingly modest, brown, and red cylindrical object appears insignificant and mundane at first glance. However, this battery represents so much more. The Columbia Dry Cell Battery not only revolutionized energy harnessing but also created immense environmental challenges linked to battery disposal, issues that persist and intensify today, further fueling the Anthropocene on both a local and global scale. According to the American Chemical Society (ACS), the invention of the Columbia Dry Cell Battery was an integral steppingstone in the transition of batteries from specialized industrial applications to everyday household products (ACS 2005). Located in Cleveland, Ohio, The National Carbon Company (NCC), the precursor to Energizer, was the pioneer of battery development in the early 20th century (ACS 2005). Prior to 1896, the Leclanché wet cell battery dominated the industrial market. However, due to their fragility, costly nature, and susceptibility to spilling, widespread consumer use of wet cell batteries was impractical (ACS 2005). To provide a more reliable and portable energy source, E.M. Jewett worked with the National Carbon Company to mass manufacture and distribute sealed Columbia Dry Cell Batteries. Jewett’s design utilized a paste electrolyte, initially made out of flour and potato starch, to eliminate the leakage issue and streamline use for the American public. The National Carbon Company’s Columbia Dry Cell Battery introduced the age of emerging battery-powered consumer products, establishing the NCC as the leading producer of accessible, portable energy. The Columbia Dry Cell Battery was pivotal in the creation of revolutionary technologies, enhancing consumer accessibility to items like clocks and transforming railroad signaling systems (Elliott 1909). Many companies participated in the creation of mechanical clocks, with the Self Winding Clock Company being the most notable. Their innovative clocks operated on two Columbia Dry Cell Batteries, enabling them to wind themselves, something previously done manually. The self-winding mechanism utilized two motors to convert the battery’s electrical energy into mechanical energy, powering the clock’s gears. Furthermore, the clock’s tension-regulated spring maintained consistent winding, allowing effortless gear movement (Self Winding Clock Co. n.d). These clocks were widely used by the Union Pacific Railroad, headquartered in Omaha. It provided a standardized time to coordinate train schedules. This innovation led to increased efficiency and punctuality in train travel, even allowing railroad workers to set their own clocks accordingly, promoting synchronization throughout the industry. Furthermore, the Columbia Dry Cell Battery also played a critical role in railroad signaling by powering a system that allowed railway tracks to essentially sense trains and communicate with the station. The automatic signal system divided the track into sections, each fitted with wires connecting across both rails. This setup formed a circuit, with a small charge from the battery connected to one of the rails. When the train’s wheels touched both rails, a short circuit was created, diverting the current through the train’s wheels instead of through the previous path. This interruption stopped powering the original circuit linked to the motor. The motor, unpowered, would produce a “release” signal, indicating the presence of a train on that section of track (Elliott 1909). This signaling system powered by the Columbia Dry Cell Battery, adopted in locations like Omaha’s railway, greatly improved railway safety. In addition to industrial applications, the Columbia Dry Cell Battery also powered a range of popular commercial products, including flashlights and telephones. One notable high-demand product was the Eveready flashlight, which was widely used across America. Advertisements, especially around Christmas, highlighted its practicality, displaying its brightness and portability as valued traits in a household flashlight (The Omaha Morning Bee 1924). Telephones were another major commercial innovation powered by Columbia Dry Cell Batteries in the early 20th century. The Nebraska Telephone Company, which played a key role in increasing telephone access, allowed people to connect with anyone, anywhere. The Omaha Daily Bee, reported a significant increase in the use of Bell telephones in Omaha, with the number of devices increasing by 12,000 over four years. As the geographic center of the Bell system, Omaha connected to 50,000 cities and towns (Omaha Daily Bee 1911). The Columbia Dry Cell Battery specifically powered the microphone, converting sound waves to electrical signals. The battery power provided constant current, which the microphone changed based on sound waves. The altered electric signals were then sent through the telephone lines, facilitating clear communication throughout America. The National Carbon Company utilized targeted marketing strategies to sell the Columbia Dry Cell Batteries, notably placing advertisements in household magazines and newspapers like Collier’s (Collier’s 1916, 41) and The Saturday Evening Post (The Saturday Evening Post 1925, 94). Understanding their target audience, the company often advertised in Science and Invention, a prominent science and technology magazine during the 1920s and 1930s. In the November 1928 issue, a man is depicted constructing a dry cell battery in an advertisement titled, “Lots of people know how to make a dry cell - but not the Eveready Columbia.” The body of the advertisement includes text discussing the materials present in dry cells, indicating that “the principal ingredients are zinc, sal ammoniac, manganese, and carbon” (Science and Invention 1928, 579). This advertisement highlights the prevalence of these elements in the production of dry cell batteries, while also providing insight into what materials are released into the atmosphere when the batteries are discarded and dismantled. In 1937, The United States Department of Commerce and the National Bureau of Standards created an American Standard Specification for dry cells and batteries. The publication lists the governmental standards for manufacturers of dry cells, including specifications for sealing compounds, mechanical top closures, and the caliber of tests that must be conducted before the distribution of the batteries. Section eight of the government document states “the anode shall be made from smooth zinc, free from flaws, blisters, and cracks” (U. S. Department of Commerce 1937, 5). Zinc is the predominant element used in dry cell batteries, as it composes the outer casing of the battery and acts as the negative terminal through oxidation and electron release. While zinc is imperative to the function of the dry cell, the large quantity of zinc creates a problem for battery disposal, due to the potential of zinc leaching into the soil. When zinc leaches into the soil it readily transforms into zinc sulfides, becoming more reactive and impacting surrounding ecosystems and human health (Kwon et. al 2017). The Columbia Dry Cell Batteries’ design featured a zinc anode and cathode made of manganese dioxide with some carbon, connected by an ammonium chloride electrolyte to bridge electron flow. While these materials were vital for battery function, the environmental impact of their use intensified as the production of the Columbia Dry Cell Battery increased due to popularity. The demand for zinc, and thus its mining, surged which is illustrated in soil and surrounding ecosystems. An article from Gutiérrez, Mickus, and Camacho explains that abandoned lead and zinc mining sites release toxic metals into nearby water systems. Furthermore, zinc mining involves lead-zinc deposits which build up and leach into the environment. These metals over time form mobile compounds. Even at low levels, these heavy metals can result in severe health issues such as organ damage and neurological disorders (Gutiérrez, Mickus, & Camacho 2016). Further research by Okereafor et al., describes the implications of toxic metals on agricultural soils and broader ecosystems. For example, poor management and storage of mining tailings in South Africa have contributed heavily to degraded environments around the mine. The tailings leach into aquatic ecosystems, leaving organisms vulnerable to cellular damage and dwindling in population size. Additionally, toxic metals have the potential to biomagnify in food chains, especially in freshwater species like mussels. High concentrations of metal in the soil can also disrupt plant growth and metabolism (Okereafor et al. 2020). While this example is specific to South Africa, it illustrates the broader issue of improper metal waste management globally, which applies equally to America. Together the findings of Gutiérrez et. al and Okereafor et al. illustrate the significant environmental costs stemming from the degradation of toxic materials contained by Columbia Dry Cell Batteries. In the 1890s, there was little awareness of environmental costs surrounding the disposal of Columbia Dry Cell Batteries. Consumers often discarded batteries with other regular household goods. Waste management systems were primitive and underdeveloped, leaving the public unaware of possible environmental impacts resulting from careless disposal of toxic elements. As a result, zinc, manganese, and ammonium chloride were recklessly thrown away, ending up in landfills and impacting the ecosystem in surrounding areas, or so-called sacrifice zones. In The Dry-Cell Battery Problem, Bernadette Nola Kowey describes landfills and incineration as two routes of dry cell battery disposal. Kowey writes, “Batteries which are burned in an incinerator explode, releasing the metals they are made of into the air and the ash of the incinerator” (Kowey 1990, 74). It was not until the early 1980s that disposal practices for batteries were regulated to prevent heavy metal contamination. In 1987, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) created a pamphlet describing the enforced pretreatment regulations for battery manufacturing, which further postulated that “recycle and reuse is performed where possible in this subcategory (Dry Cell Battery) to eliminate the discharge of pollutants” (EPA n.d., 2-20). The EPA has continued to enforce strategies for battery disposal today, expanding guidelines to compensate for heavy metals used in current batteries. The Columbia Dry Cell Battery paved the way for advancements in battery technology which power modern devices today. One significant step was the development of the lead-acid battery, which addressed the power demands of automobiles. These batteries power essential functions in cars like engine starting, lighting, turn signals, and even moving the windshield wipers. Similarly, single-use alkaline batteries, like the popular AA or AAA sizes, emerged in 1937. The alkaline battery replaced the traditional dry cell battery as a more convenient, maintenance-free alternative. Later, lithium-ion batteries were introduced in 1978, replacing mercury-zinc batteries as longer lasting, and higher powered batteries. These new lithium-ion batteries became vital for powering larger electronic devices like laptops, mobile phones, and electric cars (Turner & Sutter 2022). Lithium-ion batteries, which rely on resources often sourced from developing countries, are less toxic than alternatives. These materials, notably cobalt and nickel, are essential for decarbonizing economies by enabling renewable energy storage and reducing fossil fuel dependence (Turner & Sutter 2022). However, along with new and improved batteries, came unique environmental costs associated with their disposal. Extensive research has been conducted to improve battery recycling techniques. Lu and Wang’s study on lithium-ion battery recycling argues that the current recycling process still creates environmental challenges and results in immense energy consumption. The current industrial methods for extracting metals, like cobalt and lithium, rely predominantly on pyrometallurgical techniques, which require a lot of energy and release toxic gases. Another method, hydrometallurgical processing, requires large quantities of leachates, or liquid containing dissolved metals, making recovery harder and exponentially increasing chemical waste. However, Lu and Wang note that promising new recycling techniques are emerging that aim to lower energy usage and reduce dependence on chemical reagents for extraction (Lu & Wang 2024). In an article by Moore et al., they examine the intersection of battery waste and capitalism. They argue that waste management, specifically relating to the disposal of spent batteries, often becomes an afterthought in capitalistic frameworks due to the focus on profits and supply over environmental responsibility (Moore et al. 2018). They point out that, even though batteries are coded for recycling to manage their disposal, the final destination of batteries is often unknown. The coding system is complex and leads to ambiguity, with batteries often ending up in areas poorly equipped for dealing with toxic waste. Moore’s analysis describes a troubling trend where electronic waste, or e-waste, generated in the United States is mismanaged and even frequently exported to other countries. David Naguib Pellow writes, “E-waste follows the path of least resistance and finds its way into poor nations, producing global environmental inequalities” (Pellow 2007, 191). Pellow notes that eighty percent of electronic waste from the United States is sent to Asia. He suggests that industry leaders support this global e-waste chain because it creates work and income for residents of economically marginalized communities (Pellow 2007, 191). In a political economic system that discounts environmental costs in the service of profit generation, there is little motivation for change. This political economic trend is mirrored on the local level. According to the EPA, the Gould Incorporated lead battery recycling plant was located at 555 Farnam Street in Omaha, Nebraska. The plant acted as a secondary smelter to treat lead from used batteries. The EPA states, “The blast furnace used to smelt the lead at the Gould plant emitted lead particles into the air from that refinery” (EPA n.d.). The Gould Incorporated lead battery recycling plant in Omaha, Nebraska, exemplifies how industrial processes tied to battery disposal have contributed to environmental changes associated with the Anthropocene. The localized pollution in Omaha due to burning batteries is part of a larger global trend in which hazardous, toxic materials are released into the environment, compromising soil biodiversity, air quality, and human health (Rajput et al. 2018). Omaha’s industrial history in battery disposal highlights how even local human-made contaminants can reshape ecosystems, ultimately fueling the Anthropocene on a global scale. The Columbia Dry Cell Battery symbolized both the story of Omaha’s industrial past and the environmental impacts of technological advancement, revealing the interconnected nature of the Anthropocene. From bridging communication through telephones to aiding in safe train travel, Columbia Dry Cell Battery unlocked numerous opportunities. However, along with its successors, it also created ecosystem breakdown through their disposal on both a local and global scale. The Columbia Dry Cell Battery serves as a reminder of the strain between human progress and the environment. While steps are being taken to find alternative solutions to battery disposal, further exploration into the environmental costs of convenience and the importance of sustainable practices is essential in understanding the true role of the Columbia Dry Cell Battery in the Anthropocene. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Clocks: Clarke, Brooke. (2007). Fig 6 [Photograph]. Self Winding Clock Co. https://www.prc68.com/I/SWCC.shtml “Columbia Dry Cell Battery - Landmark.” American Chemical Society. Accessed November 6, 2024.https://www.acs.org/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/drycellbattery.html#history-of-batteries. 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 & 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/3a0e562bfcfca59480b6611d19bddaed.JPG ff7bc2b61af49b28daaff6cbe7a396c1 https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/42ba956c1f1e6bbef1078212a52cbc0e.JPG 5a897826ea217d8283d8b28ae5f5372b 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 Description An account of the resource Products offered by ConAgra includes things such as Peter Pan Peanut Butter, Marie Callender’s meals, and Healthy Choice meals. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Photo Courtesy of Emma Sundberg https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/2a4db9f0ac7f907c844a1ef21bcc231a.jpg 167f0f35aa06d31bb9f75a24356530e0 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 General Views since 1921 Description An account of the resource Looking northwest from about 8th and Leavenworth Street at the construction of the Conagra campus in the old Jobbers Canyon area. The Woodmen Tower is in the far background. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Bostwick, Louis (1868-1943) and Frohardt, Homer (1885-1972) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Durham Museum Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1990-01-07 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource From the Bostwick-Frohardt Collection, Owned by KM3TV and on permanent loan to The Durham Museum. Commercial use or distribution of the image is not permitted without prior permission of the copyright holder. Please contact The Durham Museum for permission to use the digital image. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 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=" /> 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 ConAgra Foods Subject The topic of the resource The foods here are part of the ConAgra product line. They all contain genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the form of corn products, like corn starch. For centuries, people have changed plants to improve farming through artificial selection. Working the land and farming plants as food is one way that people interact with the environment. In the past, people did this by choosing the seeds from the best plants to grow the next year. Now, people use a different method called genetic modification. In the past, companies like ConAgra have used this method to make their food tastier and easier to make. ConAgra has recently decided to remove GMOs from their food due to public opinion. This shift away from GMOs signals the start of another new chapter in food production. Because ConAgra is a part of that change, it represents the way food production has shaped the environment. Description An account of the resource The Anthropogenic "object" that will be the focus of this essay is the currently Omaha-based corporation ConAgra. This corporation was founded in 1919 in Nebraska after the consolidation of four smaller grain mills, with the headquarters moving to Omaha itself in 1922. Since then it has steadily built up into the larger conglomerate that it is today, growing into a strong local and global presence, with offices in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Italy. ConAgra has had a major impact on the legislation that Omaha has passed in relation to businesses, with the company receiving tax breaks for investing in its own city, rather than moving away. (Larson, 2007) Its political clout and extensive lobbying, along with the large number of citizens of Omaha that it employs, have made it a major player in Omaha's involvement with the Anthropocene. Moreover, the purpose of this Anthropogenic artifact lies mainly in consumption as a food product and occupation as a major employer. ConAgra Foods is part of The Durham’s collection because of its long history as an influential corporation in Omaha. Starting just outside of the city in Grand Island, Nebraska, ConAgra moved its headquarters to Omaha during their early years, where it has remained since, employing thousands, shaping the landscape of the city and its legislature. One of the best examples of the direct impact ConAgra Foods has had on the landscape of Omaha is the renovation of Jobber’s Canyon on the riverfront. These changes, which removed long-standing warehouse buildings that constituted a proposed historic district at the time, were part of the larger “Return to the River” movement that began in the 1980s and lasted through the early 2000s that saw a rise in renovations of the riverfront to include parks, corporate office campuses, and other recreational areas. (Bednarek, 2009) ConAgra was able to make this happen through the city’s desire to have the corporation remain located in Omaha due to the large number of people the company employs locally. In this sense, ConAgra Foods is unique to Omaha, though it has since expanded to be a major national and global presence as part of a growing commercialization of food distribution companies on a global scale. This Omaha-native company has interacted with the people of Omaha since its founding, providing food services and consumer products like Peter Pan Peanut Butter, Marie Callender’s meals, and Healthy Choice meals while providing jobs for many of the citizens of Omaha. In the end, ConAgra foods has shaped the history of Omaha in both a recreational and occupational sense, playing a major role in employing some of the local workforce and an even larger role in the distribution of food. Their economic and political position place them as a major force within the Anthropocene in Omaha. ConAgra is a major player in the Anthropocene as it relates to Omaha, especially through its legislative authority. As the Anthropocene can be examined through the lens of agricultural capitalism and industrialization, ConAgra is easily identifiable as an anthropogenic force of change. One such example is how ConAgra is shaping the views of the public on the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). These changes are more varied and perhaps subtler than they initially appear to be. They are currently stating that they are cutting back on the use of GMOs. One explanation for this could be the use of the Public Trust Doctrine to drive legislative changes to protect non-GMO environments, a product of the need to increase profits and keep up with the ever-changing needs of a capitalistic society. (Knudsen, 2011) Other changes seem to appear earlier regarding public opinion about GMOs. Public exposure to biotechnology in general has risen in recent years, starting as early as the late 1990s and rising substantially since. (Runge et al, 2017) At first glance, these two changes appear to be indicative of the ways in which public opinion has modified the GMO policies of ConAgra, but ConAgra Foods, and companies like it, have been just as influential in getting to this point. The rising attention to biotechnology and GMOs in particular has, in the past, driven changes largely focused on the labeling of foods in grocery stores and supermarkets. Essentially, the demand is to know if the food on the shelf is GMO free. This is the obvious, and easy, option for indication of GMOs in stores, especially given the difficulty of passing legislature that would require labeling genetically modified foods – a result of the political and economic clout of companies like ConAgra. (Sunstein, 2017) Simply put, companies like ConAgra want to be able to use cheap and easy materials to make their products, but the market must allow this. If people decide they don’t want to eat GMOs, then ConAgra would want to find a way to sneak them into foods or spend more money producing non-GMO crops. The easiest way to do this is to manipulate the regulations placed on them for labeling their products. Given that non-GMO foods are far less common, and that labeling GMOs would be potentially detrimental to profits, it makes sense for companies like ConAgra to lobby against legislature requiring the labeling of GMOs and to promote the labeling of non-GMO foods as GMO free instead. ConAgra has proven to be a reactionary force, driving the way the market truly responds to the growing attentiveness of the public regarding the use of GMOs. It can be argued that the Anthropocene begins when humans begin to manipulate the environment for their own benefit, such as with the widespread use of agriculture, and the presence of grain mills. In this case, while the human alteration of food has already taken place, the Anthropogenic impacts are being lessened, or changed in ways that we are not yet aware of, with the reduction of GMO usage by ConAgra, thus discouraging further human exploitation of their environment. (Yang and Chen, 2016) ConAgra’s stance on their reduction of GMO use is unfortunately not presented to the public this way. Instead it is represented as the company listening to the needs and wants of its customers and removing something the public is not sold on. Another main theme regarding the Anthropocene is the idea of invasion and exploitation of the environment for human gain. ConAgra is arguably one of the largest driving forces for changes in the environment in Omaha, with the destruction of Jobber's Canyon and creation of multiple grain mills for agriculture. (Steffan and Crutzen, 2010) This, along with their commodification of food, contribute to the idea that the Anthropocene is driven by capitalistic forces, as these changes are intrinsically capitalist. (Castree and Rhoads, 2016) The presence of ConAgra in Omaha thus assists in making the Anthropocene a local issue, rather than a far removed one. ConAgra is still a thriving company to this day, while also expanding their domain internationally and furthering their role in the global commodification of food.(Weis, 2007) Along with this has come the idea that they can get away with breaking the law on multiple different occasions, exploiting the products they are given by other companies to make their foods. (Schlosser, 2001) This readiness to blatantly defy the regulations and exploit the environment for personal and economic gain seems to be typical for a company as large as ConAgra, helping to shape the way that people look at, and interact with, the environment. Instead of using their political prowess and national attention to encourage a healthy relationship with the food they produce and distribute, they have further exemplified the human desire for environmental domination through massive agriculture and underpaying those who provide them with livestock. (Schlosser, 2001) For example, some farmers have accused ConAgra for undercutting the actual weight of the products they purchase in order to ensure a cheap buy. ConAgra itself is already an international power that contributes to global production and distribution of food. (Bonanno, 1994) They are able to expand the reach of their influence beyond just Omaha and the United States when it comes to how people will view their environment. Due to this, they are furthering the growing tendency to refer to food in terms of nutrition and not as food in and of itself. (Pollan, 2008) Due to the naturally exploitative nature of agriculture and food production it comes as no surprise that ConAgra's global impact on the Anthropocene is reinforcing human's desire and ability to exploit their environment via capitalist agricultural practices. To ensure they thrive as a business they have met the needs and wants of people in different areas and through different times, instead of focusing on the less popular option of monitoring and preserving the environment. It seems, then, that instead of supply reflecting demand, in this case ConAgra has reshaped demand so as to fit a profitable, albeit potentially harmful, supply rather than ceding the point and turning to less exploitative agricultural methods. In order for ConAgra to become a more positive driving force in the Anthropocene they would need to participate in the restructuring of capitalistic thought surrounding food. (Tickell, 2011) Instead of simply commodifying their products to fit the exact market demand, they would have to shift their focus to be more environmentally centered and conscious. In a very direct sense, the use of GMOs in the past by ConAgra and companies like it indicates a turning point in the way people affect the ecological status of the Earth. Humans have been altering the genes of plants and animals for thousands of years, mostly through selective breeding. The advent of modern technology, however, has changed the way humans affect the genomes of plants and animals, making the effect humans have on the environment in terms of genetic modification more direct than ever. (Aagaard, 2011; Cooley, 2004; Hourdequin, 2013) While in the past genetic modification relied on organisms inheriting traits from their predecessors, humans can now directly transplant traits into nearly any organism they desire. For example, the majority of soybean growth in the United States relies on soybeans that have been genetically programmed to express their own pesticides. The same is true of corn. The changes forced on these organisms are not alone in scope or purpose; other examples abound. Other crops have been modified to fortify the diets of those who grow and consume them, like golden rice, a common staple food for much of Asia. Golden rice has been genetically modified to produce more vitamin A. (Hourdequin, 2013) While many of these changes are, themselves, benign, they pose potential ecological problems. Most of the genetic modifications given to organisms create a biological advantage for that organism. This advantage, in turn, confers a heightened capacity for reproductive potential, meaning genetically modified organisms often make incredibly efficient invasive species. This is especially true of plants who can spread over wide areas quickly and reproduce on their own. (Pipernoa, 2017) This problem is worsened by the fact that there is almost no way to control for pollen distribution. So, it seems the anthropogenic effects of GMOs exceed the simplistic explanation that tampering directly with the genetic makeup of an organism is indicative of human impacts on the environment, including also the idea that those changes have the capacity to multiply environmental impacts in the form of thewidespread and uncontrolled dispersal of those organisms. Companies like ConAgra, through their normal responses to market shifts, can affect changes in the environment further proving their status as a product of the Anthropocene. Capitalism is a main driving force behind human-caused environmental changes, as the environment is a rich source of capital for industries. ConAgra acts as a prime example of the capitalist machine through their exploitation of the environment and organisms with genetic modification. They use GMOs to increase food output, increase capital, and use that capital to rework the system in its favor. The redirecting of laws and product identification can affect environmental changes. There is, however, a counterpoint to these arguments, and that is the capacity of such companies to limit the impacts they have on the environment, pursuant to the demand of the market. In other words, while companies like ConAgra have, in the past, been a nexus of environmental change, mostly in a negative way, they can also provide the means by which environmental impacts are mitigated. (Schimelpfenig, 2017; Tickell, 2011) While ConAgra is not completely in favor of the use of human modification on the environment and food, it has been a major driving force in bringing the Anthropocene to Omaha. Businesses themselves play a very large role in shaping the mindset of how people are to treat the environment, and what kind of environment will be left behind for future generations. ConAgra is leaving a dichotomous legacy of exploitation of the raw environment through massive agriculture conglomerates and of limiting human impact on the food we eat through scaling back on their overall use of GMOs. (Schmidheiny, 1998) This raises the question of how much exploitation is too much regarding humans and their environment, and in relation to the actions of ConAgra, genetically modifying the food we will be directly intaking is where the line is drawn. While it has been questioned whether or not the world before humans is what we should strive to preserve and return to, the concern for over-exploitation has still become more apparent in recent years, especially in the case of large corporations, even with their continued use of massive agriculture. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Patrick Eiden Brittany Keath Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Aagaard, Todd S. Environmental Harms, Use Conflicts, and Neutral Baselines in Environmental Law. Duke Law Journal 60, no. 7 (2011): 1505-564. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23034804. Aldemita, R., Reaño, R., Solis, I., & Hautea, R. (2015). Trends in global approvals of biotech crops (1992-2014). GM Crops & Food., 6(3), 150-166 Bonanno, Alessandro. From Columbus to ConAgra. Kansas: University of Kansas Press. 1994. Castree, Noel, and Rhoads, Bruce. A Companion to Environmental Geography. West Sussex: John Wiley &Sons, Ltd. 2016. Cooley, D. R. "Transgenic Organisms and Some Legal Ethics." Public Affairs Quarterly 18, no. 2 (2004): 91-110. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40441374. Crutzen, P., Steffen, W., Williams, M. & Zalasiewicz, J. 2010, ‘The new world of the anthropocene’, Environmental science and technology viewpoint, vol. 44, no. 7, pp. 2228 2231. Dryzek, John S. 2016. "Institutions for the Anthropocene: Governance in a Changing Earth System." British Journal Of Political Science 46, no. 4: 937-956. Historical Abstracts, EBSCOhost (accessed October 10, 2017). Hourdequin, Marion. "Restoration and History in a Changing World: A Case Study in Ethics for the Anthropocene." Ethics and the Environment 18, no. 2 (2013): 115-34. Janet R Daly Bednarek, “Creating an ‘Image Center’: Reimagining Omaha’s Downtown and Riverfront, 1986-2003,” Nebraska History 90 (2009): 190-207 Knudsen, Guy R. "Impacts of Agricultural GMOs on Wildlands: A New Frontier of Biotech Litigation." Natural Resources & Environment 26, no. 1 (2011): 13-17. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23054894. Larson, Lawrence, Cottrell, Barbara, Dalstrom, Harl, and Dalstrom, Kay Calamé. Upstream Metropolis: An Urban Biography of Omaha and Council Bluffs. University of Nebraska Press, 2007. 342-401. Pipernoa, Dolores R. 2017. "Assessing elements of an extended evolutionary synthesis for plant domestication and agricultural origin research." Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences Of The United States Of America 114, no. 25: 6429-6437. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed November 20, 2017). Pollan, Michael. In Defense of Food. New York: Penguin Press, 2008. Runge, Kristen K., Dominique Brossard, Dietram A. Sheufele, Kathleen M. Rose, and Brita J. Larson. 2017. “The Polls-Trends Attitudes About Food and Food-Related Biotechnology.” Public Opinion Quarterly 81, no. 2:577-596. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed November 8, 2017). Schimelpfenig, Robert. 2017. "The Drama of the Anthropocene: Can Deep Ecology, Romanticism, and Renaissance Science Rebalance Nature and Culture?." American Journal Of Economics & Sociology 76, no. 4: 821-1081. Historical Abstracts, EBSCOhost (accessed October 10, 2017). Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 2001. Schmidheiny, Stephan. Changing Course: A global business perspective on development and the environment. London: The MIT Press. 1998. Sunstein, Cass R. 2017. “On Mandatory Labeling, With Special Reference to Genetically Modified Foods.” University of Pernnsylvania Law Review 165, no. 5:1043-1095. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed November 8, 2017). Tickell, Crispin. "Societal Responses to the Anthropocene. "Philosophical Transactions: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 369, no. 1938 (2011): 926-32. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41061707. Weis, Anthony J. The Global Food Economy: The Battle for the Future of Farming. Canada: Fernwood Publishing, 2007. Yang, y. Tony, and Brian Chen. 2016. “Governing GMOs in the USA: science, law and public health.” Journal Of The Science Of Food & Agriculture 96, no. 6:1851-1855. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed November 8, 2017). Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The Durham Museum Collections Agriculture ConAgra Consumption Corn Corporatations Domestication Genetically Modified Organisms https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/cea2bedc142d5a665271eec574befc9b.jpg be4d3b454617df81a41e158ddc0a35d3 https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/ab76381d240f0101acca555b50c025d9.JPG cd9bd8a8aac59634d2dbc725dcb55cd4 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 Concrete from the foundations of the Durham Museum. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Photo Courtesy of Jacob Ohnstad and Sonya Ponzi https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/a515b27ced9ed40255d2703a9ee0bf48.jpg 34433423da1ba92a03d888e1f9d58d14 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 Description An account of the resource A satellite image of the greater Omaha area. The dark red and pink parts on the map indicate impervious surfaces, meaning that these areas have been paved with concrete, so water is unable penetrate and reach soil. When impervious surfaces are mapped using satellite imagery, the amount of land alteration resulting from concrete usage can be determined along with concrete consumption. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived “USGS Small-scale Dataset - 100-Meter Resolution Impervious Surface of the Conterminous United States 201301 TIFF,”U.S. Geological Survey, accessed December 10, 2017, https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/usgs-small-scale-dataset-100-meter-resolution-impervious-surface-of-the-conterminous-united-st. https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/8a91bcebda925da961ecf64e650c2ba2.jpg 10f8e9996e5e4a5815e5310828bc398f 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 Description An account of the resource Omaha's Union Station, now the Durham Museum, in 1931, after construction. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Photo Courtesy of the Durham Museum https://durhammuseum.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15426coll1/id/1207/rec/1 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Commercial use or distribution of the image is not permitted without prior permission of the copyright holder. Please contact The Durham Museum for permission to use the digital image. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 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=" /> 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 Concrete Foundations of the Anthropocene Description An account of the resource Concrete surrounds us; we build with it, drive on it, walk on it, and live in it. It forms the infrastructure that allows us to live life the way we do today, yet, we rarely stop to think about it. Concrete has now become the world’s most used building material, but despite its pervasiveness, there is one aspect many people forget to consider when they see concrete and that is where it comes from: the earth. (Flower and Sanjayan, 2017) Since it is currently one of the most important commodities to mankind, it only fuels the argument that man is reshaping the world. Our object is a part of the foundations of The Durham Museum (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/show/22" title="Figure 1" target="_self">Figure 1</a>). The foundations of The Durham, like much of Omaha and much of the industrial world, are built with concrete. This essay explores the history of concrete and its main ingredient, cement, in a local and global context paying particular attention to its environmental consequences. Concrete is an important artifact in Omaha’s environmental history because it has shaped the way we live from the ground up through structures, roads and art. It links Omaha’s environmental history to the global history of the Anthropocene because it is used worldwide in our globalized civilization and has far-reaching environmental impacts, from the composition of the atmosphere to land use changes resulting from mining.<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/original/ff19a53578469baba6fc1771c0d3230b.JPG" title="(Figure 1: Concrete from the foundations of the Durham Museum; the object of this essay)" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer"> </a>The substance we know as “concrete” is a mixture of materials, including cement. Cements are powders comprised of naturally occurring rock deposits (natural cements) or combinations of ingredients (artificial or “Portland” cements), and both of which include clay and lime in varying proportions. The concrete foundations of The Durham are likely derived from this second, artificial form, meaning the concrete is comprised of Portland cement. In the preparation of Portland cement, raw ingredients are ground to a powder, burned in kilns, and then milled. When mixed with water and allowed to harden, cement creates a material of great compressive strength and, depending on its chemical composition, one that may also harden under water. Concrete consists of gravel, sand, cement, and water blended to create a liquid that can be poured into place, where it then hardens, or cures, to achieve a solid mass. (Nature, 1941) Concrete was developed over 150 years ago, yet the mixture has not changed all that much. Joseph Aspdin, an inventor, discovered that when a mixture of limestone and clay was heated, it hardened. By firing the calcium carbonate contained in the stone, it would decompose forming calcium oxide and carbon dioxide. Calcium oxide reacts with water to produce calcium hydroxide. These reactions create the paste which is cement. He named his invention “Portland cement”, because it resembled the Portland stone quarried on the Isle of Portland in Dorset, England. The modern-day cement was formed by an innovator named Isaac Johnson in 1845. Johnson refined Aspdin's cement process by roasting the mixture of limestone and clay at higher temperatures, allowing the substances to bind together better. The resulting material proved a lucrative and popular building material because it is moldable and durable. The relatively simple technological process of cement production led to a rapid development of the cement industry in Europe and the United States in the second half of the 19th century. (Igliński and Buczkowski, 2017) From this point on, worldwide construction would be forever changed. Concrete made its arrival into the United States in the 1860s. It brought new procedures and priorities of mass production to construction, including the application of science to commercial enterprise and a redistribution of skills, opportunities, credit, and risk in the workplace. (Slaton, 2001) As a main ingredient in concrete, many people would make the claim that cement is the most important binding construction material, because of its ability to harden in air and underwater. The buildings, dams, roads and bridges that surround us today would not have been created without cement. (Igliński and Buczkowski, 2017) Concrete came to Nebraska in the late nineteenth century, likely through rail car imports from the Ash Grove cement plant in Ash Grove, Missouri. Not long afterwards, Nebraska opened its own cement plants: one in Superior and another in Louisville. (Lesley, 2017) The Louisville cement plant was an extension of the one in Ash Grove and was built in 1929. (Ash Grove, 2017)This is the most likely source for cement in Omaha until they built a cement plant in Omaha several years later. Therefore, many of the old buildings in Omaha are suspected to have been built with the cement from Louisville, Nebraska, including The Durham Museum. Construction on the Union station started in 1929. After twenty months and $3.5 million, construction on the 124,000 square-foot on the Union Station was finished. The Union Station, now known as The Durham Museum, opened on January 15, 1931 (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/show/24" title="Figure 2" target="_self">Figure 2</a>). (<a href="https://durhammuseum.org/our-museum/historic-timeline/">Durham Timeline</a>) The Union Station quickly became one of the busiest stations in the nation. In order to be considered a Union station, a train depot needed to serve more than one rail road line; Omaha had seven. The Union Station was especially important to Omaha because it connected the east and the west via railways. This allowed for passenger trains to make a stop in Omaha, bringing more tourism than before. At its peak, 64 passenger trains and some 10,000 passengers utilized the facility every day. The station once offered a wide range of amenities consisting of a taxi stand, baggage check, dining room, gift shop, telephone station, and even a barber shop. But, during the 1950s and 60s, air travel increased, and the Union station was eventually forced to close its doors in 1971, but reopened shortly after as a Museum in 1975. The original building of The Durham still stands today, not as a Union Station but as a Museum for the history of Omaha. The Durham Museum provides a unique experience for visitors and tells the story of Omaha using artifacts. Although we don’t often consider it as such, the building itself is an artifact. (<a href="https://durhammuseum.org/our-museum/historic-timeline/">Durham Timeline</a>) There are several reasons why concrete and cement became so popular as building materials. One reason is the sheer strength that these mixtures have. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it was much sturdier and longer lasting than other commonly used construction materials such as wood. During the second world war concrete started to become reinforced with metal bars, which was an addition that gave concrete the ability to withstand the bending, or tensile, forces to which floors, ceilings, beams, and columns are subjected to within a building. Secondly, concrete was fire proof. People did not have to worry about the material catching fire. Also, concrete was less expensive than methods of ceramic cladding because the ingredients used in concrete could be found in abundance. (Nature, 1941) Lastly, the production of concrete was easily mechanized. Concrete is a building material that people can control and form quite easily with the help of machines, making it an efficient building material. With these numerous advantages, concrete achieved widespread use and remains the most popular building material used today. Although concrete has developed our modern world, it also impacts the natural environment on a global scale. To understand the ways in which concrete affects the environment, we need to consider the rates at which it is consumed by an average person. Concrete is a global commodity consumed at a rate of about 1 ton per year for every human being. Only water consumption is greater. (Flower and Sanjayan, 2007) Out of all the materials used by people on earth, concrete is number one. Thinking about concrete's consumption rates can be puzzling and perhaps counterintuitive, because average people do not purchase or think about their interactions with concrete every day. Rather than thinking of private ownership, consider public commodities. People drive their cars on concrete every day; cars are then parked on concrete in parking lots; next, people walk along concrete sidewalks upon arriving at their destination; finally, people work and live inside concrete structures. These are not typical considerations made by most people, but thinking in this way helps to develop and form a more complete understanding of how humans impact their global environment. Global consumption rates of cement are projected to continue increasing into the future. In 2010, world production of cement equaled 3,310 million metric tons. Five years later it increased to 4,100 million metric tons. Consumption rates are not predicted to decrease within the near future. (USGS, 2017) Obviously, those are very large numbers, but they do not have any meaning if they are not put into context (<a href="http://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/files/show/23" title="Figure 3" target="_self">Figure 3</a>). All things humans use come from nature, with some materials being closer to their natural form than others, but regardless, everything is sourced from the earth. The ingredients of concrete fit into this scheme and consumption patterns mirror environmental impacts of the industry. Today, much of the research on the environmental impact of concrete production focuses on the emission of greenhouse gases. which may be a surprising concept to those unaware of the material’s production methods. It is not often that people think about how and where the everyday materials they interact with are made of or come from. Recall that the basic ingredients of concrete are cement, water, coarse aggregates and fine aggregates. These ingredients must be sourced from available natural resources and put into a useable form. The acquisition of these ingredients contributes to emissions. In addition, so does the batching, transport and actual placement of concrete, because all these steps require an energy input, which are typically in the form of fossil fuels. The production of Portland cement also has environmental impacts, because carbon dioxide is released during the processing phase when there is a decomposition of limestone. Overall, cement makes up the largest share of carbon dioxide emissions out of all the ingredients in concrete, accounting for 74% to 81% of the total carbon dioxide emissions released during production. (Flower and Sanjayan, 2007) In addition to greenhouse gas emissions released during production, mining makes profound changes to landscapes. Taken together, landscape alteration and emissions disturb local ecosystems, and consequently, the people and animals living in the area. Coarse aggregates are blasted out of the ground with explosives, the rubble is removed using diesel powered vehicles, taken to electric screening and crushing equipment, and once again transported using diesel powered vehicles to create stockpiles. Fine aggregates are strip-mined, which is a process where the land is opened by excavators. Extraction leaves giant, terraced holes in the ground so that materials from the earth’s crust can be obtained. The fine aggregates are also sorted with electric vibrating screens and transported to grading plants. (Flower and Sanjayan, 2007) The process of attaining coarse and fine aggregates alter and damage ecosystems through land alteration and emissions. Just as research about the environmental impacts of concrete production has been completed, research about how to mitigate these impacts has also been completed. First, alternative fuels can be used during the production of cement to reduce fossil-fuel reliance and emissions. Refuse-derived fuels commonly utilized today are "used tires, animal residues, sewage sludge, waste oil, and lumpy materials." Waste-derived fuels consist of “shredded paper, plastics, foils, textiles, and rubber." (Tornal, 2013) In conjunction with alternative fuels, energy efficiency can lessen how much fuel is needed to produce cement, therefore reducing emissions. Finally, alternative ingredients can be used to produce cement and reduce environmental impacts. (Tornal, 2013) Waste products can be used as supplemental ingredients in cement, decreasing the waste that ends up in landfills and reducing land disturbance from mining. For example, ground blast furnace slag, a byproduct of the steel production industry, has been used as an ingredient in cement as has coal fly ash, a byproduct of the coal combustion practice. (Paris et al. 2016) Moving into the future, it is possible for concrete production to be more sustainable as people innovate and technology advances. Concrete has global environmental impacts which links Omaha’s environmental history, including The Durham Museum, to the Anthropocene. Concrete is one of the most important commodities known to humans. It has not only changed the way we build, but it has also changed the environment all people live in by altering the composition of the atmosphere and changing natural landscapes as well. Concrete is only one part of the story concerning human’s relationship with nature. Although concrete has many impacts on the environment, it provides infrastructure which will always be a necessity for human well-being, but a more sustainable construction practice needs to be implemented before we pave our way through the future. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Jacob Ohnstad Sonya Ponzi Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Sources: Concrete (image and physical objects, The Durham Museum Collections) Abrams, Duff A. "The Contribution of Scientific Research to the Development of the Portland Cement Industry in the United States." The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 119 (1925): 40-47. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1015405. “About Us.” Ash Grove Cement Company. Accessed October 20, 2017, https://www.ashgrove.com/about/. Azizian, Mohammad, Peter O Nelson, Pugazhendhi Thayumanavan, and Kenneth J Williamson. “Environmental impact of highway construction and repair materials on surface and ground waters: Case study: crumb rubber asphalt concrete.” Waste Management 23, no. 8 (2003): 719-728. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0956-053X(03)00024-2. Science Direct. Berryman, Charles, Jingyi Zhu, Wayne Jensen, Maher Tadros. “High-percentage replacement of cement with fly ash for reinforced concrete pipe.” Cement and Concrete Research 35, no. 6 (2005): 1088-1091. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cemconres.2004.06.040. “Cement Statistics and Information.” U.S. Geological Survey. 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Accessed December 10, 2017. https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/usgs-small-scale-dataset-100-meter-resolution-impervious-surface-of-the-conterminous-united-st Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The Durham Museum Subject The topic of the resource The modern age of concrete began in 1845 during the second industrial revolution when Isaac Johnson patented a new technique for its manufacture in England. Concrete quickly spread across the world and arrived in Nebraska by the late nineteenth century. Nebraska opened its first cement plant in Louisville in 1929. The Louisville plant is the most likely source of cement for the old buildings in Omaha, including its Union Station (now The Durham Museum) which was completed in 1931. Today, concrete is the world’s most used building material. It is a global commodity consumed at a rate of 1 ton per person per year. Concrete is made from gravel, sand, cement, and water. Production takes an intense, and largely hidden, toll on the environment. Materials must be strip mined and processed using incredible amounts of energy. Concrete accounts for 5% of the global carbon dioxide emissions. Concrete, more than any other building material, is the foundation of the Anthropocene. Cement Commodity Greenhouse Gasses Mining Second Industrial Revolution Union Station