U.S. History

Environmental

This is a guide to scholarly research and primary source collections related to United States history. Subpages include Boston history, Indigenous people's histories, Caribbean history, as well as African American History.

Introduction

"Environmental history is always about human interaction with the natural world or, to put it in another way, it studies the interaction between culture and nature. The principal goal of environmental history is to deepen our understanding of how humans has been affected by the natural environment in the past and also how they have affected that environment and with what results."

K. Jan Oosthoek, “What Is Environmental History?,” Environmental History Resources (blog), January 3, 2005, https://www.eh-resources.org/what-is-environmental-history/.

Timeline

Environmental History Timeline
The Environmental History Timeline originally appeared in _Mass Media and Environmental Conflict_, a book written by Mark Neuzil and William Kovarik published by Sage in 1996. The information in the timeline is often updated following conversations with other environmental historians, especially colleagues in the American Society for Environmental History and the European Society for Environmental History.

Sources: Broad Collections

American Environmental Photographs, 1891-1936
The American Environmental Photographs collection consists of 4,500 photographs documenting natural environments, ecologies, and plant communities in the United States at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century.
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Institution: University of Chicago Library
Down to Earth: Herblock and Photographers Observe the Environment
Environmental issues affect everyone on planet Earth—the quality of the water and food we consume, the air we breathe, and the parks we enjoy. The images (19th and 20th centuries) selected for this exhibition are among the Library's most compelling compositions because their creators intended to provoke reaction and inspire change.
World's Transportation Commission
This collection contains nearly nine hundred images by American photographer William Henry Jackson. In addition to railroads, elephants, camels, horses, sleds and sleighs, sedan chairs,rickshaws, and other types of transportation, Jackson photographed city views, street and harbor scenes, landscapes, local inhabitants, and Commission members as they travelled through North Africa, Asia, Australia, and Oceania.

Scholarship: Podcasts, Blogs, & other Scholarship

American Society for Environmental History
A select list of blogs and other information curated by the society.
Historical Climatology
Includes a podcast, blog, and other resources on multiple subjects related to environmental history.

Sources: Journals & Diaries

Journals of the Lewis & Clark Expedition
This website makes available the text of the celebrated Nebraska edition of the Lewis and Clark journals, edited by Gary E. Moulton.

Sources: Law & Government Documents

HathiTrust This link opens in a new window
This one is useful for government reports. Try searching for the place (e.g., "United States") in the author field and then limiting your dates.
Hein Online This link opens in a new window
HeinOnline is an image-based legal research database with over 50 million pages of legal information in fully-searchable PDF format, comprising over 30 separate collections including Law Journal Library, Legal Classics, U.S. Supreme Court Library, U.S. Federal Legislative History Library, U.S. Congressional Documents, Treaties and Agreements Library and many others. Additional titles and years are added regularly.
Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
Nexis Uni includes thousands of U.S. and non-U.S. news sources; legal materials: case law, statutes and law reviews; and company/business information. Strength from 1990 to the present. Nexis Uni replaces Lexis-Nexis Academic.

Sources: Newspapers & other Periodicals

GreenFILE This link opens in a new window
GreenFILE indexes scholarly and general interest titles in the environmental fields, as well as government documents and reports. Includes full text for selected titles. Drawing on the connection between the environment and disciplines such as agriculture, education, law, health and technology, GreenFILE serves as an informative resource for anyone concerned about the issues facing our planet.
Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
Nexis Uni includes thousands of U.S. and non-U.S. news sources; legal materials: case law, statutes and law reviews; and company/business information. Strength from 1990 to the present. Nexis Uni replaces Lexis-Nexis Academic.
ProQuest Historical U.S. Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Combined searching of the historical New York Times, Boston Globe, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Atlanta Constitution, Christian Science Monitor, Wall Street Journal, NY Amsterdam News, and Chicago Defender.

For historical newspapers and television, visit BC Libraries' Historical News page.

Sources: Data Sets

NOAA Paleoclimatology Data
NCEI provides the paleoclimatology data and information scientists need to understand natural climate variability and future climate change. They also operate the World Data Service for Paleoclimatology, which archives and distributes data contributed by scientists around the world.
OECD Environment Statistics
The OECD Environmental Statistics database provide a unique collection of policy-relevant environmental statistics.
U.S. Energy Information Administration
Includes data about energy production and consumption across the United States, with some sets reaching from the 1960s to the present.
Policy Map
PolicyMap is a GIS tool for non-GIS users." PolicyMap is used as a data visualization tool in the social sciences, urban studies and planning, real estate and housing analysis, community and economic development, public administration and policy, public health, political science, education, environmental studies, business and finance, economics, statistics and geography, among other areas. Downloadable data.

Sources: Reports

IBISWorld This link opens in a new window
Market research reports covering thousands of industries in the United States at the national and state level, in China and worldwide. Also includes Business Environment Profiles.
National Technical Reports Library This link opens in a new window
The National Technical Reports Library is a clearinghouse for identifying and obtaining access to a vast collection of historical and current government technical reports. Important: before purchase, check the suggested links for freely-available access options.

USACE Digital Library
The materials in this repository include information by and about the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Includes reports, histories, photographs, and more.
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Institution: US Army Corps of Engineers

For additional access points for industry reports, visit BC Libraries' Industry Reports Research Page page.

Topics: Agriculture

The Core Historical Literature of Agriculture (CHLA)
A collection of landmark agricultural texts published between the early nineteenth century and the middle to late twentieth century. These full-text materials cover agricultural economics, agricultural engineering, animal science, crops and their protection, food science, forestry, human nutrition, rural sociology, and soil science.

Topics: Forestry

Forest History Society's Digital Collections
Provides direct access to a selection of the rich primary source materials held by the Forest History Society from the 19th and 20th centuries. As time and funding permit, the Society is preparing digital versions of some of its more interesting documents, photographs, films, and other materials.

Topics: Landscape Design & Urban Parks

American Landscape Design
Several sets of photographs from Harvard Library's HOLLIS Images. With plans, aerial views, trees, and more this, this collection highlights some of attempt from wealthy individuals to shape the physical world around them.
Frederick Law Olmsted Papers (LOC)
The papers of farmer, writer, reformer, landscape architect, urban and suburban planner, and conservationist Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903) contains materials on both Olmsted's private and professional life.
Chicago Parks
Parks have always been a part of Chicago’s city planning. Explore their growth and development from six large parks begun around 1870 to over 500 today in more than 10,000 images mainly from the 20th century.
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Institution: Chicago Public Library

Topics: Mining

Coal mines and mining in Alabama
Alabama’s natural resources include much that is underground. This collection offers a glimpse of the mines, mining process, and people associated with the industry. It is a complement to the library’s database Alabama Coal Mine Fatalities 1898 – 1938.
DPLA: Coal Mines and Mining
More than 4,500 documents (e.g., photographs, reports, maps) from across the US in the Digital Public Library of America on coal mines and mining.

Topics: Natural Disasters

Before and After the Great Earthquake and Fire: Early Films of San Francisco, 1897 to 1916
This LOC collection consists of twenty-six films of San Francisco from before and after the Great Earthquake and Fire, 1897-1916. Seventeen of the films depict San Francisco and its environs before the 1906 disaster. Seven films describe the great earthquake and fire. The two later films include a 1915 travelogue that shows scenes of the rebuilt city and a tour of the Panama Pacific Exposition and a 1916 propaganda film.
Earthquake Photo Collections (USGS)
Photographs and reports on earthquakes in different parts of the world (including the US, Turkey, and China) from the 19th and 20th centuries,
Panoramic Photographs (LOC)
This set of stunning facsimiles includes sections on Cyclones and Earthquakes, floods, and fires from the 1900s-1920s.
Great Kanto Earthquake
Site in Japanese. A small selection of records about the 1923 earthquake including information on military law and rebuilding.

Topics: Politics & Photographs

DOCUMERICA: Snapshots of Crisis and Cure in the 1970s
Prologue article by C. Jerry Simmons discusses the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) photodocumentary project to record changes in the American environment. The result is a collection of more than 20,000 photographs.
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Institution: NARA
The Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920
The Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920 documents the historical formation and cultural foundations of the movement to conserve and protect America's natural heritage, through books, pamphlets, government documents, manuscripts, prints, photographs, and motion picture footage drawn from the collections of the Library of Congress.

Topics: US National Parks

Brief History of the National Parks (LOC)
Collections of more than 100 maps related to the US national parks from the 16th to the 20th centuries. Focuses on Arcadia, the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, and the Great Smokey Mountains.
Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscapes Survey
The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) and the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) collections are among the largest and most heavily used in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress. Includes digitized images of measured drawings, black-and-white photographs, color transparencies, photo captions, written history pages, and supplemental materials from the 19th and 20th centuries.
NP Gallery
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Institution: National Parks Services
Theodore Roosevelt Center at Dickinson State University
The Center's Digital Collections includes documentation on US conservation movements, the national parks, the Spanish-American War, the Panama Canal and more.

Topics: Railroads

John W. Barriger National Railroad Library
It holds some of North America's largest and finest railroad history collections. Named after the noted twentieth century railroad executive, John W. Barriger, III (1899-1976), whose collection forms its heart, the library has grown to become a major resource for the history of railroad business and technology as well as for the study of railroading’s multidimensional influence on the American economy, society and culture.
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Institution: UMSL Digital Library
Railroad Maps, 1828 to 1900 (LOC)
Contains 623 maps chosen from more than 3,000 railroad maps and about 2,000 regional, state, and county maps, and other maps which show "internal improvements" of the past century.
Railroads: Photographs, Manuscripts, and Imprints
One of the most comprehensive railroad photograph and manuscript collections in the United States held by SMU's DeGolyer Library. Covers the 1830s to the 1980s.
U.S. President's Railroad Commission Photographs
Numerous photographs of various railroad operations used to support their claim for the necessity of the fireman position from the 1960 U.S. Presidential Railroad Commission.
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Institution: Cornell University Library Digital Collections

Topic: Steam

Minnisota Historicla Society: Steam
More than 2,000 facsimiles of photographs and more related to steam ships (steamers) and other stream-related objects and modes of transportation from the 19th and 20th centuries.
DPLA: Steam*
More than 50,000 facsimiles of documents (e.g., photographs, letters & correspondence) from across the US related with steam. More than 17,000 on steam ships alone.
Steamship Historical Society of America's Virtual Museum
Small virtual collection of paintings, ephemera, and more.

Topics: Urban Planning & Design

Architecture, Urban Planning, and Visual Arts (MIT)
The images extensively document architectural history and design, urban history with a special emphasis on the Boston area, landscape architecture, urban planning, archaeology, photography, fine and applied art and media. Also in this collection are Archivision's 60,000 images of architecture, archaeological sites, gardens, parks and works of art with broad appeal in humanities teaching. Geographic coverage global, date searching poor.
Pittsburgh: Snapshot of natural gas leaks under city streets
Leaked natural gas – mostly methane – is a powerful contributor to climate change. Explore Pittsburgh map data from 2015.
San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection
A database of over 45,000 digitized images--and growing. Includes photographs of fire and earth quake damage as well as picturesque landscapes, people, and more
The Real Estate Record
The Real Estate Record is a weekly report of building activity in New York City and its environs. This website contains fully digitized volumes, ranging from Volume 1 (published in 1868) to Volume 110 (published in 1922).
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Institution: Columbia University

Topics: US Government Institutions

EPA History
Born in the wake of elevated concern about environmental pollution, EPA was established on December 2, 1970 to consolidate in one agency a variety of federal research, monitoring, standard-setting and enforcement activities to ensure environmental protection. Site includes photographs, essays, and more.
USACE Digital Library
The materials in this repository include information by and about the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Includes reports, histories, photographs, and more.
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Institution: US Army Corps of Engineers

O'Neill Library

Bapst Library

Burns Library

Educational Resource Center

Law Library

Social Work Library

Theology & Ministry Library

O'Connor Library

Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies

U.S. History

Environmental

Introduction

Timeline

Sources: Broad Collections

Scholarship: Podcasts, Blogs, & other Scholarship

Sources: Journals & Diaries

Sources: Law & Government Documents

Sources: Newspapers & other Periodicals

Sources: Data Sets

Sources: Reports

Topics: Agriculture

Topics: Forestry

Topics: Landscape Design & Urban Parks

Topics: Mining

Topics: Natural Disasters

Topics: Politics & Photographs

Topics: US National Parks

Topics: Railroads

Topic: Steam

Topics: Urban Planning & Design

Topics: US Government Institutions