A Preservationist Spirit
Video Credits
Todd Holmes and Roger Eardley-Pryor, “Voices for the Environment - Episode 1: A Preservationist Spirit,” Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, October 2023, MP4, 08:25.
Photographs:
1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire Digital Collection, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
M. M. O’Shaughnessy photograph collection, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
Video Footage:
Scenes of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, creator unknown (1906), 00:05:33 digitized, California Audiovisual Preservation Project, California Historical Society.
Two Yosemites, directed by David Brower (1955), 00:12:00, 16mm, 1 Reel of 1 digitized by California Revealed, David Ross Brower Motion Picture Collection, MP 999, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
Podcast Credits
Todd Holmes and Roger Eardley-Pryor, narrated by Sasha Khokha, “Episode 1: A Preservationist Spirit; Voices for the Environment: A Century of Bay Area Activism,” October 3, 2023, in The Berkeley Remix, produced by Oral History Center of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, podcast, MP3 audio, 29:52.
This podcast episode features historic interviews from the Oral History Center archives in The Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley, including segments from the “Growing Up in the Cities Project” recorded in the late 1970s by Frederick M. Wirt, as well as oral history interviews with Carolyn Merchant recorded in 2022, with Ansel Adams recorded in the mid-1970s, and with David Brower recorded in the mid-1970s. The oral history of William E. Colby from 1953 was voiced by Anders Hauge, and the oral history of Francis Farquhar from 1958 was voiced by Ross Bradford. This episode also features audio from the film Two Yosemites, directed and narrated by David Brower in 1955, which is archived at The Bancroft Library.
Photograph Credits
Image Carousel: San Francisco Before and After
Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904), Panorama of San Francisco from California St. Hill [plates 1-2, 6-11], 1878, BANC PIC 1959.091:06–ffALB, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
Willard E. Worden, Cityscape [From Nob Hill looking Southeast], 1906, BANC PIC 1991.032:011–NEG, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
(Unknown), Fire Burning in South Market District, 1906, BAN PIC 19xx.112:066a
H.S. Hooper, The Burning of San Francisco, 1906, BANC PIC 2003.098:2–D, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
C.P. Magagnos, Fire Behind Ferry Building, 1906, BANC PIC 1958:021 Vol. 1:34–fALB, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
San Francisco and Vicinity Before and After the Big Fire, (Cardinell Rieder Co., 1906), F869.S3.93.R35, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
Florey, S.F. Ruins from Geary and Jones Streets, 1906, BANC PIC 1991.045:7–PIC, The
Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
Padilla, San Francisco Fire [East toward Nob Hill], 1906, BANC PIC 1996.006:0500–NEG, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
Padilla, San Francisco Fire [North Beach and Telegraph from Nob Hill], 1906, BANC PIC 1996.006:0501–NEG, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
George R. Lawrence, Birds-Eye View of Ruins of San Francisco [from Lawrence Captive Airship 600 Feet], 1906, BANC PIC 19xx.423.2a--C, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
George R. Lawrence, San Francisco In Ruins [from Lawrence Captive Airship 2000 Feet], 1906, BANC PIC 19xx.423:1–C, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
Image Carousel: Battles For Preservation
E.R. Freeman, “On the Redwood Highway” postcards, Save the Redwoods League photograph collection, BANC PIC 2006.030, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley
Members of Save the Redwoods League. Photograph courtesy of the Humboldt County Historical Society Collection.
John Muir and Congressman William Kent at Muir Woods National Monument, Save the Redwoods League photograph collection, BANC PIC 2006.030, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley
Muir Woods Postcards, Save the Redwoods League photograph collection, BANC PIC 2006.030, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley
Muir Woods, Edward Rogers Collection, BANC PIC 2015.013–NNEG
Hetch Hetchy Valley Before Construction, M. M. O’Shaughnessy photograph collection, BANC PIC 1992.058, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley
Hetch Hetchy Valley Reservoir After Construction, M. M. O’Shaughnessy photograph collection, BANC PIC 1992.058, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley
Featured Oral Histories
“Growing Up in the Cities: Oral History Transcriptions of Tape-Recorded Interviews,” oral histories conducted by Professor Frederick M. Wirt (1977–1979), BANC MSS 79/34 c, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
[Oral History Transcript]
Ansel Adams, “Conversations with Ansel Adams,” an oral history conducted by Ruth Teiser and Catherine Harroun in 1972, 1974, and 1975, Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 1978.
[Oral History Transcript]
David R. Brower, “David R. Brower: Environmental Activist, Publicist, and Prophet,” an oral history conducted by Susan Schrepfer (1974–1978), Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 1980.
[Oral History Transcript]
David R. Brower, "David R. Brower: Reflections on the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth and Earth Island Institute," oral history conducted by Anne Large in 1999, Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 2012. [Oral History Transcript]
William E. Colby, “William E. Colby: Reminiscences,” an oral history conducted by Corinne L. Gilb in 1953, Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 1954.
[Oral History Transcript]
Francis P. Farquhar, “Francis P. Farquhar: On Accountancy, Mountaineering, and the National Parks,” an oral history conducted by Willa Klug Baum in 1958, Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 1960.
[Oral History Transcript]
Carolyn Merchant, “Carolyn Merchant: My Life Exploring Science, Environment, and Ethics,” an oral history conducted by Roger Eardley-Pryor in 2022, Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 2023.
[Oral History Transcript]
Suggested Readings
Cameron Binkley, “‘No Better Heritage than Living Trees’: Women’s Clubs and Early Conservation in Humboldt County,” The Western Historical Quarterly 33:2 (2002): 179–203.
James Michael Buckley, City of Wood: San Francisco and the Architecture of the Redwood Lumber Industry (University of Texas Press, 2024).
Kendrick Clements, “Engineers and Conservationists in the Progressive Era,” California History 58:4 (1979): 282–303.
William Cronon, “The Trouble with Wilderness: Or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature,” Environmental History 1:1 (January 1996): 7-28.
Joanna L. Dyl, Seismic City: An Environmental History of San Francisco's 1906 Earthquake (University of Washington Press, 2017).
Samuel P. Hays, Conservation and the Gospel of Efficiency: The Progressive Conservation Movement, 1890-1920 (Harvard University Press, 1959).
Greg King, The Ghost Forest: Racists, Radicals, and Real Estate in the California Redwoods (PublicAffairs, 2023).
Carolyn Merchant, “Women of the Progressive Conservation Movement: 1900–1916,” Environmental Review 8:1, Special Issue: Women and Environmental History (Spring, 1984).
Char Miller, Gifford Pinchot and the Making of Modern Environmentalism (Island Press, 2001).
Robert Righter, The Battle over Hetch Hetchy: America’s Most Controversial Dam and the Birth of Modern Environmentalism (Oxford University Press, 2005).
Susan R. Schrepfer, The Fight to Save the Redwoods: A History of Environmental Reform, 1917–1978 (University of Wisconsin Press, 1983).
John Warfield Simpson, Dam!: Water, Power, Politics, and Preservation in Hetch Hetchy and Yosemite National Park (Pantheon Books, 2005).
Mark Spence, “Dispossessing the Wilderness: Yosemite Indians and the National Park Ideal, 1864-1930,” Pacific Historical Review 65:1 (Feb. 1996), 27-59.
Donald Worster, A Passion for Nature: The Life of John Muir (Oxford University Press, 2008).