Episode 1: The Environmental History of the Don River

Download Audio

Subscribe

On this pilot episode of the show, we introduce listeners to the study environmental history by speaking with Jennifer Bonnell, a graduate student at the University of Toronto who is researching the history of Toronto’s Don River. Jennifer’s research spans the long history of the Don River and its place in the social and environmental history of the city. From nineteenth-century grist mills to Depression-era hobo jungles to Hurricane Hazel in 1954, we find out more about this river valley on Toronto’s eastside.

Also, we speak with Adam Crymble, the website administrator for the Network in Canadian History & Environment, about web resources for environmental history at niche-canada.org.

Guests:

Jennifer Bonnell

Adam Crymble

Works Cited:

Nash, Roderick. Wilderness and the American Mind. 4th ed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001.

Worster, Donald, ed. The Ends of the Earth: Perspectives on Modern Environmental History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

Crosby, Alfred W. “The Past and Present of Environmental History.” American Historical Review 100 (1995): 1177-89.

Music Credits:

“Revolve” by hisboyelroy

“Yage Cameras (hbe’s fractured rework)” by hisboyelroy

Photo Credit:

“Waterfront at Don River looking north” Source: City of Toronto Archives/Fonds 200, Series 1465, File 536, Item 2

Citation:

Kheraj, Sean. “Episode 1: The Environmental History of the Don River.” Nature’s Past: Canadian Environmental History Podcast. 10 December 2008

The following two tabs change content below.

• Bio
• Latest Posts

Sean Kheraj

Associate Professor at York University, Department of History

Sean Kheraj is the director of the Network in Canadian History and Environment. He's an associate professor in the Department of History and vice dean of the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies at York University. His research and teaching focuses on environmental and Canadian history. He is also the host and producer of Nature's Past, NiCHE's audio podcast series and he blogs at http://seankheraj.com.

Latest posts by Sean Kheraj (see all)

• How the Interprovincial and Trans Mountain Pipelines Were Approved - April 8, 2022
• Nature’s Past Episode 74: Colonial Legacies of Wood Buffalo National Park - March 28, 2022
• Reindeer at the End of the World: Apocalypse, Climate, and Soviet Dreams - January 25, 2022
• Top 5 Posts of 2021 - January 6, 2022
• 2022 Melville-Nelles-Hoffmann Lecture in Environmental History: Bathsheba Demuth - January 3, 2022
• Thank You - December 20, 2021
• Nature’s Past Episode 73: New Books in Canadian Environmental History - November 15, 2021
• The Technology of a Canadian Environmental History Network - November 8, 2021
• Nature’s Past Episode 72: What’s Next for Canadian Environmental History? - July 12, 2021
• Nature’s Past Episode 71: Water and Anishinaabe Territory - April 12, 2021