#EnvHist Worth Reading: September 2024

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Every month I carefully track the most popular and significant environmental history articles, videos, audio, and other items making their way through the online environmental history (#envhist) community. You can read all of our past #EnvHist Worth Reading lists right here. Here are my choices for items most worth reading from September 2024:

1. Marine art deepens our understanding of the oceans – here’s how it has evolved through the centuries

In this piece for The Conversation, Giulia Champion, Akshata Mehta, and Mia Strand discuss the Royal Society of Marine Artists Annual Exhibition 2024 and the general cultural importance of marine art, which has shown the entanglement between people, the ocean, and its more-than-human inhabitants consistently through history. They delve specifically into the role that marine art storytelling has in the conversation of the Great African seaforest and other kelp forests, and its value to scientists. “Scientific researchers often rely on data, graphs, and academic papers to convey their findings. But there’s a unique power in art that transcends the limitations of traditional scientific methods. Art offers an immersive experience through storytelling — one that can evoke emotion, provoke thought, and inspire action in ways that academic outputs alone sometimes cannot,” they write.

2. B.C. creek buried by construction in the 60s restored

Many a small creek has lost its course to development, and I find stories of unearthing and restoring these waterways fascinating. In this article for CBC News, Isaac Phan Nay shares the story of recent efforts to restore the Guichon Creek, which was sealed underground when the Burnaby campus of the B.C. Institute of Technology was built in the 1960s. Phan Nay discusses the negative impact that this construction had on the creek and surrounding ecology and the sinkholes that began to appear reminding humans of the natural landscape they tried to erase. If the restoration goes well, they hope that salmon will return to spawn in the creek.

3. Gottfried Mind, The Raphael of Cats

Gottfried Mind, a Swiss artist (1768–1814), was renowned for his depictions of cats, earning him the title “The Raphael of Cats.” In this article for The Public Domain Review, Kirsten Tambling tells the story of Mind’s life, sharing that despite having limited formal training and suffering from developmental challenges, Mind’s detailed, lifelike cat portraits captivated audiences. His deep affection for felines, combined with his acute observation skills, helped him create intricate and emotionally resonant artworks. Although he also painted other animals and scenes, it was his mastery of capturing the nuances of cats’ expressions and forms that solidified his artistic legacy. Mind’s work remains celebrated for its empathy and precision.

4. Gastropod – Smashing Pumpkin Myths: What’s Big, Orange, and Having an Identity Crisis?

Just in time for October, Gastropod shared a podcast episode dedicated to analyzing the history of the pumpkin in North America, looking at its domestication and role in the history of food. They explore the difference between squash and pumpkins and the ubiquity of the cucurbit in our modern autumn aesthetic.

5. Witness to Yesterday – Against the Tides: Reshaping Landscape and Community in Canada’s Maritime Marshlands

In this episode of The Champlain Society’s Witness to Yesterday podcast, Nicole O’Byrne speaks with Ronald Rudin about his book Against the Tides: Reshaping Landscape and Community in Canada’s Maritime Marshlands, which is the story of the Maritime Marshland Rehabilitation Administration (MMRA). “As farmers could not afford to maintain the dykes, the MMRA stepped in to reshape the landscape and with it the communities that depended on dykeland,” writes The Champlain Society.

Feature Image: “Illustration of domestic cat on a stool and three playful kittens by Gottfried Mind (1768-1814). Original from Library of Congress. Digitally enhanced by rawpixel.” by Free Public Domain Illustrations by rawpixel is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
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Jessica DeWitt

is an environmental historian of Canada and the United States, editor, project manager, and digital communications strategist. She earned her PhD in History from the University of Saskatchewan in 2019. She is an executive member, editor-in-chief, and social media editor for the Network in Canadian History and Environment (NiCHE). She is the Managing Editor for the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines. She is also President of the Saskatchewan History and Folklore Society, a Girls Rock Saskatoon board member, and a Coordinating Team member of Showing Up for Racial Justice Saskatoon-Treaty Six. A passionate social justice advocate, she focuses on developing digital techniques and communications that bridge the divide between academia and the general public in order to democratize knowledge access. You can find out more about her and her freelance services at jessicamdewitt.com.

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