Whenever Western Civilization has stumbled across some unfamiliar living thing, it’s sorted it into one of four categories. Whether it’s a plant or animal, bigger or smaller than we are, it’s always something to be (1) feared, (2) consumed, (3) domesticated, or (4) worshiped.
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This history is detailed in the exhibit “From Forest to Park: America’s Heritage of Trees,” a joint effort of the Newberry Library and the Morton Arboretum marking the 75th anniversary of the Lisle tree museum. More than 150 rare books, magazines, and prints are displayed in mostly chronological order, allowing viewers to track changing attitudes. “We go from the endless forest to a realization of the need to protect and preserve the small forests that are left,” says Ruth Hamilton, exhibits officer at the Newberry. She developed the show with the arboretum’s head librarian, Michael Stieber, who envisions the exhibit as a “look at American history as something other than politics.”
Books, pamphlets, and prints track the growth of the logging industry, especially along the routes of the railroads. A chart prepared for the War Department in 1853-’54 maps the dominant species along a route between Fort Smith, Arkansas, and San Pedro, California. The trail would later become the Southern Pacific Railroad, and many of the trees would be used along its route. The 1880 U.S. Census counted trees as well as people. But, says Hamilton, “they’re counting cords of wood per acre–the value is in cut trees. It’s very clear what the mentality was.”
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): poster photo courtesy Sterling Morton Library, Morton Arboretum.
