Barging through the Conflict
Season 1, Episode 6
Environmental histories adopt critical lenses to complicate how we remember historical events by considering elements such as race, gender, and class. How landscapes have played into how people design and order their societies, as well as how those societies have restructured the physical landscape, tell multifaceted stories of how different groups of people have attempted to serve particular functions. This is highlighted via the building of Genesee Valley Park in 1888, the subsequent extension of railway lines through the area, and the addition of the Barge Canal bisecting the park in 1910. By looking into their designs a century after their creation, they reflect our relationships to nature, the development of public and private lands, and physical manifestations of class values.
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Works Cited:
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Cronon, William. “History: A Place for Stories.” The Journal of American History, Volume 78, Issue 4, 1992.
Friends of Mount Hope Cemetery. “America’s First Municipal Cemetery.” fomh.org. Accessed November 2017.
Park Commissioners’ Report, Rochester New York, 1888-1904. Rochester Department of Parks, 1904. University of Rochester Rare Books and Special Collections, November 2017.
Wickes, Marjorie, and Tim O’Connell. “The Legacy Of Frederick Law Olmsted.” Rochester History 50, no. 2 (April 1988): 3-23. America: History & Life, October 2017.
Comeau, Katie Eggers. “125 Years of Rochester’s Parks.” Rochester History 75, no. 2 (Fall 2013): 1-29. America: History & Life, October 2017.
McNeur, Catherine. Taming Manhattan: Environmental battles in the antebellum city. Harvard University Press, 2014.
“Alternative Routes Rochester and Vicinity,” New York State Engineer and Surveyor Report on the Barge Canal, New York State Engineers, 1901. University of Rochester Rare Books and Special Collections, November 2017.
Stone, Albert R.. “Barge Canal ‘stopgates.’” Albert R Stone Collection, 1919. Rochester Museum and Science Center Negatives Collection, rmsc.org. Photograph.
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