National Parks And The Woman S Voice

In this updated study, Polly Kaufman discovers that staff are no longer able to fulfill the National Park Service mission without outside support.

This biography of the seventh director of the National Park Service brings to life one of the most colorful, powerful, and politically astute people to hold this position. George B. Hartzog Jr. served during an exciting and volatile era in American history. Appointed in 1964 by Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall, he benefited from a rare combination of circumstances that favored his vision, which was congenial with both President Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” and Udall’s robust environmentalism. Hartzog led the largest expansion of the National Park System in history and developed social programs that gave the Service new complexion. During his nine-year tenure, the system grew by seventy-two units totaling 2.7 million acres including not just national parks, but historical and archaeological monuments and sites, recreation areas, seashores, riverways, memorials, and cultural units celebrating minority experiences in America. In addition, Hartzog sought to make national parks relevant and responsive to the nation’s changing needs.

A National Park for Women's Rights chronicles a little-known story in American history: the establishment of the Women's Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, New York; the first "idea park" in the National Park system. As told by Judy Hart, its visionary founder and first superintendent, the park's story is one of struggle and perseverance, opposition and solidarity. Hart narrates the uphill battle she fought to secure the park's location—on the site of the first women's rights convention in 1848—and to gain respect for the idea of a park dedicated to women's rights from 1978, when she first championed its creation to the triumphant moment in 1982 when the park opened its doors, and following years. Hart's journey highlights the prejudices and resistance that she faced, like other women who have advocated for themselves, their rights, and their place in America. Going behind the scenes of the park's planning and the negotiations, conflicts, and collaborations that shaped the final vision, A National Park for Women's Rights highlights the contributions of Park Service officials, politicians, and interested citizens in Seneca Falls, despite opposition from within and beyond the Park Service. An inspiration and rallying cry for women (and their male allies) to tell their stories and claim their place in American history, A National Park for Women's Rights also offers a model for public history activism. No matter how daunting the opposition to such acts of historical memory-making are, Hart's experiences remind citizen-activists to dream, organize, and persist.

Since the founding of the National Park Service in 2016, tens of thousands of NPS employees and volunteers have devoted themselves to preserving our public lands, which today number more than 400. Each person’s NPS career is unique, seasoned with daily duties, grand adventures, and everything in between! Yet there is one common element: each person has plenty of material for terrific stories about living and working in America’s most special places. These 100 true stories from current and past NPS employees and volunteers make for an engrossing, funny, and often moving read, with something for everyone. The writers welcome visitors, ride the rails, collar caribou, reenact and make history, and every day face the mystery of wildness—including plenty of bears!—all for America’s public lands. Featuring more than 100 photograph and stories from 80 different parks, monuments, and historic sites, stretching from the coast of Maine to American Samoa, The Wonder of It All is sure to inspire a new generation to cherish the natural and cultural resources that the National Park Service was born to preserve.

This essay collection draws upon work presented at three national conferences on women and historic preservation held at Bryn Mawr College in 1994, Arizona State University in 1997, and at Mount Vernon College in 2000.

In Saving Florida, Leslie Kemp Poole casts new light on the women at the forefront of Florida’s environmental movement. From creating parks to protesting air pollution, fighting dredge-and-fill operations, and exposing the health dangers of pesticides, these women caused unprecedented changes in how the Sunshine State values its many and marvelous natural resources. At the beginning of the twentieth century women didn’t have the vote, but by the end of the century they were founding issue-specific groups, like Friends of the Everglades, and running state and federal agencies, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. They set the foundation for the next century’s environmental agenda, which came to include the idea of sustainable development, which meshes ecology and economy to enhance energy efficiency and the function of natural systems. This is an indispensable history that not only underscores the importance of women in the environmental movement but also shows how as a collective force they forever altered how others saw women’s roles in society.