Historical Image of the Day

Coal mining, near Richlands, Virginia, 1974.

I had originally intended this series of images to last a week or so, but with the sporadic posting, I've kind of kept it going. I'll close it here. This set of images I've used recently comes from the Environmental Protection Agency's amazing Documerica program. Between 1971 and 1977 (though mostly in 73 and 74), the EPA hired photographers to document environmental degradation, work conditions, and everyday life around the nation. You can check out the whole collection here, which I highly recommend.

Historical Image of the Day

Two young women smoking marijuana, Leakey, Texas, 1973

Historical Image of the Day

The city dump of Moab, Utah, 1972

Historical Image of the Day

Effluent flowing from the International Paper Company Mill into the Androscroggin River, Maine, 1973

Historical Image of the Day

Opposition to coal strip mining, Hendrysburg, Ohio, 1973

Historical Image of the Day

Cemetery for workers at the Asarco smelter (seen in background), El Paso, Texas, 1972

Historical Image of the Day

The World Trade Center, New York, 1973

Historical Image of the Day

Sign in gas station, Lincoln City, Oregon, reflecting gas shortages during oil crisis, 1973

Historical Image of the Day

Sign protesting Oregon Governor Tom McCall's executive order curtailing the use of neon lights, Portland, 1973

Historical Image of the Day

Teaching children to meditate from the book Teaching Children to Meditate: The Art of Concentration and Centering, 1975

Historical Image of the Day

Back to the historical images. This week will take a broad look at the 1970s.

The Electric Company, the classic PBS 1970s kids show.

Historical Image of the Day

Two images today--the top is the failure of the Teton Dam in Idaho on June 5, 1976. The bottom is the city of Rexburg, Idaho, inundated by the flood waters. Fourteen people died in the flood. One of the greatest dam failures in the history of the American West and a symbol for the peril we face when we try to control every drop of water.

Historical Image of the Day

Our new series will cover racial violence in the North. It's always worth reminding people that racial violence is not just a southern problem.

Anti-busing protest, Boston, 1976

Historical Image of the Day

Barrels of toxic waste, Love Canal, New York, late 1970s

Historical Image of the Day

Marilyn Chambers, breakthrough pornographic actress and star of "Behind the Green Door," as well as star in commercials for Ivory Snow

Historical Image of the Day

Jim and Artie Mitchell, the pornography kings of San Francisco, 1970s

Historical Image of the Day

Green Corn Festival, Bixby, Oklahoma, 1970

I'm guessing these are the people who do not smoke marijuana in Muskogee. 

Historical Image of the Day

This week's images will be of tourism in the South. This is actually a harder subject than it sounds because few people really conceive of image categories in this way.

I'm also starting to organize the week's images around a book I am reading during a given week. It makes it easier in my mind. It allows allows me to promote a few books. This week's images are inspired by Anthony J. Stanonis' edited collection, Dixie Emporium: Tourism, Foodways, and Consumer Culture in the American South, published by the University of Georgia Press in 2008. Like most edited collections, the essays are mixed, but some are quite fascinating. I read this book in preparation for future discussions of food history in my courses. The book provides relatively few of these and really the title is more than a little misleading on this. But it was interesting nonetheless. 

South of the Border, a notorious tourist trap along I-95 in South Carolina, just over the North Carolina border, circa 1970

Historical Image of the Day

Shirley Bolton, "Renovation (Tenement Series)" 1970

Historical Image of the Day

Aftermath of Attica Prison revolt, New York, 1971