Works in the Exhibition
1850-1900
Industrial Era
William Louis Sonntag (1822-1900), Blue Ridge Wilderness, c. 1859
John Henry Hill (1839-1922), Roadway Near Nyack Turnpike, 1880
1859 - Edwin L. Drake strikes oil in Titusville, PA
1862 - Homestead Act encourages settlement of US western territory
1864 - President Lincoln signs bill to protect Yosemite Valley
1869 - Transcontinental railroad links US east and west coasts
Thomas Pollock Anshutz (1851-1912) Untitled [Mountain Landscape with Railroad Tracks], c. 1885-1890
Wilson Henry Irvine (1869-1936), Old New England
1870 - John D. Rockefeller incorporates Standard Oil Company; monopolizes oil industry
1875 - Andrew Carnegie’s Edgar Thomson Works begins mass production of steel in Braddock, PA
1879 - Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent light in Menlo Park, NJ
Truman Ward Ingersoll (1862-1922), Devil’s Punch Bowl #129, 1885-1890
1882 - First hydroelectric power plant put into operation in Appleton, WI
1891 - Forest Reserve Act passed
1901-1918
Late Progressive Era
Ernest Lawson (1873-1939), Low Tide, c. 1898
Chauncy Foster Ryder (1868-1949), Cutting the Pines
1901 - Spindletop oil gusher shifts center of US oil industry from Pennsylvania to Texas
1903 - President Theodore Roosevelt creates first National Bird Preserve (beginning of Wildlife Refuge system)
1908 - Ford Model T goes into production, democratizing automobile ownership
1914 - First scheduled commercial airline flight between St. Petersburg and Tampa, FL
Ralph M. Pearson (1883-1958), Asphalters, from the series Chicago, Toilers of the City, c. 1911
Joseph Pennell (1857-1926), Coal Mine, Longport, 1909
1916 - National Park Service established
1919-1944
Emergence of Modern America
Lyonel Feininger (1871-1956), Volcano, 1921
George L. Noyes (1864-1951), Cornfield
1921 - Leaded gasoline invented
1928 - Chlorofluorocarbons (CFC’s) developed as non-toxic refrigerant; later found to damage stratospheric ozone
1933 - Civilian Conservation Corps formed
1939 - Insecticidal properties of DDT identified; first banned in 1970
1942 - Manhattan Project launched to build nuclear weapon
Howard Norton Cook (1901-1980), Mill Valley, Norwich, Connecticut, 1930
Reginald Marsh (1889-1954), George Washington Bridge (Palisades), 1936
1945 - US detonates two nuclear weapons over Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ending WWII
1945-1979
Cold War Era
George Bunker (1923-1991), Landscape, 1973
Ana Mendieta (1948-1985), Silueta Works in Mexico, 1977
1956 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs Federal Aid Highway Act, creating 41,000-mile interstate highway system
1958 - First commercial nuclear power plant in US opened in Shippingport, PA
1962 - Publication of “Silent Spring” by Rachel Carson
1963 - Clean Air Act is first federal legislation regarding air pollution control; Congress ratifies Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, ending nuclear weapons testing
Ron Kleemann (1937-2014), Gas Line, from CITY-SCAPES, 1979
Nelson Holbrook White (b. 1932), Untitled [Landscape with Power lines], 1975-1979
1969 - Oil spill off coast of Santa Barbara, CA and a fire on Cuyahoga River in Ohio increase urgency of demands for regulation of industry to protect the environment
1970 - President Richard Nixon signs National Environmental Policy Act Jan 1; Nationwide Earth Day celebration April 22; Environmental Protection Agency begins operation Dec 2
1972 - United Nations Conference on the Human Environment convenes in Stockholm
1973 - Endangered Species Act passes Congress; Arab Oil Embargo sparks a fuel shortage in US
1979 - Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Harrisburg, PA partially melts down
1980-1989
The Eighties
Larry Silver (b. 1934), Bike Riding, Saugatuck River, Westport, Connecticut, 1981
Marilyn Bridges (b. 1948), Journey, Monument Valley, Arizona/Utah, 1983
1980 - “Superfund” legislation directs EPA to clean up abandoned toxic waste dumps
1982 - Term “Environmental racism” first used in Warren County, NC battle over toxic waste dump forced on poor, Black community
1984 - Pesticide factory accident in Bhopal, India kills more than 20,000 people
1985 - Discovery of ozone hole over Antarctica
David Wojnarowicz (1954-1992), Untitled (Buffalo), 1988
Robert Aller (b. 1947), Waste Pool, Marble Quarry, Barre, VT, 1989
1986 - Chernobyl nuclear reactor explodes in Ukraine
1987 - Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer adopted by more than 100 countries
1988 - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change established to investigate whether human activity is major contributor to global warming
1989 - Exxon Valdez oil tanker runs aground in Alaska, spilling 11 million gallons
1990-1996
The Nineties
Peter Waite (b. 1950), Sower (Kew Gardens), 1991
Tom Baril (b. 1952), Verrazzano Narrows, 1993
1990 - Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 strengthen rules to reduce “acid rain” and introduce cap-and-trade scheme for sulfur dioxide emissions
1992 - Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiated by world leaders in Rio de Janeiro during Earth Summit sponsored by United Nations
1994 - FDA allows sale of first genetically modified whole food intended for public consumption
Nancy Goldring (b. 1945), Tunnel Visions: Fresco, 1995
Britta Jaschinski (b. 1965), Polar Bear; Ursus Maritimus Bremerhaven, 1993
Craig Varjabedian (b. 1957), La Conquistadora at the Trinity Nuclear Test Site Near Socorro, New Mexico, 1996
1997-2003
The New Millennium
Lori Nix (b. 1969), Ice Storm, from the series Accidentally Kansas, 1999
Lori Nix (b. 1969), Tornado, from the series Accidentally Kansas, 1999
1997 - Kyoto Protocol calls for reducing emissions that contribute to global warming; adopted by US and 121 other nations but not ratified by US Congress
1999 - Anti-globalization protestors disrupt meeting of World Trade Organization in Seattle, WA
2000 - US population exceeds 281 million
Todd Hido (b. 1968), Untitled #2368 (Levvittown, NY), 2000
James Welling (b. 1951), Cornfield, Facing East, Northeast, NY, 2001
2002 - USDA creates National Organic Program to regulate organic food production
2005 - Energy Policy Act of 2005 exempts fracking from EPA regulation
2008 - Wilkins Ice Shelf collapses in Antarctica; polar bear listed as a threatened species
2010 - Deepwater Horizon oil spill results in leak of over 200 million gallons of crude oil in Gulf of Mexico over five months
James Welling (b. 1951), Soil, South Glastonbury, CT, 2002
Beate Gütschow (b. 1970), LS #14, 2003