Reading the Book of Nature

Faculty Research Leave Application
Michael A. Bryson
Associate Professor of Humanities and Sustainability Studies
College of Professional Studies
Submitted 2 November 2012 / Approved 16 January 2013
Reading the Book of Nature
May Theilgaard Watts and the Art of (Teaching) Ecology
Project Overview and Major Goals
This project focuses on one of the most influential and remarkable voices in the
environmental history of the Chicago Region: May Theilgaard Watts (1893-1975), whose
writings, environmental education work, public outreach, and conservation advocacy
dramatically shaped both the landscape itself as well as human perceptions of urban and
suburban environments. A student of pioneering University of Chicago scientist Henry Chandler
Cowles, who led the development of ecology as a scientific discipline with his work on plant
community succession in the Indiana Dunes, Watts became an expert at "reading the landscape"
through the lenses of ecology and botany. Possessed of an uncanny and singular ability to
explain complex ecological relationships and processes, Watts perfected the art of interpreting
stories of environmental change through observation and analysis of physical evidence -- plants,
animal tracks, soil, water, rooflines, roads -- within both the natural and built environment.
While she was widely traveled (and published one of her major books about her
explorations of Europe), most of Watts' time and energy focused on the Chicago region, where
she was the first naturalist-educator at the renowned Morton Arboretum in Lisle, IL. In this
capacity, Watts not only led hundreds of education programs for children, adults, and aspiring
naturalists; but also performed ecological research, developed educational materials and
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curricula, and mentored many fellow educators and nature interpreters who specifically sought
out her expertise. After her retirement, in the early 1960s she became the chief advocate for what
would be the nation's first rails-to-trails conversion project, the Illinois Prairie Path -- now one of
dozens of similar recreational trails in and around Chicago, and a model for open space redevelopment
throughout the US.
Watts' interpretations of the landscape took many forms: drawings, maps, empirical
biological surveys, essays, field guides, newspaper and magazine articles, speeches, and even
public television programs. The most significant and enduring among these is her landmark
book, Reading the Landscape of America, originally published in 1957 and revised by Watts in
1975. This remarkable text combines dozens of original illustrations with engaging prose that
despite its explicitly didactic purpose (to teach the art and science of understanding ecological
relationships and thus "read" the history and physical character of particular landscapes) is both
entertaining and instructive, scientifically rigorous yet rhetorically artful. Long neglected within
the critical context of 20 th century American nature writing, Reading the Landscape of America
is, in fact, a watershed book that utilizes art and science in equal measure; explores the
ecological workings of a locale within its environmental and cultural history; recognizes the
importance of native plants in the workings of ecosystems and the identity of communities; and
considers both the natural and (human) built environments as an integrated whole. Consequently,
Watts' text -- and her multifaceted body of work -- are far ahead of their time, as they articulate
many of the ideas and concerns of contemporary urban ecology and sustainable development.
The focused study on May Watts previewed here is a vital part of my longer-term book
project, Mapping the Urban Wilderness, which is a comprehensive and interdisciplinary account
of the shape, character, history, and future of nature within the Chicago metropolitan region.
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Such a "re-visioning" of Chicago -- one of the most storied, studied, and celebrated cities in the
world -- can be realized by figuratively mapping the literature and natural history of the city onto
the spatial contours of its geography as well as the temporal axis of its environmental history.
The literature within this topography is an inclusive category of written discourse that
encompasses poetry, fiction, and literary nonfiction; biography and autobiography; nature
writing, scientific reports, and visual art; even planning documents and maps. Defined in this
way, the literature of nature in the Chicago region serves as a useful lens through which to view
the environmental changes that have occurred since the early days of the city in the 1830s, as
well as our shifting attitudes about the character and value of urban nature in more contemporary
times. Such an assessment is especially timely with the recent emergence of sustainability as a
conceptual tool for improving the environmental quality, economic vitality, and social equity of
urban regions. The overarching questions that Mapping the Urban Wilderness addresses include:
• How does the exploration of nature within an urban area expand, challenge, and/or
problematize our past and present notions about wilderness? What is at stake in labeling
as "wilderness" particular kinds of urban nature, and not others?
• What do past and present literary, artistic, and scientific representations of nature in
Chicago tell us about the character of the urban environment and our relationship to it?
• How does the quality and geographic distribution of nature within the Chicago region
impact individual neighborhoods and localities, as well as people of different classes,
races, and ethnicities?
• How can a new conception of urban wilderness provide a framework for addressing
ecological problems and stimulate an appreciation for nature that, in turn, leads to the
formation of beneficial environmental ideas and policies?
• What are the necessary elements of an urban environmental ethic, and how might a fuller
understanding of Chicago's ecological and literary histories contribute to its articulation?
Given the analytic framework embodied in these questions, my research leave agenda
thus has two concrete goals -- one short-term, the other ongoing. The first is to research, write,
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and publish the first significant critical study of the literary work and public education efforts of
May Watts, a task which can be tackled within the timeframe of a one-semester research leave
and which forms a key part of the much larger framework of Mapping the Urban Wilderness --
specifically, its chapter entitled "City, Suburb, Farm: Chicago Nature Writing, Past and Present."
Secondly, in conjunction with the research I do for the Watts project, I will continue to gather
and analyze materials, revise the organizational framework, and draft sections of Mapping the
Urban Wilderness, since these two research/writing activities are synergistic. The final result will
be a first-of-its-kind publishable article on the life and work of May Watts and significant
progress on my book-length investigation of the literature and history of urban nature in the
Chicago region.
Significance of the Research
The ideas, leadership, vision, and influence of May Theilgaard Watts made tremendous
impacts upon public environmental attitudes and civic policy here in the Chicago region. The
area's environmental history has many other such examples -- from legendary botanist Henry
Chandler Cowles and landscape architect Jens Jensen in the early 20 th century (both of whom are
subjects of recent biographies) to restoration ecologists Bob Betz and Stephen Packard in more
recent times. Of the many people who have influenced the direction of the Chicago region's
environmental movement, though, few have done so more profoundly than May Watts, who
lived, wrote, and taught during an era of rapid suburbanization, ecological degradation, and
political change. By devoting her career to developing what we now might call "ecological
literacy" among her natural history students as well as the general public during the mid-20 th
century, and by contributing forcefully to the land conservation and nascent rails-to-trails
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movements in the 1960s, Watts closely aligned herself with the sweeping transformations in the
nation's environmental attitudes and policies during that tumultuous time, as signaled by the
publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring in 1962, the first Earth Day in 1970, and the passage
of landmark environmental legislation (such as the Clean Air and Water Acts) in the late 60s and
early 70s. Watts thus is a critically important but hitherto unrecognized voice in that
transformative movement, and her life's work -- like that of Carson, another pioneering female
scientist-writer -- merits both wider recognition and critical scrutiny.
A contemporary assessment of Watts' literary/artistic depictions of ecology and local
landscapes forms a significant thread within Mapping the Urban Wilderness and thus greatly
contributes to our understanding of urban ecology, especially that of Chicago. The Chicago
region is home to eight million people, numerous endangered species and imperiled habitats of
both local and global significance, and dozens of environmental and scientific groups (from large
institutions to small grass-roots organizations) dedicated to understanding and conserving the
local environment. My project is thus a part of the environmental education and advocacy work
here in the Chicago area and, by extension, elsewhere -- efforts that include hands-on studies of
science and nature in K-12 grades, public outreach programs in wildlife and habitat conservation,
research efforts to document the area's biological and ecological diversity, social activism
focused upon achieving environmental justice for all citizens regardless of race or location, and
literary/artistic representations of urban nature that foster a deeper awareness of our place with
the natural environment.
This research agenda also relates directly and positively to my teaching within and
directorship of the Sustainability Studies Program here at Roosevelt, and consequently to the
university's mission-driven focus on local outreach to and understanding of the greater
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Chicagoland community. My interest in the sustainability of urban areas has been greatly
influenced by readings of naturalists-writers such as Watts, Leonard Dubkin, Jens Jensen, Edwin
Way Teale and others who have taken urban areas as their focus. These authors and others like
them cross disciplinary boundaries in fusing art, literature, and science in the study of the natural
environment, and all share a desire to connect with the general public as opposed to a narrow,
specialized audience. The interdisciplinary approach to urban nature, perhaps nowhere better
displayed than in the writings of May Watts, embodies a method and ethos that are explicitly
woven into Roosevelt's Sustainability Studies undergraduate curriculum. Consequently, my
research will augment the ways in which our program can develop scientific and environmental
literacy among my students, stimulate awareness of the ecological problems and environmental
impacts of urban life, foster appreciation of how the arts and humanities are just as relevant to
building sustainable communities as are science and policy, and emphasize how local
environmental concerns connect to global issues and trends.
Preliminary Work in Area
My proposed research project is a natural outgrowth of my past and current work on the
relations among scientific discourse, environmental history, urban nature writing, and the
sustainability of cities and suburbs. While I have not done extensive research or writing on May
Watts previously, the recent articles I have published on Chicago urban nature writer Leonard
Dubkin and the anthropologist, essayist, and poet Loren Eiseley -- as well as the contextual
research I've undertaken for Mapping the Urban Wilderness -- provide a solid conceptual
framework for an in-depth critical study of Watts' life and work. (See the Prior Experience
section below for more details on these recently completed projects.)
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In addition to this research and writing, I have presented widely the last five years on
topics such as the representation of urban wilderness, the character of nature in cities, urban and
suburban sustainability, water in the urban environment, and ecological literacy. All of these
concerns have found expression in my scholarly work, popular writings (in newspapers,
magazines, and the web), professional talks, and public lectures. I thus approach the life and
writings of May Watts and other scientist-writers quite differently than I might've, say, ten or
fifteen years ago, when I would've primarily focused on the ways in which her writings fuse
literature and science in artful and effective ways. That they do -- but now I'm just as concerned
with how writers like Watts educate their readers, challenge our assumptions about science and
nature (especially in urban areas), connect with a wide audience, and combine their artistic
productions with environmental advocacy and conservation work.
Prior Experience in Carrying Out Related Projects
My research and publication record amply demonstrates my capability in planning,
researching, writing, and publishing articles and books similar in scope and approach to the
projects discussed in this proposal. Of particular note are my two most recent scholarly essay
publications: "Unearthing Urban Nature: Loren Eiseley's Explorations of City and Suburb"
(2012) and "Empty Lots and Secret Places: Leonard Dubkin's Exploration of Urban Nature in
Chicago" (2011). Each of these two ecocritical studies assesses how naturalist-writers grapple
with, interpret, and represent the various manifestations of nature in the city; for Eiseley, the
well-known essayist on matters anthropological and evolutionary, the setting was usually New
York or Philadelphia and its suburbs; for Dubkin, the now-obscure but once locally notable
naturalist and journalist, it was Chicago. The Dubkin project, one I initiated from scratch during
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my last research leave (in the spring of 2007), is the most natural precursor to and important
foundation for this proposed study of May Watts.
Also relevant here is my 2002 book, Visions of the Land: Literature, Science, and the
American Environment from the Era of Exploration to the Age of Ecology, a major scholarly
work that was published by the University of Virginia Press as part of a groundbreaking series
they developed in 2001 entitled "Under the Sign of Nature: Exploration in Ecocriticism."
Visions of the Land was widely and favorably reviewed in scholarly journals from the areas of
literary studies (American Literature, The New England Quarterly, Great Plains Quarterly,
Rocky Mountain Review), environmental studies (Interdisciplinary Studies of Literature and
Environment, Environmental History, H-Environment), and science (ISIS, Journal of the History
of Biology). As literary critic Nina Baym, the Swanland Endowed Chair in English at the
University of Illinois, writes in her review for The New England Quarterly,
The texts discussed in Visions of the Land are not only valuable historical
documents but also strong literary performances in their own right. The
combination of works is original and compelling, and the book is commendable
for expanding the idea of the literary to include a range of genres. Its example
may inspire teachers to add Frémont or Powell or, for that matter, Clarence King
or Gifford Pinchot . . . to their syllabi. And there can be little doubt that the
chronicle of increasing scientific self-awareness and environmental sensitivity
Bryson relates is accurate. But, as Bryson comments ruefully in his afterword, the
pervasive signs of accelerating global degradation are ‘a humbling reminder of
how far we have to go toward effective environmental stewardship’ (p. 177). It is
perhaps not too much to say that, in detailing how far we have come, Visions of
the Land has nudged us one step closer to that goal. (133)
The book also received a citation by CHOICE as a 2003 Outstanding Academic Title publication
in Language and Literature. While not focused on urban areas, contemporary literature, or
Chicago, Visions of the Land outlines and uses an analytic framework, ecocriticism, that
characterizes my current research practice.
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Tentative Timeline* for Project Research and Write-up
Date
Before and during
Fall 2013
January 2014
February
March
April
May
June - August
Task
Read and take notes on key primary works by Watts
Compile bibliography of relevant primary and secondary works
Identify archival information beyond Morton Arboretum papers
Finish notes on primary texts
Collect and review key sources within secondary literature
Begin archival research at the Sterling Morton Library, Morton
Arboretum
Finish notes on secondary literature
Begin outlining article, "Reading the Book of Nature"
Continue archival research at the Morton Arboretum
Begin drafting article
Continue archival research at the Morton Arboretum
Set up interviews of relatives and/or former students of Watts
Conduct supporting archival research at the Chicago Academy of
Science (Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum), Chicago History
Museum, and Field Museum of Natural History
Conduct interview of relatives and former students/colleagues of
Watts
Finish first draft of article and circulate to colleagues for
comments
Finish archival research at the Morton Arboretum
Revise draft based on readers' feedback and additional research
Send out revised article to journal editor(s) for review
* Based on a Spring 2014 Leave
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Availability of Data and Resources
My research project on the life and work of May Watts presents a unique opportunity to
take advantage of an excellent local archival source: the Sterling Morton Library at the Morton
Arboretum, one of the best natural history libraries in the Midwest, has her personal papers in its
archive, as well as a deep collection in ecology, natural history, botany, and local history. These
resources are fully available to me as a professional scholar through arrangements I have
confirmed with the Morton Library. Also available through Arboretum staff and records is
information on former students of Watts, some of whom are still alive and potentially available
for interviews for my planned biographical research on Watts.
Relationship of Work to Developments in the Field
Two major areas of research and writing intersect within my proposed project: ecological
criticism, or "ecocriticism"; and the history, literature, and natural history of Chicago. Until quite
recently, ecocritical scholarship has concentrated largely on writers, literary genres, and themes
grounded in remote and rural settings, as opposed to critiquing writers and texts associated with
urban themes and city landscapes. (For a brief definition of ecocriticism, see the Research
Design and Analytic Methods section below.) In this fashion, since its inception in the late 1980s
and early 1990s as a self-described "green" method of literary and cultural criticism, ecocriticism
has displayed a bias against the urban sphere, though more by benign neglect than conscious
prejudice. In the process, ecocriticism lent credence to that age-old opposition of nature and
culture by implicitly defining wilderness as, among other things, that-which-is-not-urban.
Recently, though, there has been a slight shift in the winds. For example, critic Michael
Bennett argues for an increased emphasis on urban themes and environments in his 2001 essay,
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"From Wide Open Spaces to Metropolitan Spaces: The Urban Challenge to Ecocriticism," and
his co-edited collection (with David Teague) of urban-centered ecocritical studies, The Nature of
Cities (1999), sketches an outline of how ecocriticism could address urban topics, issues, and
problems. Several years later, the urban environment has become a sparsely settled but active
frontier in ecocriticism. Yet, only a few articles and books have applied ecocriticism to urban
subjects (such as John Tallmadge's The Cincinnati Arch); and but for my 2011 publication on
Leonard Dubkin, none take Chicago as its focus. My focus on May Watts as well as the wider
context of Chicago's urban nature will continue to help expanding the ecocritical agenda to urban
subjects in coming years.
Another relevant area of scholarship is what I've come to call "Chicago Studies" for lack
of an official term -- works of literary criticism and biography; history, both political and
environmental); sociology and urban studies; and natural history and science. These four subareas
of Chicago Studies represent but a mere taste of the extraordinary range and depth of
research on and writing about the Chicago region. They include literary studies such as Clarence
Andrews' Chicago in Story: A Literary History (1982) that primarily focus on canonical authors
and works of Chicago-based fiction and poetry, but pay virtually no attention to nature writing or
works with a scientific element. Biographical studies of important environmental figures include
Victor Cassidy's Henry Chandler Cowles: Pioneering Ecologist (2007) and Robert Grese's Jens
Jensen: Maker of Natural Parks and Gardens (1998).
Chicago has inspired a wealth of influential historical studies, from Milo Milton Quaife's
and Bessie Louise Pierce's comprehensive histories published in the early decades of the 20th
century, to more recent works such as William Cronon's Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the
Great West (1991), Donald Miller's City of the Century: The Epic of Chicago and the Making of
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America (1996), and the magisterial Encyclopedia of Chicago (2004). With the notable exception
of Cronon's work, though, none of these portray the natural environment as a central character in
the historical drama, highlighting instead the various political, social, and economic forces that
have shaped Chicago's development and identity.
Scholars working in the interdisciplinary field of urban studies -- who draw insights from
sociology, political science, history, cultural geography, and other fields -- have produced a
wide range of Chicago-based work. Recent examples include Sylvia Washington's Packing Them
In: An Archeaology of Environmental Racism in Chicago, 1865-1954 (2005), which takes a
comprehensive look from an environmental policy and social justice perspective at the impact of
industrialization, pollution, and hazardous waste on immigrant groups and minority populations
in the city; John Hudson's recent geographic synthesis Chicago: A Geography of the City and Its
Region (2006); and Larry Bennett's assessment of Chicago's emergent identity as a postindustrial,
global metropolis in the process of redefining what it means to be a modern city, The
Third City: Chicago and American Urbanism (2010).
Finally, relevant works of natural history and science focused on the Chicago region
include Joel Greenberg's remarkable environmental history, A Natural History of the Chicago
Region (2003) and his edited anthology of nature writing, Of Prairie, Woods, and Water (2008);
Libby Hill's The Chicago River: A Natural and Unnatural History (2000); the Chicago
Wilderness Atlas of Biodiversity, now in its 2 nd edition (2011); and Floyd Swink's and Gerould
Wilhelm's botanical classic Plants of the Chicago Region (4 th edition, 1994).
My proposed research project is unique and timely because it applies an ecocritical
perspective to an urban subject -- in this case, an important, influential, and heretofore criticallyneglected
writer and naturalist, May Watts; situates the study of Watt's literary and artistic
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productions within the context of Chicago's environmental history and future sustainability; and
builds upon and extends current ecocritical scholarship by synthesizing environmental history,
science and natural history, and literary studies. The larger project of which the Watts study is a
part -- namely, Mapping the Urban Wilderness -- integrates what has been up to now separate
areas of Chicago Studies, while at the same time pushing the work of ecocriticism in an exciting
and fruitful new direction.
Research Design and Analytical Methods
As an interdisciplinary-minded literary critic, my research approach is unabashedly
qualitative. I emphasize the close reading and analysis of individual texts, their relationships with
one another, and their place in the broad contexts of popular scientific discourse, nature writing,
environmental history, and sustainability. I complement this textual approach by firmly
grounding my analyses in the appropriate historical context and by situating my interpretations
within the relevant secondary literature. My work differs from traditional literary scholarship is
its focus upon non-canonical texts and authors as well as its use of insights and theories from
fields such as ecocriticism, the cultural study of science, and environmental history.
In this project, I strive to bring an "ecologically critical" -- or ecocritical -- perspective to
bear upon the life, literary/artistic achievements, public education efforts, and conservation work
of May Watts. Ecocriticism is a specific approach within the broad area of humanistic
interpretation, an environmentally-informed method of analyzing texts, artworks, and other
cultural products. As ecocritic Cheryl Glotfelty explains in her essay, "What Is Ecocriticism?":
Ecocritics and theorists ask questions like the following: How is nature
represented in this sonnet? What role does the physical setting play in the plot of
this novel? Are the values expressed in this play consistent with ecological
wisdom? How do our metaphors of the land influence the way we treat it? How
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can we characterize nature writing as a genre? . . . How has the concept of
wilderness changed over time? In what ways and to what effect is the
environmental crisis seeping into contemporary literature and popular culture?
What view of nature informs U.S. government reports, and what rhetoric enforces
this view? What bearing might the science of ecology have on literary studies?
How is science itself open to literary analysis? What cross-fertilization is possible
between literary studies and environmental discourse in related disciplines such as
history, philosophy, psychology, art history, and ethics?
Glotfelty's free-ranging list of critical questions point out, among other things, the
interdisciplinary nature as well as the activist orientation of ecocriticism. This critical approach is
politically and methodologically heterogeneous, but starts from the premises that the physical
environment is a worthy and important object of study; that natural resources are imperiled and
therefore in need of protection and conservation; and that humanistic inquiry about the myriad
relationships between humanity and nature can foster, in the long run, ecological awareness and
environmental progress.
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Appendix A: Outcome of Previous Research Leaves
I. "Uniting Nature, Science, and Literature: Contemporary Environmental Science
Writers and the Inheritance of Rachel Carson and Loren Eiseley" (spring 2001) -- The
major goals of this study were to analyze contemporary environmental science writers in light of
the nature writing and popular science of Rachel Carson and Loren Eiseley; to assess the
development of a new mode of environmental science writing which combines elements of
natural history, travel literature, popular science, biography, and/or autobiography; and to
examine how this discourse (1) vigorously critiques our environmental values and practices, (2)
fosters scientific and environmental literacy among the general public, and (3) reflects and/or
revises gendered representations of both nature and science.
My work during that 2001 research leave resulted in a peer-reviewed journal article
entitled "It's Worth the Risk: Science and Autobiography in Sandra Steingraber's Living
Downstream" published in Women's Studies Quarterly (2001) -- the first scholarly study of
Steingraber, who in subsequent years has become one of the most important scientist-writers /
environmental activists in the US, as evidenced by her string of critically-acclaimed books and
artful journalism. More importantly, I completed the final revisions of a book manuscript,
Visions of the Land: Literature, Science, and the American Environment, which had been
submitted for review to the University of Virginia Press in the fall of 2000. The book was
formally awarded a contract based on my spring 2001 revisions, and was published in 2002 as
the 9th book in their new environmental studies series, "Under the Sign of Nature." (I should also
note that in the summer of 1997, a $500 Roosevelt Summer Research Grant supported my early
efforts to reconceptualize and conduct additional research on my PhD dissertation, which in turn
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provided the foundation for Visions of the Land a few years later.) Thirdly, the additional
research I conducted on Rachel Carson and Loren Eiseley during that leave produced a scholarly
article focused on their scientific rhetoric in a 2003 issue of Technical Communication
Quarterly.
II. Mapping the Urban Wilderness: An Ecological and Literary Topography of Chicago
(spring 2007) -- My second research leave provided me with an exceptional opportunity to
change directions in my research agenda significantly, from a wide-ranging emphasis on scienceand-literature
studies to a new focus on the urban environment (particularly Chicago) and citybased
nature writing. The goals of this study were to lay the initial groundwork for a book
tentatively entitled Mapping the Urban Wilderness: An Ecological and Literary Topography of
Chicago, discussed earlier in this proposal, as well as to write and publish a scholarly essay (of
30-40 manuscript pages) based on that research that would be suitable for publication as a standalone
article in a notable environmental studies / interdisciplinary journal.
This leave period also was fruitful on multiple fronts. Notably, in the course of my
research for Mapping the Urban Wilderness, I unearthed some fascinating information on the
Chicago-based urban nature writer Leonard Dubkin, a self-taught naturalist and journalist who
published a string of singular and otherwise remarkable books from the mid-1940s to the early
1970s about observing nature in Chicago. When I made contact with Dubkin's daughter, who
lives in Chicago and gave me unfettered access to many of her personal papers, I knew I had an
extraordinary chance to research and write about a forgotten author, with access to drafts, letters,
and other papers. I was able to capitalize on this work by publishing the first scholarly treatment
of Dubkin's work in the leading journal of ecocriticism, Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature
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and Environment. Secondly, during what became an intensely focused period of Dubkin
research, I made substantial progress in creating the bibliographic and conceptual foundation for
the Mapping the Urban Wilderness book.
But an unexpected, yet perhaps most important outcome, of the shift in research focus
enabled by my 2007 leave was the inspiration it provided me to offer an experimental course in
urban sustainability in the spring semester of 2009. This innovative Chicago-focused
interdisciplinary seminar not only led to another peer-reviewed publication (Bryson and Zimring,
"Creating the Sustainable City") but also provided the foundation of the new Sustainability
Studies undergraduate major at RU in the 2009-2010 academic year -- a program at the forefront
of the university's overall sustainability efforts and now home to 55+ majors.
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