103,387 research outputs found
Muir-Torre syndrome - Treatment with isotretinoin and interferon alpha-2a can prevent tumour development
Full text linkMuir-Torre syndrome is a genodermatosis in which multiple internal malignancies are associated with cutaneous sebaceous tumours and kerato-acanthomas. A 57-year-old man presented with multiple sebaceous tumours, kerato-acanthomas, verrucous carcinoma of the nose, renal cell and transitional cell carcinomas of the left kidney, adenoma of the colon and a positive family history of colon carcinoma. He was treated with interferon (IFN-alpha Pa) s.c. 3 x 10(6) U three times a week along with 50 mg isotretinoin daily as well as topical isotretinoin gel. During a follow-up of 29 months, only 1 sebaceous skin tumour developed and was removed, whereas more than 30 such skin tumours had been surgically removed during the last 3 years. No evidence of internal tumour development or recurrence was found. The combination of IFN with retinoids seems to be of promise to prevent tumour development in Muir-Torre syndrome. Copyright (C) 2000 S. Karger AG, Basel
Reconnecting with John Muir Essays in Post-Pastoral Practice
No full textIntro -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- TO JOHN MUIR FROM LAKE TENAYA -- 1. Keeping Faith with the Source -- TO JOHN MUIR FROM THE RIM OF NEVADA FALLS -- 2. Muir as Practitioner of the Post-Pastoral -- TO JOHN MUIR FROM MONO LAKE -- 3. Muir's Multiple Discourses -- TO JOHN MUIR FROM LAKE TAHOE -- 4. Teaching Environmentalism through Writing -- TO JOHN MUIR FROM THE TRAIL TO MIRROR LAKE -- 5. Muir's Mode of Reading John Ruskin -- TO JOHN MUIR FROM CAMP FOUR -- 6. Rick Bass's Fiber as a Post-Pastoral Georgic -- TO JOHN MUIR FROM TUOLUMNE MEADOWS -- 7. Walking into Narrative Scholarship -- TO JOHN MUIR FROM FAIRVIEW DOME -- 8. Teaching Post-Pastoral Poetry of Landscape -- TO JOHN MUIR FROM MOUNT HOFFMAN -- 9. Tests of Character in Cold Mountain -- TO JOHN MUIR FROM CATHEDRAL PEAK -- 10. Muir's Fourfold Concept of the Mountaineer -- TO JOHN MUIR FROM GLACIER POINT APRON -- 11. Toward a Post-Pastoral Mountaineering Literature -- TO JOHN MUIR FROM THE ROYAL ARCHES -- 12. Post-Pastoral Practice at the Crossroads of Ecocriticism -- TO JOHN MUIR FROM HALF DOME -- Appendix A. Introducing Ecocriticism into the University Curriculum -- Appendix B. Twenty-five Kinds of Post-Pastoral Landscape Poem -- Appendix C. Advice for New Writers Targeting Outdoor Magazines -- Bibliography -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- YDescription based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, YYYY. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries
Joshua Davis: Author of Spare Parts
Full text linkCitation: K-State First (2016). Joshua Davis: Author of Spare Parts [Flier]. Manhattan, Kansas: K-State First.Flyer advertising Joshua Davis's author talk at Kansas State University
The John Muir Newsletter, Spring 2015
Full text linkSPRING 2015 jJui JMaaaa, JL^aXAXaa, V\u3eP , THE JOHN MUIR CENTER Reflections on John Muir— One-hundred years after his death Bill Swagerty, Co-Director, John Muir Center During 2014, many institutions honored John Muir\u27s legacy with an event associated with the centennial of his death on December 24, 1914. It was also the fiftieth anniversary of passage of the Wilderness Act by Congress in 1964 and the 150th anniversary of the Yosemite Act, transferring the core of what would become Yosemite National Park from the State of California to the federal government. Pacific hosted the 60th California History Institute from March 20-22 focusing on What has been saved; what has been lost: John Muir\u27s Legacy, 1914-2014. The symposium began with a field trip to Martinez on March 20 to visit John Muir National Historic Site. Twenty-four students in the John Muir Class were joined by other Pacific students, faculty, and guests of the university. As always, rangers and interpreters opened the doors to the Strentzel-Muir-Hanna house on the hill and allowed us the privilege of seeing Muir\u27s grave- site nearby. At the gravesite, Michael Wurtz, Head of Holt-Atherton Special Collections, read a 1914 obituary from a local newspaper which included mention of those who attended Muir\u27s funeral. On March 21, another field trip by bus took students and guests to Coulterville along the route that Muir walked in 1868 on his first trip to Yosemite. Ken Pulvino, founder of the John Muir Geotourism Center, joined the bus in Modesto and explained Muir\u27s stop at Horseshoe Bend, where he made an elaborate sketch of the landscape. Educator Monty Thornberg, current Director of the Center gave a presentation at lunch in the Hotel Jeffery on the activities of the Center, which promotes tourism and environmental education along the John Muir Highway. The Jeffery dates to 1851 and was a stagecoach stop for Yo- semite-bound passengers, as well as a resting place and reprovisioning opportunity for pedestrians like Muir on his long walk to the Valley. Bill Jeffery, husband to Pacific\u27s Pamela Eibeck, explained his family\u27s likely connection with the original builders. Unfortunately, after our field trip, the hotel experienced a major fire in the middle of the night on November 14, 2014, forcing closure. By 1889, it had burned three times, so this was the fourth structure-fire, but fortunately did not consume the entire building, which is currently undergoing restoration as a National Historic Landmark. We also saw the result of the Rim Fire, started by a hunter who set an illegal campfire on August 17, 2013 in Stanislaus National Forest. Named for the Rim of the World vista point on Highway 120 as it heads into Yosemite, the fire consumed 257,314 acres making it the third largest wildlife on record in the Sierra Nevada and costing around 25 or more were invited to attend the Spring Gathering. Donors in the John Muir Heritage Society (with annual gifts of 1,000 or more) were invited to attend a special dinner on Saturday night and additional activities on Sunday. For more information on Yosemite Conservancy, please call 800.469.7275. 6th Annual John Muir Festival May 16, 2015 The John Muir Geotourism Center in Coulter- ville, CA presents the 6th Annual John Muir Festival. A family friendly event! Experience All Things Muir when you visit and learn about Muir\u27s travels along the historic Muir Route along J132 to Yosemite. Meet other John Muir enthusiasts, experts and representatives from the John Muir Geotourism Center, Yosemite National Park and surrounding Yosemite region. On May 16, historic Coulterville celebrates John Muir\u27s historic walks to Yosemite before Yosemite became a National Park. There are multiple venues for family fun—all within the Main Street area of Coulterville. Entertainment, activities and food in Coulterville Park, John Muir Geotourism Center and the Coulter Cafe. Enjoy the historic Yosemite Tapestries exhibit, created by Miriam McNitt, commissioned by Yosemite National Park in 1967 and displayed in the Park for over 40 years. These tapestries depict the natural history of Yosemite as well as panoramic views of the Park\u27s wonders. Entrance is FREE. Festivities began at 10 am and go until 4 pm. John Muir Birthday-Earth Day Celebration *% Saturday, April 18th 2015 4202 Alhambra Avenue (at Highway 4) in Martinez FREE admission! 10 am - 4 pm nd the National Park St-rvice Come rain or shine! Presented by tbe John Muir Association a: r Keynote Speaker Beth Pratl-Bergstrotn, California Director of Ihe National Wildlife Federation Original east members to perform songs from the play,Mountain Days Meet John Mull and the Giant Sequoia he planted 130 years ago Exhibits and activities for everyone Live music And silent auctions John Muir\u27s 1882 Victorian home and orchards John Muir Conservation Awards presented Youth Activities with National Park Service rangers Food and beverages are available for purchase Join the National Park Service to celebrate John Muir\u27s 177th birthday during the annual Birth - day-Earthday event on Saturday, April 18, 2015 from 10 am to 4 pm at the John Muir National Historic Site in Martinez, CA. Participate in fun activities for all ages to commemorate Muir\u27s legacy. Special guest speaker Beth Pratt-Bergstrom, California Director of the National Wildlife Federation, will give the keynote address. The Celebration, held rain or shine, features family-oriented activities, food for sale, live music including a bagpipe band, song performances by original cast members of the play Mountain Days, and displays by national parks and local environmental organizations. Parking and admission are free. National Park Service Ranger Frank Helling will portray John Muir and recount some of Muir\u27s many wilderness adventures. Visitors can enjoy self-guided tours of Muir\u27s historic Italianate Victorian home where he wrote about protecting nature, as well as bid in two silent auctions. Proceeds benefit the John Muir Association, the nonprofit organization hosting the event in partnership with the National Park Service. The Association will also present the 37th annual John Muir Conservation Awards. For more information, please visit www.nps.gov/ jomu/planvourvisit/ directions.htm
PAGE 5 Shanna Eller Muir Center Staff Reorganization Since August, 2011, the Office of the President of University of the Pacific has supported an Office of Sustainability, housed within John Muir Center in the College. This past fall Shanna Eller, Director of Sustainability, was named Co-director of Muir Center by Dean Rena Fraden. In addition, Kendra Bruno, M.A., was hired as Sustainability Coordinator. A native of Kansas, Eller has lived in Portland most recently and holds a bachelor\u27s degrees in the History of Art and Architecture, as well as Journalism from the University of Kansas. She earned her master\u27s degree in Urban Planning at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a doctorate in Urban Studies from Portland State University, where she was Director of Community Environmental Services before joining Pacific. Bruno is a graduate of the University of the Pacific with a joint major in International Studies and Spanish. She earned a master\u27s degree in Natural Resources and Peace from the University for Peace, Ciudad Colon, Costa Rica as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar. Both Eller and Bruno work closely with administration, faculty, staff, a cadre of students on campus, making Muir Center a lively hub for anything green on the Stockton campus. They co-taught a Pacific Seminar for freshmen in 2014 on the topic of Fair Trade. The Office of Sustainability coordinates, advances and manages sustainability efforts on all three campuses of the University. Activities of the office are described separately in this newsletter. Muir Center continues to sponsor interns and has work-study assistance from undergraduates. David Sriboonreuang, a sophomore English major Kendra Bruno who is also minoring in Religious Studies and Ethnic Studies, has worked in the Center for the past three semesters and is digitizing the slide collection. He has also completed an inventory of the library and the video collection and is one of the chef-demonstrators at the University\u27s new Kitchen Co-op. Recently he showed participants how to make macarons. David Sriboonreuang WkZ •& sa WILDS SCENIC - ^//^^;- A WILI jENIG festival A WILD LIFE Wednesday April 8, 2015 University of the Pacific 3401 Kensington Way, Stockton, CA Biological Sciences Building, Room 101 Free and open to the public * 7:00 pm - 7:30 pm reception with filmmaker Matt Black • •7:30 pm - 8:45 pm films • •Q&A with Matt Black and intermission* •9:15 pm -10:00 pm films • j patagonla Orion ?^-^ Jjjgg 0EARTHJUSTICE U&H
Page 6 Things Cooking in the Co-op by Kendra Bruno New at Pacific this year, the Pacific Kitchen Co-op has created quite a stir! Beginning this Spring term, Pacific students, faculty and staff have been able to join as Co-op members allowing them to access a fully equipped kitchen, furnished dining area and delicious classes! The Pacific Kitchen Co-op is a place where members can go to cook their own meals, have a club meeting, have dinner with friends, bake some cookies and simply just enjoy themselves over some delicious home cooked meals. Want to make a cake, but do not have any of the kitchen gadgets needed to do so? The Pacific Kitchen Co-op does - all you have to do is bring your ingredients! Easy to join, the Kitchen Co-op is 35.00 (or iffijJM mu.V; \u27 .; k ■•.\u27- .\u27■. » H»\u27\u27|FkftjfeB i.uiiWK TAP i HOI st 1 \u3e- jl£X a LifililAaaia Patch BDH ■ ■ -A Clarksburg f\u27.li 4 Mues |\u3e.r\u3c| i \u27\u27*B^BI 1 giMU »\u3e»K , \u27 -■ \u27J kj, IM:W \u27 jJ&T %is««ii^fHB^ 3 Signs near Freeport
Page 8 John Muir Journal Transcription Project Picking Up Steam In the wake of the 100th anniversary of John Muir\u27s death on December 24, 2014, The Record (Stockton) ran an article - front page above the fold - about the Special Collections effort to crowdsource the transcription of the John Muir journals. The story was picked up by other newspapers and a couple of television stations, and it was tweeted copiously over the next few weeks. The publicity brought in over 30 new transcribers who dove into Muir journals with the same drive that Muir sojourned in the Sierra. Nearly 100 images have been transcribed, which means that well over half the 3000 images in the journals are now keyword searchable. The transcribers are devoted Muir enthusiasts digging for new inspirational quotes, long time hikers curious about Muir\u27s wanderings on their favorite paths around the world, and grade school students who giggle when Muir discusses the naked rocks, but were awestruck when he pondered the value of scientific inquiry. The long term value to harvesting Muir\u27s words in the journals will boost the discovery of the famous naturalist\u27s ideas and thoughts in their initial observational form. The project continues. If you would like to take a crack at connecting with Muir, there are still plenty of pages to go. Visit go.pacific.edu/ muirwords and get started.
has served the Special Collections for 10 years and has worked at Pacific since 1999. Nicole Grady is our newly minted Special Collections Librarian after serving three years as a temporary librarian. Nicole will continue to process collections, create exhibits, and
The John Muir Newsletter, Spring 2013
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PAGE 2 F o Andrea Wulf unding Garden Speaks e r s AT o N P A C I F I C On February 27, prize-winning author Andrea Wulf spoke on the subject of Founding Gardeners: How the Revolutionary Generation Created an American Eden. The talk was sponsored by Phi Beta Kappa, the University Library, and John Muir Center and attracted more than eighty faculty, staff, students, and community members, many of the latter members of Master Gardeners. Born in India of German parents on assignment to the equivalent of our own Peace Corps, Wulf grew up in Germany and earned her first degree in Cultural Studies and Philosophy at the University of Luneburg in 1996. Since then, she has made Britain her home, earning a second advanced degree in the History of Design at the Royal College of Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. In 2005, she published This Other Eden, Seven Great Gardens and Three Hundred Years of English History, co- authored with Emma Biegen-Gamal, released by Little Brown and adapted into a six-part mini-series on BBC radio. In 2008, Brothers Gardeners: Botany, Empire and the Birth of an Obsession was released by William Heinemann in the UK and by Alfred Knopf here in the United States in 2009. It won the American Horticultural Society 2010 Book Award and was long-listed for the Samuel Johnson Price, the most prestigious non-fiction award in theU. K. In 2011 she published Founding Gardeners: How the Revolutionary Generation Created an American Eden, again through Heinemann in the U. K. and Knopf here in the U.S. It not only made the New York Times Best Seller List, but was described by a reviewer in the Times as an illuminating and engrossing new book by the Washington Post as lively and deeply researched history. Last year, Chasing Venus: The Race to Measure the Heavens appeared in seven languages. Described by the Boston Globe as a book both astrophysicists and poets can understand, Wulf retells the story of scientists and philosophers following the infrequent transit of Venus in modern times. She has received a number of prestigious fellowships in the past decade, including three years at the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello; a White House History Fellowship through the Organization of American Historians and the White House Historical Association. Currently she is the Eccles British Library Writer-in- Residence and lives in London. Her most recent project and the reason she came to Pacific is her interest in John Muir. She is Andrea Wulf at Pacific on February 27,2013 currently working on The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt\u27s New World, to be published by Knopf in 2015. Von Humboldt\u27s influence on John Muir will be a chapter in this book. The talk on Founding Gardeners focused on the impact of John (1699-1777) and son William Bartram (1737-1823) as seed and plant collectors on better known political figures from the Revolutionary generation; notably Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, George Washington, and James Madison. Described by famed Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus as the greatest natural botanist in the world, John Bar- tram\u27s garden within the city of Philadelphia provided Europeans and Americans with seeds from North American species. Wulf argues that gardening was much more than just a hobby for the four political giants in her study. Planting American species, the design of landscapes, and attitudes about green space generally reflect an Americanized approach quite different from the formal gardens of England and the continent. Connecting the Revolution with ideas of the founding fathers on the ideal farm and garden, Wulf concludes that democracy and an appreciation of American forests and wilderness are part of the formula that evolved through the process and practice of planting colonial and early National gardens. Wulf will return in 2014 to present on Alexander von Humboldt\u27s influence on John Muir.
Page 3 Archivist Sea R C H I N RIGHT Muir J T R A N S C Pro s Corner G FOR THE word: O U R N A L R I P T I O N J E C T By Michael Wurtz , Archivist Holt-Atherton Special Collections University of the Pacific Library Have you ever wanted to probe deep into the mind of John Muir? Read his own thoughts immediately after he conjured them? How about search his thoughts to see if he ever wrote about bears or avalanches? The staff of Holt- Atherton Special Collections, the home of The John Muir Papers, has started a project to transcribe the Muir journals so we can get in his mind. For years we have been able to read his thoughts in his books which have been edited and polished for public consumption. The Sierra Club transcribed those books into their website so researchers can read the books online or search for words in the text. Researchers can find this sort of search functionality in Google Books as well. In 2008, the staff of Holt-Atherton Special Collections had John Muir\u27s correspondence transcribed and scanned for the world to read. The letters are closer to Muir thoughts than the books. The transcriptions not only help with legibility issues of reading Muir\u27s ideas, but also make them searchable for keywords. A year earlier in 2007, the staff scanned Muir\u27s 78 known journals and put them online too. They were not transcribed, since they consisted primarily of faded pencil and cursive writing, and were occasionally written out in many directions on a single page. Only the most devoted Muir fans and researchers were ready to decipher his writing. Stephanie LeMenager, Associate Professor of English at UC Santa Barbara, recently took an interest in Muir\u27s journal documenting his trip Tunf»* Mj-ch l*H. QMwqiM Prnom*UOmM The glofr i( ^| la everywhere How could Moses uks the cetelast Shoh ii8 t^y Glory ~D1sm1 Swamp\u27 no suet, place in net Sweeps a» peopled with plants CE the purest beajty s glow in their darkest heei ;he across the Isthmus of Panama in 1868. She meticulously transcribed the 8 pages of Muir\u27s almost illegible writing (the transcription can be found in these pages two years ago). Then we took her transcription and added it to the online journal scans. Now researchers wondering about Muir\u27s mention of God in his journals can find, The glory of God is everywhere. How could Moses make the request, \u27show me the glory.\u27 Earlier, the director of the John Muir Center, Bill Swagerty, worked with students to transcribe for publication the World Tour journals. Although these were only 5 journals of 78, we took it as a beginning. Fortunately, between Muir\u27s early biographers, William Bade and Linnie Marsh Wolfe, many of Muir\u27s journals were transcribed- obviously not with a computer, but with a typewriter. Bade took some editorial liberties, and Wolfe would sometimes only transcribe bits and pieces of journals, but their intentions were good, and those journal transcriptions were much more legible and accessible for reading and eventual publication. The Bade and Wolf transcriptions have formed the core of a long-term transcription project that the staff of Holt-Atherton Special Collections has started. With the aid of student workers, we are entering the transcriptions into the online journals. Over the last couple of years, we have added legible and word- searchable text to almost 20 Muir journals. What can you do to help transcribe the rest of the journals? Visit go.pacific.edu/ specialcollections, navigate to Muir\u27s journals, choose a page - any page - of untranscribed journal, and take a crack at it. There is a comments link at the bottom of each page to which you can add your new found text. If you feel more comfortable with email, send us what you have along with the journal and page number, and we will add your transcription to our online journals. The value of this kind of project is the expanded access to Muir\u27s thoughts as he first experienced them, and to make them word searchable. Join us! ex stepping an ants [5«ol i.a n-rt cruet tn s-i ill if} over Che great \u3e i Little of its Burfarre t : - \u27 i qoinq in the forests ■ Side-by-side, the legible and word searchable text and a scan of a page from Muir\u27s 1868 journal describing his trip across the Isthmus of Panama. John Muir Papers, Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library. © 1984 Muir-Hanna Trust.
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page 5 younger years.18 As Muir grew older, however, his dream now became a resolve: a long botanical ramble through...to South America. 19 Journals of his travels to Chile and Zimbabwe are emotionally engaged in a way that makes clear how rewarding he found these travels. 20 After his last journey through those mysterious and exciting countries, Muir himself considered it among the most important [trips] of his life and the fulfillment of a dream of decades. 21 It was not until the last years of his life that Muir could make his dreams come true and travel to his long sought-after destinations. In Chile, Muir\u27s main goal was to find the rare monkey puzzle tree. In Santiago, he went to the botanical gardens to search for information concerning Araucaria imbricata.22 In the middle of November, Muir was taken to the forests [he had] so long wished to see by a kind American sawmill owner.23 Once he was among the forests of the A. imbricata that he had so long dreamed of, it seemed familiar. 24 . th Muir had dreamed of the monkey puzzle tree for so long that once he saw this forest of them in Chile, they seemed familiar. November 1911-March 1912, Trip to South America, Part III, and Trip to Africa, John Muir Papers, Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library. © 1984 Muir-Hanna Trust. There were various reasons Muir wanted to travel to Africa some of which were to tour one of the only parts of the world he had not yet visited; to observe native African flora; to see the wildlife of the central African plains; and, to reach the headwaters of the Nile. 25 Although there were many reasons to visit the huge continent, Muir\u27s main mission was to find the enormous Adansonia digitata, better known as the African baobab, which he longed to see.26 Zimbabwe gave Muir the opportunity to see this magnificent tree in person. The day he found the tree was a wonderful day, wonderful in many ways; one of the greatest of the great tree days of my lucky life. 27 For Muir, the chance to see such rare and glorious trees was reason enough to travel across the world. Another tree that Muir had longed to see was the Baobab. One of the greatest of the great tree days of my lucky life. November 1911- March 1912, Trip to South America, Part III, and Trip to Africa. John Muir Papers, Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library. ©1984 Muir-Hanna Trust. Muir wanted to observe the creations and landscapes made by God and he traveled and grew stronger and richer in the knowledge of God\u27s earth in each journey he made.28 His main goal in life was to see, learn, and appreciate all of Nature\u27s creations until his dying day. Since God allowed him to regain his vision after the accident in 1867, he spent the rest of his time seeing the truth and beauty inherent in the world. 29 Although his travels had scientific, political, and literary purposes, his journeys were all spent seeking the pleasures one finds in the cathedrals of God. Ariadna Hernandez was born in Guanajuato, Mexico as the eldest of three daughters. At the age of three her family migrated to the United States. Her father was a field worker and was greatly interested in nature. He transferred his passion of all living creatures to her as a young girl, as well as a love for reading. She graduated from Lincoln High School in Stockton, CA and is now a 3rd year Environmental Science major here at the University of the Pacific.
Page 6 ENDNOTES 1. Donald Worster, A Passion for Nature: The Life of John Muir (NY: Oxford University Press, 2008) p. 377. A map of Muir\u27s global travels is found in Gretel Ehrlich, John Muir: Nation\u27s Visionary (Washington, DC: National Geographic Society, 2000), pp. 18-19. 2. Michael Branch, John Muir\u27s Last Journey (Washington DC: Island Press, 2001) p. xxviii. 3. ibid., p. xxix. 4. Letter from John Muir to Jeanne Carr, 1867 May 2. John Muir Papers, Holt-Atherton Special Collections © 1984 Muir Hanna Trust. 5. John Muir, Travels in Alaska (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1915; 1998 edition) p. 3. 6. Worster, Passion for Nature, p. 247. 7. Muir, Travels in Alaska, p. 110. 8. ibid., p. 246. 9. Worster, Passion for Nature, p. 377. 10. John Muir, World Tour, unpublished journals transcribed by Linnie Marsh Wolfe, edited by W. R. Swagerty, John Muir Papers, Holt- Atherton Special Collections © 1984 Muir Hanna Trust, Published in the John Muir Newsletter, 6 parts, 2005-2008. See Part I. 11. World Tour, Part I. 12. ibid. 13. Worster, Passion for Nature, p. 380. 14. Muir, World Tour, Part V. 15. Worster, Passion for Nature, p. 383. 16. Muir, World Tour, Part V. 17. Muir references these two explorers in Story of My Boyhood and Youth (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, c. 1912, 1916 ed.), p. 207. Park (1771-1806) was a Scottish surgeon who in 1795 was supported by the Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior of Africa to discover the course of the River Niger. His book, Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa was published in 1799 and was widely read. On Humboldt\u27s influence on Muir and others, see Aaron Sachs, The Humboldt Current: Nineteenth Century Exploration and the Roots of American Environmentalism (New York: Viking Penguin, 2006), especially chapters 8-9. Also see Michael Branch, John Muir\u27s Travels to South America and Africa, in John Muir: Family, Friends, and Adventures, ed. Sally M. Miller and Daryl Morrison (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2005), pp. 249-65. 18. This story is repeated by Muir and his editor, William Frederic Bade in Story of My Boyhood and Youth, pp. 360ff; and in Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1916), pp. 143-68. 19. Branch, John Muir\u27s Last Journey, p. xxix. ibid., p. 102. ibid., p. xxiii. p. 110. p. 114. p. 115. p. 129. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. ibid., ibid., ibid., ibid., ibid. ibid., p. 147. Muir, World Tour, Part III. Worster, Passion for Nature, p. 112. SAVE THE DATE John Muir Symposium, March 21-22, 2014 Join us on the 150\u27\u27 anniversary or the Yosemite Grant, tne 100* anniversary or Muir\u27s death, ana the 50\u27\u27 anniversary or the passage or the Wilderness Act to revisit John Muir\u27s lire and legacy. University oi the Paciiic -will host the 60** Caliiornia History Institute on the Stockton campus irom Friday, March 21, through Saturday, March 22. Expect to hear papers by new Muir scholars currently working Muir\u27s legacy, as well as several ramiliar names \u27who have become regulars at Muir symposia. Plenary sessions and keynotes will be given by three scholars now living in the U. K.: Terry Girrord, Graham White and Andrea Wulr. A special exhibit on the history or the Muir Papers and their present locations is planned, as well as coordinated rield trips berore and alter the symposium. Ir interested in presenting or attending the conrerence, please contact : wswagertv (Sparine. edu
Page 7 Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Fest at Pacific Hosted by Sustaining Pacific & John Muir Center Thursday, April 11th, 2013 6-8:30PM rsily ol ihe Pacific, 3601 Pacific Avenue, Wendell Phillips Cenltr \u3et _ 6:00-6:30 PM Reception ■ 6:30-7:30 PM Films - Intermission 7:45-8:30PM Films Free and Open to the Public SfemCkib • Group patattoni Cevth Omy FutVeJ Baggi Tract Community nvm Dr. Shanna Eller, Director of Sustainability at Pacific and Lucy Kramer, an Environmental Studies major at Pacific, together with W. Swa- gerty of Muir Center, recently applied for a grant to host an environmental film festival through the South Yuba Citizens\u27 League (SYRCL) of Ne vada City, CA. Supported by Patagonia, CLIF Bar, Mother Jones, and Sierra Nevada Brewing, partners with Pacific include Friends of the Lower Calaveras, The Delta-Sierra Group within the Sierra Club, Stockton Earth Day Festival, and the Boggs Tract Community Farm. Exhibits will be mounted by partners in WPC\u27s courtyard and films selected by students from an available list of over sixty documentaries will be shown in WPC 140 on campus on Thursday, April 11 from 6 PM to 8:30 PM. The films are all short and range from following The Man Who Lived on His Bike across an entire year to a biography of Georgena Terry, founder of Terry Bicycles, who revolutionized that industry by creating a frame specific to a woman\u27s body; to an Afghan-produced film, Skateistan, highlighting co-educational opportunities for learning to skateboard in that part of the world; to Timber, a film by Adam Fisher on responsible versus irresponsible use of natural resources; to The Way Home, a journey in Yosemite National Park with the Amazing Grace 50+ Club of Los Angeles; to Chasing Water, a film based on photographer Pete McBride\u27s attempt to follow irrigation water from his family\u27s Colorado ranch down to the sea along the Colorado River. The event is free and open to the public with refreshments provided. ENVIRONMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL 9
SIGN UP FOR THE ELECTRONIC VERSION BY CONTACTING: THE JOHN MUIR CENTER University of the Pacific 3601 Pacific Avenue Stockton, California 95211 ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED ~T~ ~r ~r -j. . i V rv \u3eV- v\u3e The John Mu Center The John Muir Center promotes the study of John Muir and environmental- ism at the University of the Pacific and beyond. Center Objectives As one of California\u27s most important historical figures, John Muir (1838- 1914) was a regional naturalist with global impact. His papers, housed in the library\u27s Holt-Atherton Special Collections, are among the University\u27s most important resources for scholarly research. Recognizing the need both to encourage greater utilization of the John Muir Papers by the scholarly community, and the need to promote the study of California and its impact upon the global community, the John Muir Center was established in 1989 with the following objectives: • To foster a closer academic relationship between Pacific and the larger community of scholars, students and citizens interested in regional and environmental studies. • To provide greater opportunities for research and publication by Pacific faculty and students. • To offer opportunities for out-of- classroom learning experiences. • To promote multi-disciplinary curricular development. Phone: 209.946.2527 Fax: 209.946.2318 E-mail: [email protected]://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmn/1094/thumbnail.jp
Ensemble-in-Residence: Muir Quartet, January 23, 2013
Full text linkThis is the concert program of the Ensemble-in-Residence: Muir Quartet performance on Wednesday, January 23, 2013 at 8:00 p.m., at the Tsai Performance Center, 685 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts. Works performed were String Quartet No. 22, K. 589 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, String Quartet No. 6 by Béla Bartók, and String Quartet in G minor, Op. 10 by Claude Debussy. Digitization for Boston University Concert Programs was supported by the Boston University Humanities Library Endowed Fund
Steven Johnson Author Talk Poster
No full textK-State Book NetworkA poster advertising an author talk by Steven Johnson at Kansas State University on September 3, 2014. Steven Johnson's book "The Ghost Map" was the 2014-2015 common book
Letter from John Muir to Dav[id Gilrye Muir], 1885 Oct 30.
Full text link[Original letter in possession of David Gilrye Muir]Martinez. Oct. 30, 1885.Dear brother Dave:We are all settled again in the old home with its cares and joys, grapes and Chinamen, etc., and already plotting for other runaway excursions next year and other years. Here is a Yellowstone letter which may interest you. The notice and sketch of father\u27s life that I sent from K[ansas] C[ity] I have not yet seen, but expect a few copies when it is printed.Anna stood the journey well and seems to be gaining in hope and health. Poor lass, I hope she may yet see brighter days than these last, so full of sickness and disappointed hopes.What of the syndicate business? I have not yet heard from you. Have you seen through yourself and turned? Remember me to your boys and girls and to Mr. Parry and your bookkeeper and clerks for whose benefit I so assiduously smoked.Let me hear from you soon, and do not allow yourself to sink again into silence, trespasses and sins.Ever truly your brother,John [Muir]Better print that Yellowstone, and then I\u27ll not need to find a copy for the rest of the family -- that is if your paper will accept it.https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmcl/37048/thumbnail.jp
The John Muir Newsletter, Fall/Winter 2011/2012
Full text linkFall/Winter 2011/2012 ; LA--/*. ; oJW J\\AAAA, uLwtiAjU)OlGA, THE JOHN MUIR CENTER SPECIAL POINTS OF INTEREST: The present is the key to the past. Muir would apply geological formation and specifically the action of glacial ice to the handiwork of God. Muir chose to live to entice people to look at Nature\u27s loveliness. In the beginning and to the end botany was the foundation upon which Muir\u27s work as a preservationist grew and glacial studies were seamlessly connected to his study of plants. An Essay P h e n o m on John E N A L S C I Muir E N C E IN THIS ISSUE An Essay on John Muir\u27s Phenomenal Science by 1 Bonnie J. Gisel 59th California History Institute to focus on . Women as History- Makers in California John Muir Class Visits A Walk in the Wild and the Muir House By Bonnie Johanna Gisel Curator, LeConte Memorial Lodge, Yosemite National Park Author, Nature\u27s Beloved Son: Rediscovering John Muir\u27s Botanical Legacy I. Origins of Muir\u27s Scientific Self The world John Muir sauntered through was one in which the distribution of erratics was attributed to a diluvial theory, a wave of sea ice due to catastrophic sudden and violent floods released from the interior of the Earth or caused by the upheaval of -^F * \u3e mountains. This diluvial theory gave way to a theory that provided a more rational explanation to account for the appearance of erratic boulders, and that theory was that erratics had been moved by vast sheets of moving glaciers. A debate—sea ice vs. land ice-remained a feature of geological discussion until about 1902. As well Muir found himself inquiring into the inner workings of science when fossil remnants—relicts of a world of unusual and exceptional creatures and plants, and the study of strata, continued to expand upon what James Hutton of Edinburgh regarded as an Earth im- James Hutton From http://etc.usf.edu/ clipart/60973/60973James hutton.htm mensely older than the thousands of years allowed by the chronology of the Old Testa- ment.1 Then, too, up from the sod of science, a Scotsman, uniformitarian, and friend of Charles Darwin, Charles Lyell, who parented modern geology, examined an inorganic Earth in perpetual change, eroding, and reforming. He explained the former changes of the Earth\u27s surface by reference to causes now in operation. The present, he would say, is the key to the past. While a student at the University of Wisconsin, Muir was introduced to Lyell\u27s Principles, perhaps the 1853 ninth edition which created quite a sensation. Lyell banished any doubts about a glacial epoch, fully supporting the work of Louis Agassiz, an expert on fossil fish and the preeminent glaciologist, who happened to be an unabashed catastrophist. Disagreement would erupt over the rate of environmental change between those who supported change gradual and uniform, uniformitarians, of which Muir was one, and those who supported intermittent cataclysm, catastrophists. There was also Lyell\u27s Elements of Geology, published in 1838- the first modern textbook of geology, a systematic treatment based on the assumption that all the phenomena of geology can be explained naturally and discussed scientifically. In Yosemite, in 1872, Muir would request that Jeanne Carr send a copy of Lyell\u27s work. He would have opened the familiar volume to the frontispiece-a diagram of a vertical section through a volcanic island surrounded by sea and showing dia- grammatically how the four great classes of rocks were produced.2 Muir would apply geological formation and specifically the action of glacial ice to the handiwork of God. An exaggerated theory of a single polar cap, an Ice Age traveling from the North Pole over the northern hemisphere, was the brain-child (continued on page 3)
PAGE 2 59th California H To focus on Women in Calif I S T O R Y I N S T I T U T E A S H I S T O R Y ■ M A K E O R N A ?» R S On March 23, 24, students, faculty and guests of the University will gather for the 59th California History Institute. This year\u27s theme focuses on women who continue to be history- makers. Highlights include a field trip to the California State Museum by coach from Stockton on March 23 to two exhibits: Women and the Vote, and Notable Women in California History, the latter featuring 120 individuals. Papers and panels on March 24 will focus on the historiography of women\u27s history in the Golden State; the role of Latina, Filipina, Asian, and Native American women; women of note in Stockton\u27s own history; women\u27s organizations at Pacific; and a panel on women and environmental justice and activism. The luncheon keynote will be delivered by Judy Yung, Professor Emerita, U. C. Santa Cruz, whose publications include : Unbound Feet: A Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco (1995); Chinese American Voices; From the Gold Rush to the Present (2006); and (with Erika Lee) Angel Island: Immigrant Gateway to America (2010). For more information and to register for the symposium please contact Juliann Hilton i [email protected] or call Muir Center and leave a message at 209 946-2527. JOHN MUIR C WILD lass Visits A Walk and the Muir House IN THE On January 19, twenty- one students in Pacific\u27s John Muir and the Rise of the Conservation Movement class visited the Oakland Museum of California and John Muir National Historic Site in Martinez. In Oakland the class toured the exhibit, A Walk in the Wild: Continuing John Muir\u27s Journey. Cu- rated by Dorris Welch, the exhibit focused on John Muir and science, using original materials from the John Muir Papers as well as furniture and artifacts from various institutions and family members. While there the class met John Muir Reid, the great-grandson of Margaret Muir-Reid, one of Muir\u27s older sisters. Reid is a professional artist who reports he has painted with the great- grandson of Muir\u27s close friend and fellow Scotsman, William Keith. His watercolors focus on landscapes of the Delta, Sierra, and Bay, as well as Yosemite, scenes that would be familiar to John Muir. In Martinez, Park Guide Daniel Prial gave the group an inspired talk and a memorable tour of the Muir House. Prial focused on Muir\u27s interest in bringing Nature into his residence, rather than keeping Nature out. The interpretation helped all to understand the rationale for planting trees exotic to the Alhambra Valley (including the famous redwood in front of the house), the large number of William Keith landscapes in the house, as well as architectural features incorporated by Muir into the house after it was remodeled, post-1906 San Francisco earthquake. These include the large modified central fireplace where he could burn logs instead of coal. Each student is researching one aspect of Muir\u27s life from the Muir Papers and all are following one major contemporary environmental issue keeping the class up-to-date on current events that relate to Muir\u27s legacy. This trip was made possible through a generous grant from Holt-Atherton Special Collections. John Muir Class, 2012, in front of the Muir House, Martinez, CA Photo by Bob Dash
PAGE 3 (continued from page 1) ;■;;,\u27.: -•• c, i; o i. o c; v. CatlU.Ee LYt.I.l. IWJ LDKbON ILIeJUT, Al.aHUAHl.C STULCr. kea.uiH^ Elements of Geo/ogy From: library.sc.edu/spcoll/nathist/ darwin/darwin5.html J\Luvid, IXoAidXic iawcneAt heaian an JtLiah (DViaet in UunhaA,, &cottand in a aaAden ad, much lihe, &acn an, of Louis Agassiz; and, in 1840, he published his definitive work on glaciers, Etude sur les Glaciers. Agassiz believed that not books but experience was wherein the answers to scientific inquiry resided. To this end and to his credit, he undertook the empirical study of glaciers, establishing a camp on a glacier of the Aar. God\u27s great plough, he called them. The glacial period was for Agassiz, a magnificent demonstration of the power of God in causing catastrophic Louis Agassiz From: www.eoearth.org/article/Agassiz_Louis events that wiped out life and replaced it with new flora and fauna—in this he disagreed with Darwin\u27s theory of natural selection. At the University of Wisconsin Muir studied Agassiz\u27s work with Ezra Carr. Carr ventured with students out into what he called Nature\u27s basement rooms, out over the glaciated landscape around Madison, equating the love of nature with the love of God. He reminded students to touch with something of reverence, the hem of that marvelous robe of living green, the Forests. Muir spoke of Carr as having been the first to place before him the Book of Nature. Later, Agassiz would speak of Muir as the first to have an adequate concept of glacial action. A world not for the faint of heart, Muir was resilient. Struggle and change were everywhere. A Civil War (that Muir referred to as unchristian), was followed by tense, ambitious, and controversial mending of a nation that drove Joseph and John LeConte, respectively, geologist and physicist, from Georgia and South Carolina to California and the burgeoning University of California. There was a quickening professionalization of science and competition between scientists on the east and west coasts of America. Muir was drawn into the fray over the fair apostles-Flora.3 Muir\u27s floristic journey began on High Street in Dunbar, Scotland in a garden as much like Eden as possible, and blossomed into an enthusiasm for botany during the nineteenth century\u27s flurry of amateur plant collecting and as botany took on the mantle of a professional science. With the aid of Alphonso Wood\u27s Class- Book of Botany, in which Wood suggested that the study of plants held higher purpose expanding the soul through beauty, purity, and wisdom, Muir became skilled at identifying plants and their habitats. He would agree with Wood, to study plants was to see God\u27s plans unfold. Through plants Muir gained an inordinate sense of the complexity of life and found that when he picked out anything by itself, it was hitched to everything else in the universe. Were not, he thought, all plants beautiful? Or in some way useful? Would not the world suffer by the banishment of a single weed? We encounter a faithful Muir drafted like so many others—among them his colleague and friend Joseph LeConte-into the Age of Darwin\u27s Origin of Species by Natural Selection, published in 1859. Darwin had not intended to argue either for or against God; nonetheless, he concluded there was no need for divine creation, and there was no divine goal-natural selection took care of everything-was responsible for the gradual but steady emergence of organisms. His theory destroyed for some, dampened or attempted to awash the sea of Christian faith for others, and crippled natural theology, provoking a major philosophical and theological debate that outlived the century. Muir read Darwin while in Yosemite.
Page 4 Joseph LeConte From: www.sierraclub.org/history/ leconte II. California: Perfect Pitch Arriving in California, in 1868, Muir was not more than a footstep behind the California Geological Survey under the direction of Josiah Whitney. The Survey was under funded, under appreciated, and under terrible constraints given the size and terrain of California. Support would wane for a variety of reasons. In part Whitney was opinionated, arrogant, and stubborn, and legislators believed too much emphasis had been placed on fossils and flowers. Legislative action was taken to shift focus to mineral resources, though Whitney never envisioned the survey as a prospecting party.4 Muir continued to study botany and took up the study of mountains. Influenced by Agassiz he would stress the role of glaciers in the formation of the Sierra and Yosemite Valley. Muir found deposits of glacial silt and striations etched into the granite walls and outlined the routes that carried the glaciers that shaped and scoured the Valley. It was not long before he professed to anyone who would listen that the Valley had been formed by glaciers and that there were living glaciers in the High Sierra.5 Whitney, a graduate of Yale, spoke of Muir as uneducated, called him that shepherd, an ignoramus, and of Muir\u27s findings, considered them a personal affront—given that his conventional geological wisdom held that the floor of Yosemite Valley had subsided during a series of cataclysmic events—a view he would never change. Muir\u27s disclosure of living glaciers, as well, struck scorn with both Whitney and Clarence King, who regarded the fields Muir saw as nothing more than snow. Upon graduation from Yale\u27s Sheffield Scientific School, King joined the Whitney Survey as a volunteer geologist in 1863. He soon found evidence in 1864, like Muir\u27s, (differing only in degree), that Yosemite Valley had been formed by glaciers. While Whitney initially published King\u27s findings in the first volume of the Geological Survey in 1865, he retracted when he published The Yosemite Guide-Book in 1869— noting there was insufficient evidence that the Valley had been formed by glacial action. King publicly supported Whitney. Acatastrophist, like Whitney, King, like Agassiz, disagreed with natural selection. King, essentially, towed the party- line.6 Picturing himself the quintessential field- geologist and mountaineer, King dismissed Muir as an ambitious amateur suggesting that he divert his enthusiastic love of nature into a channel, if there is one, in which his attainments would save him from hopeless floundering. Impatient with Muir\u27s poetic sensibilities and rhapsodizing without restraint, King thought Muir lacked seriousness—writing about dreaming and sleeping with glaciers with adjectives obstructing science. A writer himself, King suffered from long periods of self-doubt and leaned to exaggerate his mountain exploits. Perhaps there was proprietary jealousy and while Muir may have been poetic, King relied on hyperbole. King first serialized his adventures as a survey scientist for The Atlantic Monthly.7 Muir disagreed with King\u27s ambition to conquer the Sierra or any mountain. Mountains could and should, he thought and knew from experience, be climbed by acting in harmony with them. The harmony King lacked, had, Muir believed, contributed to his inability to reach the summit of Mount Ritter; and it was well known that King had a particular genius for climbing the wrong mountain. Muir succeeded where GEllLrWIiAl. Si till Df CAl.iritatMA. J. 1\u3e. fj —L.«iur. YOSEMITE GUIDE-BOOK: DFKOKiiTmx riv tins VtfcXRKfTE vau.v.v ASIr flit; .\u27.!\u3e\u27A8 HIS 9 v V;;. .vim. ANlr OK THE IttG TKEBS W \u3c\UmHlM.I. ILLUSTRATED 8Y MfcP9 AMD WOOOCU T?i. ^Kx\u3eUTi/tcM4iA could and dhauld...he, climhed hu aeXina, in hoAnvanu vliXh them.... Whitney\u27s Yosemite Guide-Book From: openlibrary.org/works/0L7026039W/ The-Yosemite Guide-book IThUSIlKli r.i .\i ii-M\u27irr.- iit Tin: LMUioomiltr: lSil\u27.r.
PAGE 5 The California Geological Survey, December 1863. From left: Chester Averill, assistant; William M. Gabb, paleontologist; William Ashburner, field assistant; Josiah D. Whitney, State Geologist; Charles F. Hoffmann, topographer, Clarence King, geologist, and William H. Brewer, botanist. (Bancroft Library) From www.yosemite.ca.us/library/the_yo semite-book/ Clarence King From: www.yosemite.ca. us/library/up _and_down_ california/5.1.html King failed, and he was not above reprisal, publicly lashing out with his pen at King in an attempt to embarrass. I am sure, scoffed Muir, in an article for The Overland Monthly, that the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne may be entered at more than fifty different points along the walls by mountaineers of ordinary nerve and skill. On reading King\u27s account of his Mount Tyndall climb, Muir wrote: He must have given himself a lot of trouble. When I climbed Tyndall, I ran up and back before breakfast. 8 In a climate brimming with scientific elitism and academic arrogance, Muir went about beholding to his stories of beloved glacial ice. He may not have kept to the conventions of scientific writing, but he observed geological processes at work, and interpreted a complex pattern of phenomena with insight that emerged as characteristically his own. His method of study, patient observation and constant brooding above the rocks, lying upon them as the ice did, remaining winter and summer to arrive at the truths which were graven upon them, aware there was virtually no documentation to substantiate his theories.9 Whitney and King found Muir and his ideas unkempt, and it is true that he lacked advanced academic scientific training, however, these were not barriers to scientific truth. Muir\u27s theories—the glacial formation of Yosemite Valley and the living glaciers in the High Sierra were more nearly correct than any geologist of his time.10 III. Does Ice A Scientist Make? Punctuating a Leap of Faith Whitney, who had been in Yosemite Valley and Tuolumne in 1863, knew that glaciers had played a significant role in the formation of the High Sierra. There was no disagreement with Muir on this. Whitney wrote to a colleague, G. J. Brush, July 10,1863: We are in the midst of what was once a great glacier region, the valleys all about being most superbly polished and grooved by glaciers, which once existed here in a stupendous scale having a thickness, in the Tuolumne Valley, of a thousand feet.11 Members of the Whitney Survey, however, were seemingly unaware that the snow bank upon which they climbed on Mount Lyell was actually a modern glacier. It was noted that there were no living glaciers in the Sierra Nevada. In 1872, Joseph LeConte observed the Lyell Glacier with Muir, but from a distance. He reported that such a glacier was neither true nor typical—but in some sense a glacier. Muir
Page 6 thought LeConte had made no effort to acquire adequate data—he had not seen glacial ice because he had not gone into the depths of the glacier.12 Muir poured his soul into the writing of a series of articles entitled Studies in the Sierra for The Overland Monthly that appeared in 1874—abridged for the national scientific community. Illustrated with his own drawings, the articles were intended to win converts to his theory on the glacial action at work in the formation of the Sierra and Yosemite Valley. For all the scientific truth borne of Muir\u27s empirical studies, the thread that held his glacial canon together was his faith. He found in the glacial tome answers to a deep theological need. Drawn to glaciers as the plows of God, Muir stood upon them and then within a glacial Shrund, a stranger in a stranger land, as near to the heart of the world as he could—a chamber hung with clustered icicles, subdued light, and solemn murmurs.13 God\u27s handiwork, Muir believed. Surely he had found Him in the act of creating, wielding tools, slowly shaping the Earth. There was the glory. For skeptics, here was the proof. Illuminating the indwelling of God in Creation yet being made, Muir offered up mountain bread to his readers. He hath builded the mountains... .The Master Builder chose for a tool the tender snow-flowers, noiselessly falling through unnumbered seasons, the offspring of the sun and sea. 14 IV. Where Science Ends & Faith Was Always There. Who created that tangled bank? That natural selection resulting from competition between organisms for survival, could produce human beings along with the higher flora and fauna but toward no goal, was the most disturbing of Darwin\u27s theory of evolution. Evidence pointing to evolution, including the evolution of Homo sapiens, had been accumulating for decades but had taken evolution to be a plan present from the beginning and a goal directed process.15 In 1909 during three day\u27s spent with French Strother at the Strentzel-Muir ranch in Alhambra, Muir reflected upon the meaning and purpose of evolution. Evolution, they say brought the earth through its glacial periods, caused the snow blanket to recede, and the flower carpet to follow it, raised the forests of the world, developed animal life from the jelly-fish to the thinking man. 16 But what caused evolution? To my mind, Muir noted, it is inconceivable that a plan that has worked out, through unthinkable millions of years, without one hitch or one mistake, the development of beauty that has made every microscopic particle of matter perform its function in harmony with every other in the universe—that such a plan is the blind product of an unthinking abstraction. No; somewhere, before evolution was, was an Intelligence that laid out the plan, and evolution is the process, not the origin of the harmony. You may call that Intelligence what you please. I cannot see why so many people object to call it God. For Muir Darwin\u27s evolutionary theory reduced mystery, yet, did not destroy the idea of God\u27s designing presence in Nature. What remained was one infinite mystery of existence, of every phenomena of Nature, and that Muir left to God. In the world view Muir endowed, scientific inquiry was ignited by faith, culture, and imagination from which it was birthed as well as by the truth that it sought. For him the journey was always about wildness and would endure to find the means to save parts and parcels of it. Turning always to plash in the divine light of the natural world in nature\u27s own reserve, he chose to live to entice people to look at Nature\u27s loveliness. Seeking the curious magical qualities of each present being, Muir was impelled to the life of lonely wandering solely by the love of God\u27s Earth and eternal, immortal Beauty. Eyes were important to Muir. With them he pursued the phenomena of science to solve puzzles that deepened his faith as he turned to share with others a world they could only half see. With eyes open to God\u27s
Muir String Quartet
Full text linkThis is the concert program of the Muir String Quartet performance on Monday, January 26, 2015 at 8:00 p.m., at the Tsai Performance Center, 685 Commonwealth Avenue. Works performed were String Quartet in C major, K. 465 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, String Quartet No. 1, "Kreutzer Sonata" by Leoš Janáček, and String Quartet in G minor, Op. 10 by Claude Debussy. Digitization for Boston University Concert Programs was supported by the Boston University Humanities Library Endowed Fund
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