The Radium Girls (1928)

It was a little strange, Grace Fryer said, that when she blew her nose, her handkerchief glowed in the dark. But everyone knew the stuff was harmless. The women even painted their nails and their teeth to surprise their boyfriends when the lights went out... Then they started getting cancer.

The Ethyl leaded gasoline controversy (1925)

Charles F. Kettering, vice president for research at General Motors and others from Standard Oil (Exxon) and du Pont staunchly defended leaded gasoline, claiming that there were no alternative anti-knock additives. Alice Hamilton and other public health experts insisted that alternatives were available. Their views would not be vindicated for another 60 years.

During the Progressive movement of the 1890s - 1920s, American women emerged as a major force for social reform. Millions joined civic organizations and, under the banner of "municipal housekeeping," extended their roles from domestic duties to concern about their communities and environments... One of the first was Ellen Swallow Richards, whose work in the decades just after the Civil War, especially her "Home Ecology" movement, set an example that many women emulated.

The National Coast Anti-Pollution League (1922)

It was a new kind of environmental organization -- a mainstream coalition of elected officials and public health advocates who saw pollution threatening both the economy and the environment. It was the kind of environmental organization that demanded legislation to deal with a specific problem.

The Mother of the Forest (1850s)

... Among the 92 giant sequoias in the 160-acre valley, George Gale saw what he mistakenly thought was a cedar tree -- not just a backyard cedar, but a tree measuring 300 feet high, 92 feet in circumference at the ground and perfectly symmetrical from base to top. He called it "the Mother of the Forest," -- and sent to town for a team of five men to chop it down. The public outrage resulting from this senseless act sparked the first widespread calls for a national park system.

World Oil Reserves in History

The Middle East does not have two thirds of "all the world's oil" -- this claim is usually based on "proven" reserves only. It is more realistic to consider identified, ultimately recoverable and unconventional reserves.

In 1944, Standard Oil executive Wallace Pratt said it is a "fallacy ... [to] cite proved reserves as a measure of available future supplies."

Renewable Energy History Project

These pages are helping to organize a national exhibit of renewable energy historical artifacts and information.

Henry Ford, Charles Kettering and the Fuel of the Future

The fuel of the future was going to come from cellulosic ethanol -- or at least, that's what scientists and engineers believed in the 1920s.