The First Earth Day 1970
Photos from environmental protests across the United States
The first Earth Day took place 55 years ago today.
From “The Genius of Earth Day,” by environmental historian Adam Rome:
The first Earth Day was bigger by far than any civil-rights march or antiwar demonstration or woman's liberation protest in the 1960s. Earth Day was not just one event, and-despite the name-Earth Day did not happen only on April 22, 1970. In many places, the events lasted a week. A more accurate name would be Earth Spring, since some events were held in late March and early April. About fifteen hundred colleges held Earth Day teach-ins. So did roughly ten thousand schools.
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The huge turnout was a dramatic demonstration of public support for the environmental cause. But Earth Day did much more than focus attention on environmental problems. The event inspired the formation of lobbying groups, recycling centers, and environmental-studies programs. Earth Day also turned thousands of participants into committed environmentalists.
In the fall of 1969, Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin was inspired to set up an environmental teach-in after reading about the antiwar movement. An extension of his long history championing conservation causes, he conceived of the teach-in as a way to educate the public about environmental issues. After announcing it to the press that September, “in November, Nelson set up a separate entity to help organize the event. With seed money from a variety of sources, including the United Auto Workers and the Conservation Foundation, the office of Environmental Teach-in Inc. opened in December. To head the operation, Nelson hired a Harvard law student enrolled in a joint master's program in public policy, Denis Hayes, and Hayes quickly assembled a small staff of young activists. The teach-in staff all believed that young people could change the direction of the nation.”
By that time, thousands of organizers in cities and towns across the country were already hard at work developing ideas for workshops, celebrations, marches, and activities. From the idea of a one-day teach-in, “Earth Day” grew into a season of events, with some places putting on related activities as early as January and February. Over that spring, millions across the United States took part in more than 12,000 events, with an estimated 20 million taking to the streets on Earth Day.
I’ve gathered a group of photos from that first Earth Day showing the sheer variety of events, from protests to informational seminars. With so many activities in so many places, I’ve concentrated on three areas.
This post is way too long for email, so open it in your browser to see all of the photos.
More than 100,000 people flooded New York City’s Union Square, making it the largest Earth Day demonstration in the country
The twelve photos below were all taken around the first Earth Day activities at Union Square by Bernard Gotfryd. Clearly visible in several of the photos is Mays, a discount department store that was on the south side of the square until December 1988; Whole Foods is now in that location, in a new build. Much of the square visible in these photos looks the same. Victoria Deli and Red Cross Shoes, in background of the tenth photo, were located on the north side of East 14th Street by the corner of 5th Avenue—Chase Bank and Garden of Eden grocery store are now there, in the same building.
These photos are all from the Library of Congress collection.
It wasn’t just New York City that celebrated Earth Day and it wasn’t just one day
From Philadelphia, these photos were taken by Frank Ross and Bernard Aronson; they are now in the collection of the University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia was one of the few cities to hold an “Earth Week,” packed with activities to promote environmental activism, which ended in an Earth Walk culminating in a mass rally in Fairmount Park. Over 30,000 people gathered there. David Powell, a University of Pennsylvania graduate, designed the Philadelphia Earth Week Committee logo seen on various posters and shirts.
Scenes from the Earth Walk:
And scenes at the Earth Day Fairmount Park Mass Rally:
Across the country, there were events in cities up and down the West Coast
UC Irvine’s Earth Day appears to have been rather sedate:
On Earth Day, students at San Jose State College held a Mother Earth beauty contest. while two months earlier on February 24, “faculty and students at San José State College (now SJSU) called for the end of internal combustion automobiles at Survival Faire’s Great Car Burial, where a brand new 1970 Ford Maverick was buried on campus.” It was exhumed that October, compacted, and “used as the cornerstone for the first rapid transit terminal in Santa Clara County.”
As a fan of the Santa Rosa-Sonoma County Free Public Library (it is a really fantastic building, check out some photos I took of it two years ago), I was very happy to find these photos of it with Earth Day banners unfurled across the space and some very awkward library patrons ignoring them. All photos by Don Meacham from the Sonoma County Library Special Collections.
