WebQuest: Laying the Foundation for Contemporary Nature Writing: John Burroughs and John Muir

Overview: In this WebQuest, you’ll delve more deeply into the works of two nineteenth-century nature writers who, along with Henry David Thoreau, laid the foundation for contemporary nature writing: John Burroughs and John Muir. You’ll also learn about Muir’s role in the development of the national park system.

Step 1: Enhance your understanding of the conservation/environmental movement.
Read carefully through this timeline of the conservation/environmental movement. Be sure to click through to all six screens.

Step 2: Learn about the nature writing of John Burroughs.
Begin by reading John Burroughs’s essay, “In Mammoth Cave” (244-250 in The Norton Book of Nature Writing). After reading John Burroughs’s essay, explore these links about this naturalist of the eastern United States. Read at least two of these resources carefully – but be sure to visit the others as well.
    Today in History: John Burroughs
    John Burroughs Website
    The Catskill Archive: John Burroughs
    Ecology Hall of Fame: John Burroughs
    John Burroughs: America's Most Beloved Nature Writer
    Harriman Expedition: John Burroughs

Choose one chapter from any of the following Burroughs books: Notes on Walt Whitman, as Poet and Person; Wake-Robin; Winter Sunshine; Birds and Poets; Locusts and Wild Honey; Pepacton; Fresh Fields; and In the Catskills.

Step 3: Learn about the nature writing of John Muir.
Begin by reading John Muir’s essays, “A Wind-storm in the Forests” (251-258) and “The Water-Ouzel” (258-268). Both are included in The Norton Book of Nature Writing. Read at least one additional piece of Muir’s writing by selecting from the extensive materials related to Muir found at the Sierra Club website.

Muir played a key role in the development of what would eventually become the environmental movement. Muir was especially significant because he founded the Sierra Club. Take some time to explore the staggering amount of material at the Sierra Club’s John Muir exhibit. Read at least the opening page of the exhibit – and then explore the rest as time and interest allow.

After reading John Muir’s work, explore these links about this environmental pioneer. Read at least two of these resources carefully – but be sure to visit the others as well.
    Today in History: John Muir
    Ecology Hall of Fame: John Muir
    “Why Climb Mountains? John Muir and Clarence King at a Historical Crossroads of American Mountain Climbing”
    John Muir and the Sierras

Step 4: Learn about Muir’s role in developing the national park system and building the conservation movement.
Refresh your memory from last week’s WebQuest by going to the homepage of the Library of Congress's American Memory Project collection, The Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920 (Library of Congress American Memory Project collection). If you weren’t able to do so last week, read the preface to the project (it will give you a good history of the conservation movement). You'll also want to take a guided tour of the site (and when you get there, make sure you go to journal writing). 

Learn about the role that Muir and other nature writers and painters played in the development of the national park system. You might also want to look at the related lesson, “Photography and the National Park Service.”

Future teachers might want to look at the PBS lesson plan: “Glaciers on Main Street? The Nature Writing of John Burroughs and John Muir.”

Step 5: Read chapter 6 from Hannah Hinchman’s A Trail Through Leaves: The Journal as a Path to Place.

Journal Entries
As always, you may write about a topic of your choice in your journal, but here are a couple of ideas to get you started.

Journal Prompt #1: In Step 2, you chose an additional Burroughs chapter to read. Reflect on this chapter in your journal entry. Note your favorite passage. Then explain how Transcendentalist ideas and/or approaches are reflected in this chapter.

Journal Prompt #2: In Step 3, you read an additional piece by John Muir. Reflect on this reading in your post. Note your favorite passage. Then explain how Transcendentalist ideas and/or approaches are reflected in this piece of writing.

Essay Question (if you choose to write about Burroughs or Muir for your May 8 essay)
Focusing on one or two pieces by Burroughs OR Muir, show how your chosen writer was influenced by Transcendentalists philosophy and/or methods. You may wish to draw from the work of Emerson, Thoreau, OR Whitman (but not all of them) to show the Transcendentalist dimensions of Burroughs’s work or Muir’s work.

“American Transcendentalism: An Online Travel Guide” was produced by students in ENGL 446, American Transcendentalism, and ENGL 447, American Literature and the Prominence of Place: A Travel Practicum. These courses were team-taught in the Department of English at Shepherd College (now Shepherd University), Shepherdstown, West Virginia, in Spring 2002 by Dr. Patricia Dwyer and Dr. Linda Tate. For more information on the course and the web project, visit “About This Site.” © 2003 Linda Tate.