| Between 1908 and 1913, Congress debated whether to grant San Francisco the right to dam the Hetch Hetchy Valley. The Valley fell within Yosemite National Park, and was thus under the federal government's control. In this public history project, I focus on the petitions hundreds of citizens submitted to Congress regarding Hetch Hetchy. My main objective is to collaborate with the Center for Legislative Archives (CLA) at the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, DC to create educational outreach materials based on these petitions. My thesis, therefore, consists of both an online component and a traditional paper. I have created a digital exhibition, which provides researchers with access to the petitions. The paper portion provides greater context for the petitions, and will be used by the education specialists at CLA to develop a lesson plan that can help teachers use the petitions in the classroom. By focusing specifically on the petitions, I demonstrate how the Hetch Hetchy debates illuminate the larger environmental arguments of the Progressive Era between utilitarian conservation and wilderness preservation. Furthermore, these petitions address larger themes of the Progressive Era, including the changing role of women in politics, the rise in lobbying, and the conflict between local and national interests. |
