Ithaca College

On Earth Day, Wednesday, April 22, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m., the student teams in Michael Smith's Environmental History class will present their local environmental history research projects at the History Center in Ithaca.

This semester, the student research projects include an examination of the 1903 typhoid epidemic in Ithaca, a study of the transformation of the wetlands around Cayuga Lake, and a study of the environmental transformations involved in moving Ithaca College from downtown to South Hill.

This educational event, free and open to the public, is being cosponsored by the History Center, which is located at 401 East State Street, on the second floor. There is free parking behind the building, which is also an easy walking distance from the Commons and nearby bus stops.

This is the fifth semester that Smith's students have collaborated with the History Center's staff archivists to "dig into" the primary source materials in the facility's collection to investigate more deeply the history of some aspect of the local area, reviewing this from an environmental perspective.

The presentations of the students' findings and conclusions are always fascinating, and help not only give the audience a greater appreciation of the complex nature of the history of our local area, but the students' research further enriches the History Center's information base for others to access in the future.

(Photo: Students present at the History Center in fall 2006.)