Media sources on John Muir
The following University of the Pacific scholars are available to comment on John Muir and the John Muir Papers in advance of California John Muir Day on April 21, the anniversary of Muir's birthday. Pacific is home to the world's largest archive of Muir's letters, journals, notebooks, manuscripts, sketches and photographs, many of them digitized and available online.
John Muir and his relevance today
William Swagerty, author of "The Indianization of Lewis and Clark," is the director of the John Muir Center at University of the Pacific, which promotes the study of John Muir and environmentalism. He also teaches a course called "John Muir's World: Origins of the Conservation Movement" and recently organized a three-day symposium on John Muir. He is working on a new book, "John Muir and Native Peoples," tracing Muir's travels and looking at his attitude about and relationships with native peoples worldwide. Contact: William Swagerty, wswagerty@pacific.edu
John Muir's writings, sketches and photographs
Michael Wurtz is the archivist for the Holt-Atherton Special Collections at University of the Pacific, which houses the John Muir Papers. The collection includes about 7,000 letters to and from Muir and his family, 78 of his journals, 27 of his notebooks, more than 300 of his drawings, more than 2,000 of his photographs, hundreds of his manuscripts, and about 600 books from his personal library written by other authors. Muir's desk and two of his bookshelves are also part of the collection, among several other items. Wurtz can speak about the collection, how it ended up at University of the Pacific, and the efforts to protect and make the collection more accessible via a volunteer effort to transcribe Muir's journals. Contact: Keith Michaud, 209.946.3275 or kmichaud@pacific.edu
More information about the Muir collection:
- "John Muir legacy lives strong at Pacific": http://students.pulse.pacific.edu/About-Pacific/Newsroom/2014/March-2014/John-Muir-legacy-lives-strong-at-Pacific.html
- John Muir Center: http://go.pacific.edu/JohnMuir
- Join the crowdsourcing effort to transcribe John Muir's journals: http://go.pacific.edu/muirwords
Media contact:
Keith Michaud | 209.946.3275 (Office) | 209.470.3206 (Cell) | kmichaud@pacific.edu
