October 14, 2022 • 59 mins
Concord, Massachusetts, 1856. Four men cut down a huge, seemingly healthy American elm tree using block and tackle, and ropes drawn by a horse. The graceful tree towered above a house whose owners heard creaking during a storm - they felt unsafe and had it removed. The event would have been long forgotten, except one of America’s greatest writers and earliest environmentalists also lived in Concord - Henry David Thoreau.
Supremely ticked-off, the removal of the stately elm inspired a flurry of journal writing by Thoreau that defined elms as symbols of virtue that looked to Concord’s past and the country’s future. Guest Thomas Campanella, Professor at Cornell University and author of Republic of Shade: New England and the American Elm, shares his work. It turns out, elm trees helped define our young nation’s sense of itself.
Guest
Thomas J. Campanella
Professor of City and Regional Planning
Cornell University
Republic of Shade: New England and the American Elm, Yale University Press, 2003.
Henry David Thoreau and the Yankee Elm, Arnoldia, 2001.
Other Sources:
Thoreau and the Language of Trees, Richard Higgins, Univ of California Press, 2017.
Podcast Consultant
Martha Douglas-Osmundson
Music
"Nothing Like the Summer," Brightarm Orchestra
Theme Music
Diccon Lee, www.deeleetree.com
Artwork
Dahn Hiuni, www.dahnhiuni.com/home
Website
thisoldtree.show
Transcripts available.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Doug Still (00:00):
The place is Concord Massachusetts, the year 1856. At
10am on a January day, four menbegan removing a huge American
elm tree trunk using block andtackle, and ropes drawn by a
horse. The upper branches hadbeen removed a few days before.
Prior to this, the tree alongthe main road was seemingly
(00:20):
healthy, and was a villagemarker seen by everyone passing
through the old colonial town.
The tree towered above a houseowned by Mr. And Mrs. Charles B.
Davis. But they heard somecreaking and a storm that winter
and said one of the branches wascracked. They were fearful and
wanted it down. The event wouldhave been long forgotten, except
one of America's greatestwriters and earliest
(00:41):
environmentalists also lived inConcord, Henry David Thoreau.
The removal of the stately elmset him off, at least in a
flurry of journal writing.
Today's episode is about why thetree was such a touchstone for
him. And more broadly, why theAmerican LM was so important to
the character of New Englandtowns in the 19th century, and
(01:03):
ultimately streetscapes acrossthe country to the present day.
I have a wide ranging discussionabout it with my guest, Thomas
Campanella, Professor andHistorian at Cornell University,
who wrote the fascinating book,Republic of Shade, New England
and the American Elm. It turnsout, elm trees helped define our
(01:23):
young nation's sense of itself.
Real or constructed, you candecide for yourself. Thanks for
joining me today. I'm your host,Doug Still, and welcome to This
Old Tree.
This Old Tree song - Dee L (01:39):
This old tree, standing here for more
than four centuries. I wonderwhat you'd say if you could talk
to me....
Douglas Still (01:51):
If you're listening to this podcast,
you're a tree lover. So speakingfor most of us, we've all felt
those feelings of loss thatThoreau felt that day in
January, 1856. Perhaps you onceheard the buzzing of chainsaws
near your home to find out thata neighbor has taken down to
mature oak tree say, or maybe adeveloper cleared all the trees
from an entire lot in order tobuild a house and couldn't
(02:14):
bother to save even the biggest.
Or in the name of progress, aroad project bludgeoned its way
through the roots of a grand oldstreet tree, leading to its
demise with the explanationthat, "It couldn't be saved."
Maybe some of the reasons weregood, maybe not. But there was
no mistaking that feeling inyour gut of irrevocable loss of
both an honorable life and therepository of fond memories.
(02:35):
Believe me, as City ForesterI've experienced firsthand the
raw emotions of residentsspurred by the removal of trees
young and old. Thoreau hadpublished Walden just a few
years before, the work for whichhe is best known. It is a memoir
of living alone on nearby WaldenPond for two years, a
celebration of nature and simpleliving. It had precise
(02:58):
measurement and observation ofhis natural surroundings, and
described a great appreciationfor the rhythms of life we take
for granted. Atranscendentalist, Thoreau wove
a spiritual dimension throughoutthe book with reflections on
solitude and meditation. ButThoreau's writing also offered
some bite toward materialisticcontemporary culture, and the
(03:21):
foolishness of some of hispeers, especially politicians.
The removal of the Concord elmtree brought out his cranky
side, brilliant andintellectual, but cranky
nonetheless. After describingthe takedown in great detail and
taking measurements of the oldfriend, he said that if the town
clerk won't chronicle the tree'sfall, than he would. For, "It is
(03:42):
of greater moment to the townthan that of many a human
inhabitant would be. Instead oferecting a monument to it, we
take all possible pains toobliterate it's stump, the only
monument of a tree which iscommonly allowed to stand." He
claims to have eulogized thetree, but it seems to me that a
sort of pissed off sourness wasjust below the surface. He
(04:05):
wrote, "I've attended thefelling and, so to speak, the
funeral of this old citizen ofthe town, I who commonly do not
attend funerals, as it became meto do so. I was the chief if not
the only mourner there. I'vetaken the measure of his
grandeur, have spoken a fewwords of eulogy at his grave,
but there were only the choppersand the passers by to hear me.
(04:29):
Further, the town was notrepresented. The fathers of the
town, the selectmen, the clergy,were not there. But I have not
known a fitter occasion for asermon of late, since it's
kindred could not attend. Iattended." I'm paraphrasing
different parts, but he goes onthat "Me thinks it's fall marks
an epic in the history of thetown. It is passed away together
(04:52):
with a clergy of the old schooland the stage coach which used
to rattle beneath it. It'svirtue was that it steadily grew
and expanded from year to yearto the very last. How much of
Old Concord falls with it.
Another link that bound us tothe past has been broken."
(05:12):
[Music] I had the privilege oftalking about all this with Tom
Campanella. Because this oldtree in Concord was an American
elm, I learned that its loss wascharged with symbolism that
reached into our nationalidentity.
Doug Still (05:30):
Tom Campanella is Professor of History and
Regional Planning at CornellUniversity, and he has written
extensively about the history ofAmerican urbanism and landscape,
especially in New York City andin particular, Brooklyn. He's
also written about urbanism andcity planning in China and the
rapid growth happening there.
But what brings Tom to us todayis his work on the cultural
(05:51):
importance of the American Elmin American history, especially
in New England. You wrote a bookin 2003, called Republic of
Shade, New England and theAmerican Elm, which won the
Spiro Kostof Award from theSociety for Architectural
Historians. Tom, welcome to theshow.
Thomas Campanella (06:11):
Thank you.
Doug Still (06:12):
I'm so happy to have you here today. I loved your
book on the American Elm. It's agreat read for anyone who loves
trees and history such asmyself, and I learned a lot
about why this tree holds suchan esteemed place within the
greater pantheon of trees, andalso because it helped define an
(06:35):
image of the quintessentialAmerican town or streetscape
[yes, exactly] in real terms,but also within our memory and
psyche. So we're going to comeback to that in a minute. [Sure]
But I'd love to start by talkingabout one story in particular,
that you wrote about about anAmerican Elm in Concord,
(06:57):
Massachusetts, and the year is1856. And this was a huge,
gorgeous elm tree that stoodover the house of Charles B.
Davis, who ran the post officeand was a storekeeper,
apparently. And it was known byeveryone, especially the great
(07:19):
American nature writer, HenryDavid Thoreau, and he wrote
about this tree and I would loveto ask you, if you wouldn't mind
describing what happened and whyhe wrote about this tree?
Thomas Campanella (07:32):
Well, first of all, it's a testament to
Thoreau's wonderful capacity toappreciate even the quotidian,
you know, and they every day.
Aside from trees, which are Ialways have felt that they tend
to be very invisible to mostpeople. It's remarkable to me
how, you know, we are we payattention to almost every detail
(07:55):
and minutiae about the builtenvironment, and yet somehow,
trees have have long evaded ourattention. And so to come across
a Thorough who vests so muchmeaning and significance in
trees is just such a joy. Andthis tree in particular, to be
(08:17):
honest, it is not a tree likethe Weathersfield Elm, which
was, maybe twelve feet indiameter. It's a relatively
young American Elm. By hismeasure, quite literally, it was
125-127 years old. And ofcourse, he is an inveterate tree
ring counter, he counts treerings, the way he plumbed the
(08:42):
depths of Walden Pond. And hewrites about how ignorance is so
sticky and persistent in that,you know, people would, you
know, many townspeople inConcord continued to believe
that Walden Pond had no bottomthat it was limitless in depth
(09:04):
and or was, you know, manyfathoms deep. And all he did was
go out in a rowboat and andplumb the depths and he came up
with a number to prove that theywere all being superstitious and
ignorant. And the same thingabout this elm, which some
people thought was 200 yearsold, and others thought it was
only 50 years old or somethinglike that.
Doug Still (09:28):
He was like, just count the rings.
Thomas Campanella (09:29):
He counts the rings, right? And he comes up
with a number and 127 years isnot really that old for a tree
like an American elm, right?
Some of the great New Englandelms that I came across in the
research for Republic of Shadewere much older than that -
twice, maybe even three timesthat age. And there are still
(09:50):
not many, but there are stillsome elms in New England that
can claim to be a couple hundredyears old. There was one on the
outskirts of Hartford withinsight of the the airport there -
I forget the name of theairfield - that must have been
about 200-250 years old. I don'tknow if it's still there. But
(10:11):
anyway, this tree this elm thatThoreau talks about is not that
I think he says it's it's 15feet in circumference, which is
only maybe a four foot diameterbreast height tree, right?
That's big, but it's not amonster. It's certainly not one
of the great really big elms inNew England at that time. And
yet he mourns it andappropriately so.
Doug Still (10:36):
So this tree came down.
Thomas Campanella (10:38):
Yes, it's cut down because and this is
something you know that I'veencountered myself so many
times, regrettably. You know, itwas a threat you know? It's you
know [air quotes] being youknow, some creaking sounds,
ominous sounds were heard, whichI think quite dubious. But
(10:59):
anyway I take it it was thehomeowner who was afraid that it
might come down on the house,
Doug Still (11:06):
He thought it was a little dubious as well the way
it...
Thomas Campanella (11:09):
Yeah, I mean it was, I mean trees creak. I
mean, they make noises, they'reliving entities. When the wind
blows through you know, a treein obviously creaks, you know, I
think Emerson wrote about thethe hoarse concert quote
unquote, that tree limbs,brushing against the roof would
(11:30):
make in the wind. But anyway,the tree come down.
Doug Still (11:34):
And so, it's in full leaf. I mean, it is looks
healthy and there's a creak.
Thomas Campanella (11:40):
Yeah, and it probably was a perfectly healthy
tree. It shows that whensomeone, you know I've had
people say this to me they youknow, the tree is near their
house and even if it fell, itwouldn't even reach the house
and yet it's... even on campus,at Cornell we used to have
(12:00):
heritage trees and you know, inthe UK there's a whole program
about protecting heritage trees.
We seem to have hazard treesnow. And some of the oldest
trees on the Cornell campus -you know, 200-250 year old oaks
-have come down in recent years.
Perfectly healthy trees.
Doug Still (12:18):
We're a litigious society and there's also a fear
of large trees.
Thomas Campanella (12:23):
Yeah, the risk management people I always
joke the risk management officeat Cornell is like the basically
runs the university. I can saythis because I'm tenured, by the
way [Doug laughs]. And, soanyway, if a tree is deemed a
hazard then all the other valuesgo out the window, even if it is
perfectly healthy, and posesreally no hazard at all. So this
(12:45):
tree comes down lamentably. Andit seems that Thoreau is perhaps
the only person who appreciatesand mourns the passing of this
tree. So I think it's more thanjust that tree, right? It
becomes a symbol and atouchstone for Thorough,
representing the elm generally,and I think trees and nature
(13:07):
generally.
Doug Still (13:08):
So he eulogized the tree or at least he said he did.
Thomas Campanella (13:11):
Yeah, that's right.
Doug Still (13:13):
But he said, there's no one here to hear this eulogy.
[laughs] There are no townselectman. And there's another
tree in Massachusetts, theDeerfield elm, that you wrote
about, that was removed in 1853.
So three years earlier, and itwas in the press, and they had a
memorial service and dignitariesin town. So I'm wondering if he
(13:35):
was referencing that in a way[maybe] like in Deerfield they
had this big [Yeah] memorialservice. And here, there's
nobody here.
Thomas Campanella (13:45):
Yeah, no, that was a monster that elm.
There's a photo in my book of alocal antiquarian sort of
mourning, you know, standingthere, and he's quite elderly
with a long white beard. Sothere's a certain symmetry
between man and tree. But alsoremember, Deerfield had a
different presence in thecultural memory of New England
(14:07):
at that time. You know, now, welook back at Concord as having
this enormous historicalsignificance because of people
like Emerson and Thoreau andMargaret Fuller and others,
Nathaniel Hawthorne. But I thinkthey looked to Deerfield as a in
an equivalent dimension that welook perhaps to Concord today.
(14:30):
So, I think that's why that treegot more press and more
coverage. You know, it was astoried tree. I can't remember
the details, but it was, Ithink, a witness to the clashes
with Native Americans thatoccurred in Deerfield, many,
many decades or a centuryearlier.
Doug Still (14:50):
So what did Thoreau feel was lost when this tree
came down?
Thomas Campanella (14:54):
Well, I think aside from the magnificence of
it as a naturay being, right, asa representative of the natural
world, I think he felt it was itwas a witness. And, you know,
these witness trees were, a realpresence in the in the Yankee
landscape in the 19th century,because they were said to have
(15:17):
been there and witnessed thesehistorical moments, right. Some
of them were, you know, thesubject of enormous exaggeration
and inaccuracy. The WashingtonElm in Cambridge is the best
example of that. But I thinkthat's part of it, right? He
mourns the fact that no oneseemed to appreciate that this
(15:39):
was a tree that was present inthe birth, at the moment of the
birth of this town, or at leastit's nascence. You know, it's
early years, right? 127 years,it doesn't really go back to the
actual founding, but close,right?
Doug Still (15:56):
And you write that he or people at that time, felt
that elms, in a way, consecratedthe landscape. [Right] So
compared to you know, the whitespires of the churches, that
they they linked to earth andheaven. Could you talk about
that a little bit?
Thomas Campanella (16:15):
Yeah, that's actually a concept that Mircea
Eliade writes about or wroteabout this notion of an axis
mundi, right, which is Latin forbasically a pivot of the world
that links the sacred and theprofane. Right. And yeah, the
(16:39):
church steeple, the meetinghousesteeple is a very classic
example. And we have thatverticality in many, many
cultures. You look at some ofthe temples in classical Indian
architecture, it's also thatvertical, that point of
connectivity between the realms,the heavens and the earth. Yeah,
(17:03):
there's a certain symmetry thatemerges between the temple I'm
sorry, the meetinghouse staple,the church steeple, in New
England, and the toweringsolitary elm, right. In many
towns, there was a single elm,often from the settlement period
(17:23):
or reputedly from the settlementperiod, that was a totem right?
It had a totemic role in thegood. One of the best examples
is the Pittsfield Elm which wasthis enormous tree of great
height and girth, and it wasreputed to have been a remnant
(17:44):
of the original forest or theAboriginal forest as was often
said. So, it again it had awitness role, but also this
totemic role. And things, youknow, community events would
take place or be held at thebase of the tree, right? And
over time, these totemic trees,aside from being witnesses to
(18:06):
many, you know, maybe acenturies worth of history or
more, tended to draw significantevents to them, even events that
took place quite a ways away.
They suddenly or over time, Ishould say, they became
associated with this totemicentity in the landscape.
Doug Still (18:26):
When you think of early drawings or etchings of a
New England town, and they're upthere picking an image to choose
to represent that town, it'susually the meeting house or
church and then an elm. [Yeah] Ithink that sort of became this
image that we remember. And thespire is pointy, and the elm is
(18:47):
sort of the opposite. It's likea like a fountain.
Thomas Campanella (18:50):
It's a fountain. It's, you know, that
was one of the reasons why thistree was so embraced early on.
It has this remarkably beautifulform. And it is like a fountain
spray, right? It's oftenreferred, it's often described
as a wineglass. I think of itmore as a fountain spray. And
it's remarkably beautiful in thelimb structure too. Even in the
(19:14):
winter, when the leaves aregone, it has this Medusan sort
of tangle of limbs that is justso beautifully sculptural. And
when you put them next to eachother, in the street or commons
that are lined with it, itcreates a remarkable image of
(19:34):
the Gothic arch, which remember,in the middle years of the 19th
century, this had itself a lotof significance because the
Gothic, a lot of thesearchitectural revivals, Gothic
architecture is very popular inthat period, including the
Gothic Revival. And often youhave the streets referred to in
those terms that they were, youknow, roughhewn or unhewn
(19:57):
cathedrals right, and this was anation that had turned its
profane streets into cathedrals.
Doug Still (20:05):
That's something I always used to say in
describing, you know, what thestreets used to look like when
they were lined with Americanelms in our cities and towns.
This cathedral-like canopy. AndI guess I just heard that from
somewhere and I would sort ofrepeat it. But it creates an
image. It's just interesting tohear that there's this sort of
(20:25):
other source or meaning to itfrom the 19th century, [Oh,
yeah] it's connected.
Thomas Campanella (20:30):
Yeah, and there was actually at least one
attempt to create a cathedralwith elm. It was Montgomery
Meigs' father. Montgomery Meigswas an architect who became very
prominent in the in the CivilWar, post Civil War era. He
designed the old PensionBuilding in Washington, which is
(20:52):
where the National BuildingMuseum is, but yeah, there's
that imagery and it's reallyremarkable. You know, you and I
are too young to remember theelm as a major presence in
American towns and cities. But Ioften tell people, you know, who
say, well, I really wish I couldexperience what it was, what Elm
(21:14):
Street was like. And of allplaces, I would say the best
example, the best place to go toexperience that is the Central
Park Mall in New York City. Themall there, those elms are
really reaching a glorious stateof elder age. And there, it is
(21:36):
really the closest thing I knowof. I mean, Washington Mall in
Washington also, but those treestend to be a bit smaller.
Doug Still (21:43):
And then they lead up to the Bethesda Fountain.
[Sure] You sort of get a tasteof the 19th century I feel, in
that landscape.
Thomas Campanella (21:50):
Yeah, very much so. It is, yeah, it's a
Victorian or middle 19th centuryto Victorian era landscape.
Doug Still (21:58):
So at that time, the forests of New England were
denuded. I mean, they werecleared. [Yeah] There's hardly
any old growth forest left.
[Right] Our forests now areabout 140 years old, when they
stopped doing the cutting. So inthe 1850's, Thoreau's responding
to, "Why are we clearing all theforests?" you know, and I think
(22:19):
trees became a little bit morevaluable to him, too, for that
reason, and I can see why theywould gather under the trees
too, just for some shade, and asa focal point.
Thomas Campanella (22:32):
So the interesting thing that, and this
is something that I uncoveredand came across again and again
in the early literature of NewEngland, and especially I used
the old agricultural journalsand newsletters to do some of
the deep research for this book.
But the elm was often.. firstof all, the elm does not grow in
(22:54):
pure stands like some trees do,right? It is not a tree that you
see many of or a pure stand ofin the forest. It's a solitary
tree. Much like the the theAmerican Sycamore, you know,
you'll have one there andanother one some 100 yards away,
or...and it's also a bottomlandand lowland tree, right? It's
(23:16):
not an upland tree. So whathappened was the the elms were
saved, ironically, by theirenormous size, in many cases, or
at least the older ones werebecause it you know, it would
take an enormous amount ofeffort to cut one of these down.
Also, as far as clearing thefields, why do you clear the
(23:38):
fields? You want ground toplant, but you also want to free
the ground from shade. Well,these older elms, in addition to
it being many days labor to cutdown, they had a form that
lifted the crown. It's so highup that it if you imagine the
sun going through its diurnalpath, it would move that shadow,
(24:01):
the crown shadow, very rapidlythrough the field. So it wasn't
as much of a problem as youwould have, say, with a dense
oak or maple tree that createdan almost permanent pool of
shade around its base.
Doug Still (24:19):
The wood wasn't as valuable either.
Thomas Campanella (24:21):
That's the other thing. The wood was not
very valuable. So you know, whenyou cut a maple or an oak, you
could get a return on it becausethe wood was sought after. Elm
wood is very stringy, it's hardto cut. It's got, there are
certain uses that it'sappropriate for but what I'm
getting to here is thesesolitary elms were often left
(24:44):
behind. And so they gain apresence in the New England
imagination, right? They arethere. They're magnificent,
they're beautiful. They havethis form. And that is the seed
stock for the later massplanting of this tree. Once we
get to the period of that werefer to as the village
improvement era, the villageimprovement societies organize.
(25:08):
And one of the main things theydo, one of the first things they
do is plant trees on thecommons, on the streets in their
towns to beautify them. Andthere's a whole set of reasons
why they were doing that. Butthey look to the American elm as
their number one tree.
Doug Still (25:23):
I thought it was fascinating when you wrote
about, sort of prior to thatmovement, that the nation was
essentially, you know, had someinsecurities or an inferiority
complex with Europe. And we wereyoung nation. And so the fashion
was to plant exotics. [Yeah,right] There was one in
(25:45):
particular that got planted alot. The Lombardy Poplar.
Thomas Campanella (25:49):
Yeah, the Lombardy Poplar. That's right.
Doug Still (25:52):
And so the Lombardy poplar is this very columnar,
upright tree. [Right] Pointy.
One associated it with NorthernItaly or central Italy, Tuscany,
[right] and sort of archaiclandscapes, ruins, Italian
towns, and very strong on theeye [laughs].
Thomas Campanella (26:14):
Yeah, that's right, they would plant, yeah,
the Lombardy poplar was a verypopular tree in the first few
decades of the 19th century. Andthere are images and etchings
and drawings of, for example,Pennsylvania Avenue in
(26:35):
Washington, lined - from theWhite House up to the Capitol -
lined with Lombardy's. There arecountless images of towns and
cities in the Northeast, and yousee...as you said, it's such a
distinctive tree. Even anamateur painter or artist could
get them right. In Boston,streets were lined with these
(26:55):
then.
Doug Still (26:56):
And very uniform.
Thomas Campanella (26:58):
Yeah, very uniform. And there were two main
reasons why it became sopopular. First of all, was the
imagery and the associations,right,? They were associated
with the storied lands ofantiquity, right? And this is an
era when a lot of artists aregoing and studying and painting
these classical landscapes,right? And so there's a certain
(27:22):
attraction there. The otherreason, quite frankly, and this
is also why the American elm isso embraced, is it is an
extremely fast growing tree.
Right? So if you have a placethat is as upstart and as
unkempt and as kind of, youknow, daggy as American towns
were and cities were at thistime, you want something that's
(27:45):
going to bring a modicum ofbeauty quickly, right? You don't
want to plant you know, a whiteoak and have to wait a century
for it to create some...andLombardy poplar, Jesus, it must
grow a foot a day in the summer.
It doesn't last very long.
That's the drawback. But there'sa lot and you know, what happens
(28:09):
here is these exotics -and itwasn't just the Lombardy.
Lombardy was a very popular one,but another one was Ailanthus
altissima, the Tree of Heaven,which is also a very rapid
growing tree. It is now oncountless lists of invasive
species. But it's a verytenacious tree. It had its
(28:29):
defenders, even after the youknow, the great backlash
against exotics, and it stillhas its defenders. I am very
fond of the Tree of Heaven,although some will call it the
tree of hell.
Doug Still (28:46):
So it was brought from China. [Yes] It was valued
for its foliage and fast growing[right] and I actually have some
close friends who live in ahouse built in 1790 here in
Providence, and they have anenormous enormous Ailanthus
[wow] that frames the house, andit's spectacular. Reading this
(29:10):
makes me wonder how old thattree is. [Yeah] If it dates that
far back or not?
Thomas Campanella (29:15):
It's hard to tell. I know of some enormous
Ailanthus trees in Brooklynactually. And you know, it's a
tree that was originally broughthere to, as part of an ill fated
effort to develop a native, anAmerican silk industry.
Doug Still (29:36):
Right, along with mulberry too.
Thomas Campanella (29:39):
and mulberry right. You know, what happened
was the Cynthia moth - the moth,the larvae that feed on
Ailanthus didn't do very well inthe climate. Although they are
around. When I was a teenager,the very first piece I ever
published - essay I everpublished was about collecting
(30:00):
these the tiny baby larvae,immature larvae in an Ailanthus
grove along the Belt Parkway inBrooklyn and raising these
moths. But the tree certainlyhas taken off.
Doug Still (30:14):
So I just want to read one passage from your book
that made me laugh out loud justbecause it was so interesting
and sort of funny. And back tothe Lombardy Poplar. "The use of
the Lombardy poplar in Americamay have had an even more
distinguished pedigree. SamuelElliott Morrison claimed that
(30:34):
the tree had been introduced bynone other than the classicist,
Thomas Jefferson. In the earlydecades of the 19th century, he
wrote, it was a sign ofunterrified democracy in New
England to plant Lombardypoplars. The dendrological badge
of Jeffersonian republicanism.
Of course, the Federalists turnthe badge against its
(30:56):
benefactor, pointing out thatthe Lombardy's soft, pulpy wood
and attraction for worms [Tomlaughs] resembled the brain of
the gentleman who introducedthem. [that's funny, yeah] So it
becomes this sort of propoganda.
Thomas Campanella (31:11):
Yeah, you know, that's a wonderful
passage. And, I had forgottenabout that. You know, what
happens though with these trees.
As the young American nationreaches adolescence and begins
to, you know, find itself andflex its muscles, and becomes
more confident in itself and itsculture, there's a huge backlash
(31:33):
against the so-called exotics[right], and it can get pretty
vehement and even racist attimes.
Yeah, and you mentioned that,particularly about the
Ailanthus. [Right] Could youdescribe...
Well, the Ailanthus, as anyonewho's struggled with it in their
(31:55):
garden will know or willrecognize, it rapidly spreads by
roots, you know, it sends outroots and it sprouts from the
roots, there's a term...
Doug Still (32:06):
This is the tree along train tracks, in empty
lots, and it's the "Tree ThatGrows in Brooklyn."
Thomas Campanella (32:11):
It's the "Tree That Grows in Brooklyn,"
exactly. It's a very tenacioustree. It spreads very rapidly,
both by seed but also by itsroot system, and so once it gets
established, it's pretty hard tofight back. It's reminiscent of
the more recent arrival herefrom Asia, the Japanese
(32:32):
knotweed, which boy, you getthat going, you really you need
a backhoe to excavate it out.
[yeah] So what happens here isthere's... as Americans
discover, their... as they gainconfidence, they start looking
to the native trees, right, thetrees of the American forest and
(32:54):
saying, "Why don't we plantthese trees?" There's a
nativist, there's a very strongnativist element, [nationalism]
native plant movement. It's avery nationalistic, nativist,
and even racist embrace ofAmerican trees, right? We don't
want the the foreigner. And whathappens is that the Ailanthus in
(33:15):
particular gets painted in veryracist terms, that it's this,
you know... I think the earlyand pioneering horticulturist
and landscape designer AndrewJackson Downing is infamous for
this because he refers to theAilanthus as I think he
describes it as a wily Asiatic,right, whose intermeddling roots
(33:40):
are threatening our Americandemocracy or our American
republic. I'm paraphrasing alittle. He quite vociferously
advocates it's purging of thistree, right. And so this maps to
political movements at the timeto ban immigration from China
(34:02):
and from elsewhere in Asia. Andthis is when you really have the
the wholesale embrace ofAmerican tree species, including
and primarily the American Elm,at least in the northeastern
part of New England.
Doug Still (34:22):
So in the 1830s and 1840s, this sort of movement to
plant native trees, especiallythe elm, takes off. [Yep]
There's this "Tree Bee" inSheffield, Massachusetts. [Yeah]
What's the "Tree Bee?"
Thomas Campanella (34:40):
Well, you know what's going on in rural
New England at this time is areally difficult passage,
actually, for the residents andthese communities. These were
very successful farmingcommunities. They were quite
affluent in many cases. And allof a sudden the rural
(35:01):
agricultural economy goes into avery steep decline. And these,
you know, the local leadership,the elected officials, the
elders of these towns arestruggling to both keep the
young people from leaving, butalso they recognize over time,
and this is more in the in thesecond half of the 19th century,
(35:24):
that affluent successful folkswho grew up in these towns grew
up in rural New England and thenwent and found their fortunes in
the Hartfords and the Bostonsand the Springfields and the New
York Cities. They want to comeback to their roots. And there's
(35:45):
the beginnings of summervacationing and tourism in these
places. So if you combine these,the feeling was we had better
make these very beautiful,picturesque, attractive places.
And you know, when you stir intothis mix the iconography of
Currier and Ives, for example.
The elm tossed New England greenand common with its church and
(36:09):
meetinghouse steeples - thatbecomes something people expect,
right? That's what they'relooking for and that's what they
want. And many, many New Englandtowns didn't have that. There
were plenty of towns where thecommon was just a scruffy field,
right? It had no elms. And sowhat happens is there's a
(36:33):
movement throughout - it startsin the Berkshires and in Western
Massachusetts and Connecticut,and it spreads throughout New
England. And it's abeautification movement. It's
usually referred to as theVillage Improvement Movement.
And there were these villageimprovement societies founded,
(36:56):
and that spreads to New Yorktoo. I should say that the
reason for the sudden decline inthe agricultural economy, the
rural economy of New England,had everything to do with a
piece of major infrastructure,transportation infrastructure,
that is developed in New York,and that's the Erie Canal. What
(37:19):
the Erie Canal did, much like,you know, you can imagine it as
a major interstate, for example.
And in fact, the New York StateThruway follows one hundred
years later or more, the exactroute of the Erie Canal. The
Erie Canal put New York City andthe Port of New York in very
(37:44):
close and easy touch to some ofthe enormously productive
enormously fertile farmland inupstate New York, right? So what
happens is New Englandagriculture is kind of cut out
of the loop. Farming in NewEngland was never easy, right?
You've got a very, you know,very dramatic climate, very cold
(38:07):
long winters, the soils are verystony. So here now is this very,
you know, productive farmlandthat's within easy reach of the
greatest port on the EasternSeaboard. So that is the reason
why these towns go into decline.
So the village improvers, thefirst and most significant thing
they do, project they undertake,is the planting of these elm
(38:32):
trees. And and that is whatleads to the Tree Bee. The Tree
Bee was the earliest examplethat I've come across of a mass
planting effort, right soeverybody in the town of
Sheffield gets together and theyplant dozens if not scores
[thousands] yeah, hundreds ofelm saplings and whips. And over
(38:55):
time, Sheffield becomes renownedfor its beautiful elm lined
streets and commons.
Douglas Still (39:04):
There was an intellectual meeting place in
Western Mass that involved thesketch club, I read about the
sketch club. And that is WilliamCullen Bryant? ho's in the
sketch club?
Thomas Campanella (39:19):
The sketch club as I recall, it was a group
of you know, it was a literarygroup and artists who... and I
talk about it because there wasa certain connection there
between this village improvementmovement and the embrace of the
elm in western Massachusetts andthe Berkshires, and the literary
(39:42):
scene in New York City. Sothere's a connection there to
the larger emerging society orculture of the of the United
States and New York.
Doug Still (39:57):
And its artists too, right? The Hudson River School
and Emerson...
Thomas Campanella (40:03):
Yeah, I describe it as the environmental
awakening. There's this movementthat emerges in this period. And
the village improvement movementis a good example of one of its
expressions, right? There's thesense that prior to the
(40:24):
environmental awakening, naturewas a resource to be exploited.
Right. And it's theenvironmental awakening that
that it's very much rooted inromanticism coming from France
and elsewhere in the old world.
But it's a whole new attitudeabout the natural world and one
that is much more aboutrespecting and admiring and
(40:47):
nurturing the values thereininstead of just an exploitative
stance. And this is, thetranscendentalists come out of
this larger milieu. The HudsonRiver School of painters of
landscape painting comes out ofthis milieu and in a more
(41:07):
quotidian, prosaic way you'vegot the village improvers.
Andrew Jackson Downey is alsopart of this, he's writing about
the improvement of one's homegrounds, right, and this whole,
this new yearning for spatialbeauty as I think John Stilgoe,
(41:28):
the landscape historian atHarvard put it.
Doug Still (41:34):
So back to Thoreau, he came just after this, or was
he part of it?
Thomas Campanella (41:39):
He's a core member, you know, part of the
transcendentalist movement.
That's right. I don't think hewas in the sketch club.
Doug Still (41:46):
But he was definitely influenced by them
and knew Emerson, obviously.
Thomas Campanella (41:50):
Yeah, and William Cullen Bryant is a major
part of this embrace of natureand the natural world. There's
also a nationalistic dimensionhere. Because, you know, and
Downing writes about this, too.
There's this sense, youmentioned earlier that Americans
in the early republic and theearly 19th century had this
(42:13):
cultural inferiority complex,where anything of any value,
right, artistic, literary, hadto come from the old world,
right? Anything created,written, thought of here really
didn't have much gravitasbecause it was an upstart
nation. That starts changing, itstarts changing in the
(42:34):
Jacksonian period. And by thetime you get to the mid middle
years of the 19th century, it'snot just expressed in an embrace
of native trees, but a stancethat looks to the natural world,
right, and the extraordinaryheritage of North America and
the natural heritage. NiagaraFalls, the Grand Canyon, the
(42:56):
Shenandoahs and the Blue RidgeMountains, the Adirondacks.
Americans start looking to thatas the equivalent, right, and
more, of the culturalachievements of the old world.
So the old world has itsParthenon, its Pantheon. It's,
(43:17):
you know, it's extraordinaryarchitectural heritage and the
ruins of the Roman era and themedieval landscapes of northern
Europe. And Americans say, well,that's great, you have all that,
but we have these, theseextraordinary places, these
(43:37):
extraordinary natural monumentsthat are directly from the hand
of the Creator. So they'resaying, Ah, we were one upping,
because this is nature's nation.
This is a place uniquely blessedby God.
Doug Still (43:54):
And Thoreau's responding to that. When we
remove, when we cut down al ourforests, we're sort of abusing
that.
Thomas Campanella (44:01):
Oh yeah, exactly. Exactly.
Doug Still (44:04):
So, it's the 1850s, and the Civil War is about to
happen and the abolitionistmovement is tearing the country
apart, essentially. And he useselm trees - I don't know if
specifically the elm tree thatwe're talking about - as a
metaphor for the abolitionistmovement. [Yeah] and the Free
(44:25):
Soil Party. Could you talk aboutthat?
Thomas Campanella (44:27):
Yeah, you know, the details of this will
escape me but he uses the elm asa symbol of the...well, this is
a period when there's this, thefree soilers, and there's this
struggle over whether, not notonly the the Fugitive Slave Act,
which basically criminalizedanyone who assisted a slave
(44:54):
escaping the South, but therewas a fight over whether slavery
should be extended West.
Doug Still (45:01):
Right, and the Free Soil Party is in response to
that.
Thomas Campanella (45:05):
Exactly right. He's very facile in
adapting the metaphor of theAmerican Elm and these trees to
various political issues of theday.
Doug Still (45:16):
Could I could I read you a passage from your book,
and read for our listeners, thatis. "'The elms,' writes Thoreau,
'are Free Soilers in their ownbroad sense. They send their
roots north and south and eastand west into many a
conservative's, Kansas andCarolina who does not suspect
such underground railroads. Theyimprove the subsoil, he has
(45:39):
never disturbed, and many timestheir length, if support of
their principles requires it.
They battle with a tempest of acentury. See what scars they
bear, what limbs they they'velost before we were born, yet
they never adjourn. Theysteadily vote for their
principles, and send their rootsfurther and wider from the same
center. They die at their posts,and they leave a tough butt for
(46:02):
the choppers [Tom laughs] toexercise themselves about, and a
stump, which serves for theirmonument.'"
Thomas Campanella (46:09):
That's such an extraordinary passage and
beaut...I mean, he wrote like anangel. But it's such a powerful
metaphor for this, the valuesand the principles of the
abolition abolitionists and theabolitionist movement.
Doug Still (46:27):
There's another sort... he extends the metaphor
in this beautiful way, and talksabout how the center of the elm
may decay, but the growth isreally in the rings of the tree
in the cambium under the bark,and that is new.
Thomas Campanella (46:45):
Right, yeah.
And I think he's talking, he'sreferring to the renewal of the
movement and the passage or thepassing on of these principles
and values to a youngergeneration.
Doug Still (46:57):
So what you write sort of along those lines, you
know, we talked about treesbeing witness trees to the past,
and how they were in the sameplace that many historic events
happen, and important peoplewere, and they sort of draw our
memory back. But you wrote justthat the trees over time, put on
(47:18):
new rings of growth, and it'snot really the same tree it was
in the past, and that each sortof generation after that gets to
experience the tree in its ownway, and add their own history
to it.
Thomas Campanella (47:29):
So in many New England towns and cities,
these so called ...and in therural landscape too...these
these solitary elms, and theywere mostly elms, but not
always, right. There are witnessoaks, there are other trees, but
it's almost it's more commonthat these witness trees were
(47:51):
American elms. And they tend tobe elms of substantial size and
beauty and form. And one of thethings I discovered was that
there they tended to draw tothem historical events that
occurred in the general area,but not necessarily right there.
(48:12):
And over time, they come to berepresentative of the event and
in that location. But in mostcases,
Doug Still (48:22):
Not necessarily right under that tree,.
Thomas Campanella (48:24):
No, not necessarily right under there.
So there's this remarkable...andthis taps into what I was
talking about what we weretalking about earlier about
nature's Nation versus the theyou know, the stones of the old
world, right, the ruins thearchitectural ruins. So what is
a more appropriate monument forthis young nation? Is it the
(48:47):
marble, you know, the marbleobelisk? Or is it a great old
tree and reputed remnant of theoriginal forest? And very few of
these trees were remnants of theAboriginal forest, as was often
said. There was a witness treeon the Boston Common, for
(49:08):
example, where all sorts ofassociations were sort of tied
to, and it was the Great Elm andthat was what it was called the
Great Elm of Boston Common. Andin the book, you probably saw
this this this remarkablephotograph of all the Methodist
ministers of New Englandgathered for a meeting. And they
were did they gather not infront of Methodist Church?
(49:31):
Right, but under this greatwitness tree. Another example is
the Washington elm which Imentioned earlier in Cambridge,
which was said to be whereWashington you know, he stood
under this great elm when hetook command of the continental
troops at the outset of therevolution. Well, when the tree
(49:51):
finally came down, which by theway was was blamed on communists
that they had somehow sabotagethe tree. The rings were counted
and alas, if Washington tookcommand of the troops under this
tree, he would have beencrouching below [a small tree] a
little sapling, yeah.
Doug Still (50:11):
There's something about this being a living thing
that was alive at that time[yes] it's alive now. And it's
somewhat different than abuilding. The buildings are
there. [exactly] But we don'tvenerate the buildings in the
same way.
Thomas Campanella (50:25):
We do now, I think we do now, but yeah, the
fact that this was a livingbeing, right? That this was a
living entity that witnessedthis passage, and it literally
puts you into this continuum,right? Instead of an inertness
that a building or a symbol ofstone or monument would do.
Doug Still (50:49):
It's a powerful thought. This seems to be just a
very human reaction to alltrees, across cultures over
time, and I'm wondering...
Thomas Campanella (51:02):
Well, there are many cultures where you have
a tree, often of a particularspecies, that plays a role, a
sacred role, or, a quasi-sacredrole. The Bow tree, the Ceiba
tree in Central and LatinAmerica, the Bow tree in parts
of Asia. The American elm, Iwould say, it was the closest
(51:25):
thing we've had in our countryto a sacred tree. And often very
much in a religious dimension,as I said earlier, when you have
this notion of the the unhewn,cathedrals, right? The best
example of that, which was worldfamous, was Temple Street,
literally Temple Street, in NewHaven, which is the street that
(51:46):
cuts right across the New HavenGreen. And it was lined with
elms, very closely, too closelyit turns out, planted. And it
created thisextraordinary...Dickens, when he
visited, I think in the 1840s,he made this very celebrated
(52:09):
trip to America and he writesabout it, right? He visits
Temple Street, it's on his list.
It's on his bucket list, therewith Niagara Falls and New York
City, to see this remarkableexample of American space.
Doug Still (52:27):
I think one thing that drew me to this story in
1856, of this tree coming down,is that, you know, we do this
now. We venerate old trees andlove them and recognize them.
But here was Thoreau doing thesame thing, in a way, 150-160
(52:47):
years ago. And we seem to dothis almost in every era, like
we're looking back to it anothertime.
Thomas Campanella (52:54):
Yeah, yeah.
But he I mean, he really is atthe forefront of this because
he's coming out of an era whenwe Americans did not really look
to the natural world through alens like that. It was like I
said earlier, it was much moreexploitative.
Doug Still (53:13):
Yeah, and it's not just a simple act of nostalgia
to write about this tree either.
He's looking to the future. He'slooking at his current time
[Sure] and the future. So justto wrap up, I have a question
for you. Before you studiedlandscape architecture and urban
planning and became a professor,you studied forestry [Yeah, I
did, right] at ESF - that's theCollege of Environmental Science
(53:35):
and Forestry, in Syracuse.
[Right] And so you've had a longlove of trees yourself and
interest in their ecology. Whatmeaning does the Davis Elm as
some people call it, or theAmerican element general, if you
prefer, have for you?
Thomas Campanella (53:54):
I can point to the exact moment and place
where I fell in love with theAmerican elm. I grew up in
Brooklyn, and my mom used tobring us, my brother and I, to
the American Museum of NaturalHistory quite often. This was
right on, you know, from ourpart of Brooklyn, it was the I
(54:15):
think it was back then it wasthe D train now it's the B
train, but and it was, you know,there was a stop right there at
the museum. And we would go. Andin the Hall of North American
Forests, or Hall of NorthAmerican trees, there were two
exhibits that just moved meenormously. One was an enormous
(54:38):
section of a redwood. It mayhave been a Sequoia...it was a
California redwood. And it hadyou know, the rings were very
visible and it had littlemarkers showing the fall of the
Roman Empire and the fact thatthis was a record of it,
(54:59):
basically, this enormous passagein human history that just...
and when I finally went out westmyself, I worked for many
summers as a firefighter withthe United States Forest
Service. I remember that was oneof the things I first went to
see were the redwoods. Butacross in this one exhibit hall
(55:22):
across from the redwoods sectionwas a very evocative, back lit
painting. And it was titledsimply The Elm in New England.
And it was this very evocativeromantic scene of these arching
elm trees, looking down a roadinto like this pastoral New
(55:44):
England landscape, but I thinkthere was a farmer, their little
farm settlement. And it justthere was something about that
image that just so moved me. Ialso remember, this is the early
70s. And when we would go withmy family, when we would go up
to the Adirondacks for anextended weekend, or, you know,
(56:06):
the once a year family roadtrip, my dad would point out the
skeletal remains of these deadelm trees, because this was the
period when a lot of these greatelms were still present in the
landscape. They were dead. Andthere were actually a fair
number that you were stillliving. I remember at the
(56:26):
Saratoga Springs, at the actualhistoric site, the springs,
there were a couple of enormousbeautiful elms that you know
that I actually still have thephotos, the slides. And so I was
I was very moved from an earlyage by this tree. And like you
said, I fell in love with trees,generally. I just I just really
(56:48):
loved trees. And partly it wasfrom summer camp and, and Bear
Mountain I remember, I used toidentify all the trees on the
trails around Hessian Lake. So Idid, I studied forestry. And
then as I said, I worked summerswith the Forest Service. And, in
(57:09):
the process of studyingforestry, I discovered landscape
architecture, which had thatcreative dimension to it that I
really found fascinating.
Doug Still (57:20):
Well, I've really enjoyed our conversation today.
You mentioned that - I mean, youwork on a lot of things - but
you mentioned some work on treesthat you're doing now.
Thomas Campanella (57:32):
Yeah, I'm actually working on a book that
is really, you know, tracing theroots, quote, unquote, of three
New York trees, right? Andthey're not germane to
exclusively New York City, butthey're prominent entities in
New York's urban landscape. Andone is the American Elm. And
(57:54):
we've talked about two of thethree, the American Elm one is
the Ailanthus, Tree of Heaven.
And the third is the Londonplane. The book is organized,
obviously, in three parts. Itbegins with the element that's
called the Patrician. And thenthere's the whole part of the
book, the second part is aboutthe London plane, which is
(58:15):
called the Cosmopolitan. Andthat's a reference to the London
plane, I'm sure you know, thisis a hybrid. It was an
accidental hybrid between theAmerican Sycamore and the Asian
or Oriental Sycamore. And thiscombined to create really one of
(58:35):
the best street trees we've everhad. It's not quite as
romantically beautiful as theAmerican elm, but it's very
tenacious and fast growing. Andthen the third part of the book
is about the Ailanthus, andthat's called the Immigrant. So
it's the Patrician, theCosmopolitan and the Immigrant.
It's fun, I'm having a blastwith it, because I'm writing
(58:56):
about obviously, the culturalhistories of these trees, and
how they came to gain a presencein our landscape.
Doug Still (59:04):
I can't wait for that to come out and to read it.
Maybe I'll have you back...
Thomas Campanella (59:10):
Yeah, that'd be great.
Douglas Still (59:11):
...when that happens, and thanks again,
really enjoyed our conversation.
Thomas Campanella (59:16):
I've enjoyed it, too. Take care.
Doug Still (59:21):
Well, I'm going to end it there. Thank you tree
lovers, for joining us on thisjourney through the early
history of the American elm. Andthanks very much to Thomas
Campanella for sharing his greatwork. I've got links to more of
his writing in the show notes.
Don't forget to subscribe if youenjoyed the show, and you can
find photos of the treesfeatured here and other updates
for This Old Tree on Facebook,Instagram and Twitter. We don't
(59:42):
have a Tree Story Short thisweek, but definitely submit one
if you have a personal treestory to tell. It can be one to
three minutes long. Just recordit using the Voice Memo app on
your phone and email it to me,instructions in the show notes.
Hopefully together, we can slowthe indiscriminate removal of
large healthy trees. But thenext time you see it happen,
(01:00:04):
speak up. Thoreau would haveyour back. Here's arborist and
songwriter Dee Lee to take usout.
This Old Tree song - Dee L (01:00:11):
This old tree, standing here for more
than four centuries. I wonderwhat you'd say if you could talk
to me about what it's like tobe, this old tree. Shadow and
(01:00:31):
shade, kids down the block areselling lemonade. Send them down
to cool breezes sweet cascade,tailor made by this old tree. In
(01:00:52):
1600 you were just a seed,reaching bothers sky, high.
Waiting for a chance to takeyour place in the warm sunshine.
Here I go, high above the placewhere the people grow, leave my
(01:01:21):
troubles on the ground farbelow, so I can get to know,
this old tree. Summer sparke inyour leaves. Autumn winds will
(01:01:45):
bring relief. Winter calls foryou to sleep. Spring returns
again in green. But the town -ships on the water side spy your
(01:02:15):
royal crown. Sentinal of green,two points off starboard bow,
homeward bound to this old tree.
In 1800 you felt the thunder orroll, lightning split the sky,
high. Though the fire raged inthe little town below, you
(01:02:42):
managed to survive, this scarupon your side. This old tree,
reach out and touch a livinghistory! Beneath my hands an
ancient mystery, how small I amby this old tree. How small I am
(01:03:10):
by this old tree.
The place is Concord Massachusetts, the year 1856. At
10am on a January day, four menbegan removing a huge American
elm tree trunk using block andtackle, and ropes drawn by a
horse. The upper branches hadbeen removed a few days before.
Prior to this, the tree alongthe main road was seemingly
(00:20):
healthy, and was a villagemarker seen by everyone passing
through the old colonial town.
The tree towered above a houseowned by Mr. And Mrs. Charles B.
Davis. But they heard somecreaking and a storm that winter
and said one of the branches wascracked. They were fearful and
wanted it down. The event wouldhave been long forgotten, except
one of America's greatestwriters and earliest
(00:41):
environmentalists also lived inConcord, Henry David Thoreau.
The removal of the stately elmset him off, at least in a
flurry of journal writing.
Today's episode is about why thetree was such a touchstone for
him. And more broadly, why theAmerican LM was so important to
the character of New Englandtowns in the 19th century, and
(01:03):
ultimately streetscapes acrossthe country to the present day.
I have a wide ranging discussionabout it with my guest, Thomas
Campanella, Professor andHistorian at Cornell University,
who wrote the fascinating book,Republic of Shade, New England
and the American Elm. It turnsout, elm trees helped define our
(01:23):
young nation's sense of itself.
Real or constructed, you candecide for yourself. Thanks for
joining me today. I'm your host,Doug Still, and welcome to This
Old Tree.
This Old Tree song - Dee L (01:39):
This old tree, standing here for more
than four centuries. I wonderwhat you'd say if you could talk
to me....
Douglas Still (01:51):
If you're listening to this podcast,
you're a tree lover. So speakingfor most of us, we've all felt
those feelings of loss thatThoreau felt that day in
January, 1856. Perhaps you onceheard the buzzing of chainsaws
near your home to find out thata neighbor has taken down to
mature oak tree say, or maybe adeveloper cleared all the trees
from an entire lot in order tobuild a house and couldn't
(02:14):
bother to save even the biggest.
Or in the name of progress, aroad project bludgeoned its way
through the roots of a grand oldstreet tree, leading to its
demise with the explanationthat, "It couldn't be saved."
Maybe some of the reasons weregood, maybe not. But there was
no mistaking that feeling inyour gut of irrevocable loss of
both an honorable life and therepository of fond memories.
(02:35):
Believe me, as City ForesterI've experienced firsthand the
raw emotions of residentsspurred by the removal of trees
young and old. Thoreau hadpublished Walden just a few
years before, the work for whichhe is best known. It is a memoir
of living alone on nearby WaldenPond for two years, a
celebration of nature and simpleliving. It had precise
(02:58):
measurement and observation ofhis natural surroundings, and
described a great appreciationfor the rhythms of life we take
for granted. Atranscendentalist, Thoreau wove
a spiritual dimension throughoutthe book with reflections on
solitude and meditation. ButThoreau's writing also offered
some bite toward materialisticcontemporary culture, and the
(03:21):
foolishness of some of hispeers, especially politicians.
The removal of the Concord elmtree brought out his cranky
side, brilliant andintellectual, but cranky
nonetheless. After describingthe takedown in great detail and
taking measurements of the oldfriend, he said that if the town
clerk won't chronicle the tree'sfall, than he would. For, "It is
(03:42):
of greater moment to the townthan that of many a human
inhabitant would be. Instead oferecting a monument to it, we
take all possible pains toobliterate it's stump, the only
monument of a tree which iscommonly allowed to stand." He
claims to have eulogized thetree, but it seems to me that a
sort of pissed off sourness wasjust below the surface. He
(04:05):
wrote, "I've attended thefelling and, so to speak, the
funeral of this old citizen ofthe town, I who commonly do not
attend funerals, as it became meto do so. I was the chief if not
the only mourner there. I'vetaken the measure of his
grandeur, have spoken a fewwords of eulogy at his grave,
but there were only the choppersand the passers by to hear me.
(04:29):
Further, the town was notrepresented. The fathers of the
town, the selectmen, the clergy,were not there. But I have not
known a fitter occasion for asermon of late, since it's
kindred could not attend. Iattended." I'm paraphrasing
different parts, but he goes onthat "Me thinks it's fall marks
an epic in the history of thetown. It is passed away together
(04:52):
with a clergy of the old schooland the stage coach which used
to rattle beneath it. It'svirtue was that it steadily grew
and expanded from year to yearto the very last. How much of
Old Concord falls with it.
Another link that bound us tothe past has been broken."
(05:12):
[Music] I had the privilege oftalking about all this with Tom
Campanella. Because this oldtree in Concord was an American
elm, I learned that its loss wascharged with symbolism that
reached into our nationalidentity.
Doug Still (05:30):
Tom Campanella is Professor of History and
Regional Planning at CornellUniversity, and he has written
extensively about the history ofAmerican urbanism and landscape,
especially in New York City andin particular, Brooklyn. He's
also written about urbanism andcity planning in China and the
rapid growth happening there.
But what brings Tom to us todayis his work on the cultural
(05:51):
importance of the American Elmin American history, especially
in New England. You wrote a bookin 2003, called Republic of
Shade, New England and theAmerican Elm, which won the
Spiro Kostof Award from theSociety for Architectural
Historians. Tom, welcome to theshow.
Thomas Campanella (06:11):
Thank you.
Doug Still (06:12):
I'm so happy to have you here today. I loved your
book on the American Elm. It's agreat read for anyone who loves
trees and history such asmyself, and I learned a lot
about why this tree holds suchan esteemed place within the
greater pantheon of trees, andalso because it helped define an
(06:35):
image of the quintessentialAmerican town or streetscape
[yes, exactly] in real terms,but also within our memory and
psyche. So we're going to comeback to that in a minute. [Sure]
But I'd love to start by talkingabout one story in particular,
that you wrote about about anAmerican Elm in Concord,
(06:57):
Massachusetts, and the year is1856. And this was a huge,
gorgeous elm tree that stoodover the house of Charles B.
Davis, who ran the post officeand was a storekeeper,
apparently. And it was known byeveryone, especially the great
(07:19):
American nature writer, HenryDavid Thoreau, and he wrote
about this tree and I would loveto ask you, if you wouldn't mind
describing what happened and whyhe wrote about this tree?
Thomas Campanella (07:32):
Well, first of all, it's a testament to
Thoreau's wonderful capacity toappreciate even the quotidian,
you know, and they every day.
Aside from trees, which are Ialways have felt that they tend
to be very invisible to mostpeople. It's remarkable to me
how, you know, we are we payattention to almost every detail
(07:55):
and minutiae about the builtenvironment, and yet somehow,
trees have have long evaded ourattention. And so to come across
a Thorough who vests so muchmeaning and significance in
trees is just such a joy. Andthis tree in particular, to be
(08:17):
honest, it is not a tree likethe Weathersfield Elm, which
was, maybe twelve feet indiameter. It's a relatively
young American Elm. By hismeasure, quite literally, it was
125-127 years old. And ofcourse, he is an inveterate tree
ring counter, he counts treerings, the way he plumbed the
(08:42):
depths of Walden Pond. And hewrites about how ignorance is so
sticky and persistent in that,you know, people would, you
know, many townspeople inConcord continued to believe
that Walden Pond had no bottomthat it was limitless in depth
(09:04):
and or was, you know, manyfathoms deep. And all he did was
go out in a rowboat and andplumb the depths and he came up
with a number to prove that theywere all being superstitious and
ignorant. And the same thingabout this elm, which some
people thought was 200 yearsold, and others thought it was
only 50 years old or somethinglike that.
Doug Still (09:28):
He was like, just count the rings.
Thomas Campanella (09:29):
He counts the rings, right? And he comes up
with a number and 127 years isnot really that old for a tree
like an American elm, right?
Some of the great New Englandelms that I came across in the
research for Republic of Shadewere much older than that -
twice, maybe even three timesthat age. And there are still
(09:50):
not many, but there are stillsome elms in New England that
can claim to be a couple hundredyears old. There was one on the
outskirts of Hartford withinsight of the the airport there -
I forget the name of theairfield - that must have been
about 200-250 years old. I don'tknow if it's still there. But
(10:11):
anyway, this tree this elm thatThoreau talks about is not that
I think he says it's it's 15feet in circumference, which is
only maybe a four foot diameterbreast height tree, right?
That's big, but it's not amonster. It's certainly not one
of the great really big elms inNew England at that time. And
yet he mourns it andappropriately so.
Doug Still (10:36):
So this tree came down.
Thomas Campanella (10:38):
Yes, it's cut down because and this is
something you know that I'veencountered myself so many
times, regrettably. You know, itwas a threat you know? It's you
know [air quotes] being youknow, some creaking sounds,
ominous sounds were heard, whichI think quite dubious. But
(10:59):
anyway I take it it was thehomeowner who was afraid that it
might come down on the house,
Doug Still (11:06):
He thought it was a little dubious as well the way
it...
Thomas Campanella (11:09):
Yeah, I mean it was, I mean trees creak. I
mean, they make noises, they'reliving entities. When the wind
blows through you know, a treein obviously creaks, you know, I
think Emerson wrote about thethe hoarse concert quote
unquote, that tree limbs,brushing against the roof would
(11:30):
make in the wind. But anyway,the tree come down.
Doug Still (11:34):
And so, it's in full leaf. I mean, it is looks
healthy and there's a creak.
Thomas Campanella (11:40):
Yeah, and it probably was a perfectly healthy
tree. It shows that whensomeone, you know I've had
people say this to me they youknow, the tree is near their
house and even if it fell, itwouldn't even reach the house
and yet it's... even on campus,at Cornell we used to have
(12:00):
heritage trees and you know, inthe UK there's a whole program
about protecting heritage trees.
We seem to have hazard treesnow. And some of the oldest
trees on the Cornell campus -you know, 200-250 year old oaks
-have come down in recent years.
Perfectly healthy trees.
Doug Still (12:18):
We're a litigious society and there's also a fear
of large trees.
Thomas Campanella (12:23):
Yeah, the risk management people I always
joke the risk management officeat Cornell is like the basically
runs the university. I can saythis because I'm tenured, by the
way [Doug laughs]. And, soanyway, if a tree is deemed a
hazard then all the other valuesgo out the window, even if it is
perfectly healthy, and posesreally no hazard at all. So this
(12:45):
tree comes down lamentably. Andit seems that Thoreau is perhaps
the only person who appreciatesand mourns the passing of this
tree. So I think it's more thanjust that tree, right? It
becomes a symbol and atouchstone for Thorough,
representing the elm generally,and I think trees and nature
(13:07):
generally.
Doug Still (13:08):
So he eulogized the tree or at least he said he did.
Thomas Campanella (13:11):
Yeah, that's right.
Doug Still (13:13):
But he said, there's no one here to hear this eulogy.
[laughs] There are no townselectman. And there's another
tree in Massachusetts, theDeerfield elm, that you wrote
about, that was removed in 1853.
So three years earlier, and itwas in the press, and they had a
memorial service and dignitariesin town. So I'm wondering if he
(13:35):
was referencing that in a way[maybe] like in Deerfield they
had this big [Yeah] memorialservice. And here, there's
nobody here.
Thomas Campanella (13:45):
Yeah, no, that was a monster that elm.
There's a photo in my book of alocal antiquarian sort of
mourning, you know, standingthere, and he's quite elderly
with a long white beard. Sothere's a certain symmetry
between man and tree. But alsoremember, Deerfield had a
different presence in thecultural memory of New England
(14:07):
at that time. You know, now, welook back at Concord as having
this enormous historicalsignificance because of people
like Emerson and Thoreau andMargaret Fuller and others,
Nathaniel Hawthorne. But I thinkthey looked to Deerfield as a in
an equivalent dimension that welook perhaps to Concord today.
(14:30):
So, I think that's why that treegot more press and more
coverage. You know, it was astoried tree. I can't remember
the details, but it was, Ithink, a witness to the clashes
with Native Americans thatoccurred in Deerfield, many,
many decades or a centuryearlier.
Doug Still (14:50):
So what did Thoreau feel was lost when this tree
came down?
Thomas Campanella (14:54):
Well, I think aside from the magnificence of
it as a naturay being, right, asa representative of the natural
world, I think he felt it was itwas a witness. And, you know,
these witness trees were, a realpresence in the in the Yankee
landscape in the 19th century,because they were said to have
(15:17):
been there and witnessed thesehistorical moments, right. Some
of them were, you know, thesubject of enormous exaggeration
and inaccuracy. The WashingtonElm in Cambridge is the best
example of that. But I thinkthat's part of it, right? He
mourns the fact that no oneseemed to appreciate that this
(15:39):
was a tree that was present inthe birth, at the moment of the
birth of this town, or at leastit's nascence. You know, it's
early years, right? 127 years,it doesn't really go back to the
actual founding, but close,right?
Doug Still (15:56):
And you write that he or people at that time, felt
that elms, in a way, consecratedthe landscape. [Right] So
compared to you know, the whitespires of the churches, that
they they linked to earth andheaven. Could you talk about
that a little bit?
Thomas Campanella (16:15):
Yeah, that's actually a concept that Mircea
Eliade writes about or wroteabout this notion of an axis
mundi, right, which is Latin forbasically a pivot of the world
that links the sacred and theprofane. Right. And yeah, the
(16:39):
church steeple, the meetinghousesteeple is a very classic
example. And we have thatverticality in many, many
cultures. You look at some ofthe temples in classical Indian
architecture, it's also thatvertical, that point of
connectivity between the realms,the heavens and the earth. Yeah,
(17:03):
there's a certain symmetry thatemerges between the temple I'm
sorry, the meetinghouse staple,the church steeple, in New
England, and the toweringsolitary elm, right. In many
towns, there was a single elm,often from the settlement period
(17:23):
or reputedly from the settlementperiod, that was a totem right?
It had a totemic role in thegood. One of the best examples
is the Pittsfield Elm which wasthis enormous tree of great
height and girth, and it wasreputed to have been a remnant
(17:44):
of the original forest or theAboriginal forest as was often
said. So, it again it had awitness role, but also this
totemic role. And things, youknow, community events would
take place or be held at thebase of the tree, right? And
over time, these totemic trees,aside from being witnesses to
(18:06):
many, you know, maybe acenturies worth of history or
more, tended to draw significantevents to them, even events that
took place quite a ways away.
They suddenly or over time, Ishould say, they became
associated with this totemicentity in the landscape.
Doug Still (18:26):
When you think of early drawings or etchings of a
New England town, and they're upthere picking an image to choose
to represent that town, it'susually the meeting house or
church and then an elm. [Yeah] Ithink that sort of became this
image that we remember. And thespire is pointy, and the elm is
(18:47):
sort of the opposite. It's likea like a fountain.
Thomas Campanella (18:50):
It's a fountain. It's, you know, that
was one of the reasons why thistree was so embraced early on.
It has this remarkably beautifulform. And it is like a fountain
spray, right? It's oftenreferred, it's often described
as a wineglass. I think of itmore as a fountain spray. And
it's remarkably beautiful in thelimb structure too. Even in the
(19:14):
winter, when the leaves aregone, it has this Medusan sort
of tangle of limbs that is justso beautifully sculptural. And
when you put them next to eachother, in the street or commons
that are lined with it, itcreates a remarkable image of
(19:34):
the Gothic arch, which remember,in the middle years of the 19th
century, this had itself a lotof significance because the
Gothic, a lot of thesearchitectural revivals, Gothic
architecture is very popular inthat period, including the
Gothic Revival. And often youhave the streets referred to in
those terms that they were, youknow, roughhewn or unhewn
(19:57):
cathedrals right, and this was anation that had turned its
profane streets into cathedrals.
Doug Still (20:05):
That's something I always used to say in
describing, you know, what thestreets used to look like when
they were lined with Americanelms in our cities and towns.
This cathedral-like canopy. AndI guess I just heard that from
somewhere and I would sort ofrepeat it. But it creates an
image. It's just interesting tohear that there's this sort of
(20:25):
other source or meaning to itfrom the 19th century, [Oh,
yeah] it's connected.
Thomas Campanella (20:30):
Yeah, and there was actually at least one
attempt to create a cathedralwith elm. It was Montgomery
Meigs' father. Montgomery Meigswas an architect who became very
prominent in the in the CivilWar, post Civil War era. He
designed the old PensionBuilding in Washington, which is
(20:52):
where the National BuildingMuseum is, but yeah, there's
that imagery and it's reallyremarkable. You know, you and I
are too young to remember theelm as a major presence in
American towns and cities. But Ioften tell people, you know, who
say, well, I really wish I couldexperience what it was, what Elm
(21:14):
Street was like. And of allplaces, I would say the best
example, the best place to go toexperience that is the Central
Park Mall in New York City. Themall there, those elms are
really reaching a glorious stateof elder age. And there, it is
(21:36):
really the closest thing I knowof. I mean, Washington Mall in
Washington also, but those treestend to be a bit smaller.
Doug Still (21:43):
And then they lead up to the Bethesda Fountain.
[Sure] You sort of get a tasteof the 19th century I feel, in
that landscape.
Thomas Campanella (21:50):
Yeah, very much so. It is, yeah, it's a
Victorian or middle 19th centuryto Victorian era landscape.
Doug Still (21:58):
So at that time, the forests of New England were
denuded. I mean, they werecleared. [Yeah] There's hardly
any old growth forest left.
[Right] Our forests now areabout 140 years old, when they
stopped doing the cutting. So inthe 1850's, Thoreau's responding
to, "Why are we clearing all theforests?" you know, and I think
(22:19):
trees became a little bit morevaluable to him, too, for that
reason, and I can see why theywould gather under the trees
too, just for some shade, and asa focal point.
Thomas Campanella (22:32):
So the interesting thing that, and this
is something that I uncoveredand came across again and again
in the early literature of NewEngland, and especially I used
the old agricultural journalsand newsletters to do some of
the deep research for this book.
But the elm was often.. firstof all, the elm does not grow in
(22:54):
pure stands like some trees do,right? It is not a tree that you
see many of or a pure stand ofin the forest. It's a solitary
tree. Much like the the theAmerican Sycamore, you know,
you'll have one there andanother one some 100 yards away,
or...and it's also a bottomlandand lowland tree, right? It's
(23:16):
not an upland tree. So whathappened was the the elms were
saved, ironically, by theirenormous size, in many cases, or
at least the older ones werebecause it you know, it would
take an enormous amount ofeffort to cut one of these down.
Also, as far as clearing thefields, why do you clear the
(23:38):
fields? You want ground toplant, but you also want to free
the ground from shade. Well,these older elms, in addition to
it being many days labor to cutdown, they had a form that
lifted the crown. It's so highup that it if you imagine the
sun going through its diurnalpath, it would move that shadow,
(24:01):
the crown shadow, very rapidlythrough the field. So it wasn't
as much of a problem as youwould have, say, with a dense
oak or maple tree that createdan almost permanent pool of
shade around its base.
Doug Still (24:19):
The wood wasn't as valuable either.
Thomas Campanella (24:21):
That's the other thing. The wood was not
very valuable. So you know, whenyou cut a maple or an oak, you
could get a return on it becausethe wood was sought after. Elm
wood is very stringy, it's hardto cut. It's got, there are
certain uses that it'sappropriate for but what I'm
getting to here is thesesolitary elms were often left
(24:44):
behind. And so they gain apresence in the New England
imagination, right? They arethere. They're magnificent,
they're beautiful. They havethis form. And that is the seed
stock for the later massplanting of this tree. Once we
get to the period of that werefer to as the village
improvement era, the villageimprovement societies organize.
(25:08):
And one of the main things theydo, one of the first things they
do is plant trees on thecommons, on the streets in their
towns to beautify them. Andthere's a whole set of reasons
why they were doing that. Butthey look to the American elm as
their number one tree.
Doug Still (25:23):
I thought it was fascinating when you wrote
about, sort of prior to thatmovement, that the nation was
essentially, you know, had someinsecurities or an inferiority
complex with Europe. And we wereyoung nation. And so the fashion
was to plant exotics. [Yeah,right] There was one in
(25:45):
particular that got planted alot. The Lombardy Poplar.
Thomas Campanella (25:49):
Yeah, the Lombardy Poplar. That's right.
Doug Still (25:52):
And so the Lombardy poplar is this very columnar,
upright tree. [Right] Pointy.
One associated it with NorthernItaly or central Italy, Tuscany,
[right] and sort of archaiclandscapes, ruins, Italian
towns, and very strong on theeye [laughs].
Thomas Campanella (26:14):
Yeah, that's right, they would plant, yeah,
the Lombardy poplar was a verypopular tree in the first few
decades of the 19th century. Andthere are images and etchings
and drawings of, for example,Pennsylvania Avenue in
(26:35):
Washington, lined - from theWhite House up to the Capitol -
lined with Lombardy's. There arecountless images of towns and
cities in the Northeast, and yousee...as you said, it's such a
distinctive tree. Even anamateur painter or artist could
get them right. In Boston,streets were lined with these
(26:55):
then.
Doug Still (26:56):
And very uniform.
Thomas Campanella (26:58):
Yeah, very uniform. And there were two main
reasons why it became sopopular. First of all, was the
imagery and the associations,right,? They were associated
with the storied lands ofantiquity, right? And this is an
era when a lot of artists aregoing and studying and painting
these classical landscapes,right? And so there's a certain
(27:22):
attraction there. The otherreason, quite frankly, and this
is also why the American elm isso embraced, is it is an
extremely fast growing tree.
Right? So if you have a placethat is as upstart and as
unkempt and as kind of, youknow, daggy as American towns
were and cities were at thistime, you want something that's
(27:45):
going to bring a modicum ofbeauty quickly, right? You don't
want to plant you know, a whiteoak and have to wait a century
for it to create some...andLombardy poplar, Jesus, it must
grow a foot a day in the summer.
It doesn't last very long.
That's the drawback. But there'sa lot and you know, what happens
(28:09):
here is these exotics -and itwasn't just the Lombardy.
Lombardy was a very popular one,but another one was Ailanthus
altissima, the Tree of Heaven,which is also a very rapid
growing tree. It is now oncountless lists of invasive
species. But it's a verytenacious tree. It had its
(28:29):
defenders, even after the youknow, the great backlash
against exotics, and it stillhas its defenders. I am very
fond of the Tree of Heaven,although some will call it the
tree of hell.
Doug Still (28:46):
So it was brought from China. [Yes] It was valued
for its foliage and fast growing[right] and I actually have some
close friends who live in ahouse built in 1790 here in
Providence, and they have anenormous enormous Ailanthus
[wow] that frames the house, andit's spectacular. Reading this
(29:10):
makes me wonder how old thattree is. [Yeah] If it dates that
far back or not?
Thomas Campanella (29:15):
It's hard to tell. I know of some enormous
Ailanthus trees in Brooklynactually. And you know, it's a
tree that was originally broughthere to, as part of an ill fated
effort to develop a native, anAmerican silk industry.
Doug Still (29:36):
Right, along with mulberry too.
Thomas Campanella (29:39):
and mulberry right. You know, what happened
was the Cynthia moth - the moth,the larvae that feed on
Ailanthus didn't do very well inthe climate. Although they are
around. When I was a teenager,the very first piece I ever
published - essay I everpublished was about collecting
(30:00):
these the tiny baby larvae,immature larvae in an Ailanthus
grove along the Belt Parkway inBrooklyn and raising these
moths. But the tree certainlyhas taken off.
Doug Still (30:14):
So I just want to read one passage from your book
that made me laugh out loud justbecause it was so interesting
and sort of funny. And back tothe Lombardy Poplar. "The use of
the Lombardy poplar in Americamay have had an even more
distinguished pedigree. SamuelElliott Morrison claimed that
(30:34):
the tree had been introduced bynone other than the classicist,
Thomas Jefferson. In the earlydecades of the 19th century, he
wrote, it was a sign ofunterrified democracy in New
England to plant Lombardypoplars. The dendrological badge
of Jeffersonian republicanism.
Of course, the Federalists turnthe badge against its
(30:56):
benefactor, pointing out thatthe Lombardy's soft, pulpy wood
and attraction for worms [Tomlaughs] resembled the brain of
the gentleman who introducedthem. [that's funny, yeah] So it
becomes this sort of propoganda.
Thomas Campanella (31:11):
Yeah, you know, that's a wonderful
passage. And, I had forgottenabout that. You know, what
happens though with these trees.
As the young American nationreaches adolescence and begins
to, you know, find itself andflex its muscles, and becomes
more confident in itself and itsculture, there's a huge backlash
(31:33):
against the so-called exotics[right], and it can get pretty
vehement and even racist attimes.
Yeah, and you mentioned that,particularly about the
Ailanthus. [Right] Could youdescribe...
Well, the Ailanthus, as anyonewho's struggled with it in their
(31:55):
garden will know or willrecognize, it rapidly spreads by
roots, you know, it sends outroots and it sprouts from the
roots, there's a term...
Doug Still (32:06):
This is the tree along train tracks, in empty
lots, and it's the "Tree ThatGrows in Brooklyn."
Thomas Campanella (32:11):
It's the "Tree That Grows in Brooklyn,"
exactly. It's a very tenacioustree. It spreads very rapidly,
both by seed but also by itsroot system, and so once it gets
established, it's pretty hard tofight back. It's reminiscent of
the more recent arrival herefrom Asia, the Japanese
(32:32):
knotweed, which boy, you getthat going, you really you need
a backhoe to excavate it out.
[yeah] So what happens here isthere's... as Americans
discover, their... as they gainconfidence, they start looking
to the native trees, right, thetrees of the American forest and
(32:54):
saying, "Why don't we plantthese trees?" There's a
nativist, there's a very strongnativist element, [nationalism]
native plant movement. It's avery nationalistic, nativist,
and even racist embrace ofAmerican trees, right? We don't
want the the foreigner. And whathappens is that the Ailanthus in
(33:15):
particular gets painted in veryracist terms, that it's this,
you know... I think the earlyand pioneering horticulturist
and landscape designer AndrewJackson Downing is infamous for
this because he refers to theAilanthus as I think he
describes it as a wily Asiatic,right, whose intermeddling roots
(33:40):
are threatening our Americandemocracy or our American
republic. I'm paraphrasing alittle. He quite vociferously
advocates it's purging of thistree, right. And so this maps to
political movements at the timeto ban immigration from China
(34:02):
and from elsewhere in Asia. Andthis is when you really have the
the wholesale embrace ofAmerican tree species, including
and primarily the American Elm,at least in the northeastern
part of New England.
Doug Still (34:22):
So in the 1830s and 1840s, this sort of movement to
plant native trees, especiallythe elm, takes off. [Yep]
There's this "Tree Bee" inSheffield, Massachusetts. [Yeah]
What's the "Tree Bee?"
Thomas Campanella (34:40):
Well, you know what's going on in rural
New England at this time is areally difficult passage,
actually, for the residents andthese communities. These were
very successful farmingcommunities. They were quite
affluent in many cases. And allof a sudden the rural
(35:01):
agricultural economy goes into avery steep decline. And these,
you know, the local leadership,the elected officials, the
elders of these towns arestruggling to both keep the
young people from leaving, butalso they recognize over time,
and this is more in the in thesecond half of the 19th century,
(35:24):
that affluent successful folkswho grew up in these towns grew
up in rural New England and thenwent and found their fortunes in
the Hartfords and the Bostonsand the Springfields and the New
York Cities. They want to comeback to their roots. And there's
(35:45):
the beginnings of summervacationing and tourism in these
places. So if you combine these,the feeling was we had better
make these very beautiful,picturesque, attractive places.
And you know, when you stir intothis mix the iconography of
Currier and Ives, for example.
The elm tossed New England greenand common with its church and
(36:09):
meetinghouse steeples - thatbecomes something people expect,
right? That's what they'relooking for and that's what they
want. And many, many New Englandtowns didn't have that. There
were plenty of towns where thecommon was just a scruffy field,
right? It had no elms. And sowhat happens is there's a
(36:33):
movement throughout - it startsin the Berkshires and in Western
Massachusetts and Connecticut,and it spreads throughout New
England. And it's abeautification movement. It's
usually referred to as theVillage Improvement Movement.
And there were these villageimprovement societies founded,
(36:56):
and that spreads to New Yorktoo. I should say that the
reason for the sudden decline inthe agricultural economy, the
rural economy of New England,had everything to do with a
piece of major infrastructure,transportation infrastructure,
that is developed in New York,and that's the Erie Canal. What
(37:19):
the Erie Canal did, much like,you know, you can imagine it as
a major interstate, for example.
And in fact, the New York StateThruway follows one hundred
years later or more, the exactroute of the Erie Canal. The
Erie Canal put New York City andthe Port of New York in very
(37:44):
close and easy touch to some ofthe enormously productive
enormously fertile farmland inupstate New York, right? So what
happens is New Englandagriculture is kind of cut out
of the loop. Farming in NewEngland was never easy, right?
You've got a very, you know,very dramatic climate, very cold
(38:07):
long winters, the soils are verystony. So here now is this very,
you know, productive farmlandthat's within easy reach of the
greatest port on the EasternSeaboard. So that is the reason
why these towns go into decline.
So the village improvers, thefirst and most significant thing
they do, project they undertake,is the planting of these elm
(38:32):
trees. And and that is whatleads to the Tree Bee. The Tree
Bee was the earliest examplethat I've come across of a mass
planting effort, right soeverybody in the town of
Sheffield gets together and theyplant dozens if not scores
[thousands] yeah, hundreds ofelm saplings and whips. And over
(38:55):
time, Sheffield becomes renownedfor its beautiful elm lined
streets and commons.
Douglas Still (39:04):
There was an intellectual meeting place in
Western Mass that involved thesketch club, I read about the
sketch club. And that is WilliamCullen Bryant? ho's in the
sketch club?
Thomas Campanella (39:19):
The sketch club as I recall, it was a group
of you know, it was a literarygroup and artists who... and I
talk about it because there wasa certain connection there
between this village improvementmovement and the embrace of the
elm in western Massachusetts andthe Berkshires, and the literary
(39:42):
scene in New York City. Sothere's a connection there to
the larger emerging society orculture of the of the United
States and New York.
Doug Still (39:57):
And its artists too, right? The Hudson River School
and Emerson...
Thomas Campanella (40:03):
Yeah, I describe it as the environmental
awakening. There's this movementthat emerges in this period. And
the village improvement movementis a good example of one of its
expressions, right? There's thesense that prior to the
(40:24):
environmental awakening, naturewas a resource to be exploited.
Right. And it's theenvironmental awakening that
that it's very much rooted inromanticism coming from France
and elsewhere in the old world.
But it's a whole new attitudeabout the natural world and one
that is much more aboutrespecting and admiring and
(40:47):
nurturing the values thereininstead of just an exploitative
stance. And this is, thetranscendentalists come out of
this larger milieu. The HudsonRiver School of painters of
landscape painting comes out ofthis milieu and in a more
(41:07):
quotidian, prosaic way you'vegot the village improvers.
Andrew Jackson Downey is alsopart of this, he's writing about
the improvement of one's homegrounds, right, and this whole,
this new yearning for spatialbeauty as I think John Stilgoe,
(41:28):
the landscape historian atHarvard put it.
Doug Still (41:34):
So back to Thoreau, he came just after this, or was
he part of it?
Thomas Campanella (41:39):
He's a core member, you know, part of the
transcendentalist movement.
That's right. I don't think hewas in the sketch club.
Doug Still (41:46):
But he was definitely influenced by them
and knew Emerson, obviously.
Thomas Campanella (41:50):
Yeah, and William Cullen Bryant is a major
part of this embrace of natureand the natural world. There's
also a nationalistic dimensionhere. Because, you know, and
Downing writes about this, too.
There's this sense, youmentioned earlier that Americans
in the early republic and theearly 19th century had this
(42:13):
cultural inferiority complex,where anything of any value,
right, artistic, literary, hadto come from the old world,
right? Anything created,written, thought of here really
didn't have much gravitasbecause it was an upstart
nation. That starts changing, itstarts changing in the
(42:34):
Jacksonian period. And by thetime you get to the mid middle
years of the 19th century, it'snot just expressed in an embrace
of native trees, but a stancethat looks to the natural world,
right, and the extraordinaryheritage of North America and
the natural heritage. NiagaraFalls, the Grand Canyon, the
(42:56):
Shenandoahs and the Blue RidgeMountains, the Adirondacks.
Americans start looking to thatas the equivalent, right, and
more, of the culturalachievements of the old world.
So the old world has itsParthenon, its Pantheon. It's,
(43:17):
you know, it's extraordinaryarchitectural heritage and the
ruins of the Roman era and themedieval landscapes of northern
Europe. And Americans say, well,that's great, you have all that,
but we have these, theseextraordinary places, these
(43:37):
extraordinary natural monumentsthat are directly from the hand
of the Creator. So they'resaying, Ah, we were one upping,
because this is nature's nation.
This is a place uniquely blessedby God.
Doug Still (43:54):
And Thoreau's responding to that. When we
remove, when we cut down al ourforests, we're sort of abusing
that.
Thomas Campanella (44:01):
Oh yeah, exactly. Exactly.
Doug Still (44:04):
So, it's the 1850s, and the Civil War is about to
happen and the abolitionistmovement is tearing the country
apart, essentially. And he useselm trees - I don't know if
specifically the elm tree thatwe're talking about - as a
metaphor for the abolitionistmovement. [Yeah] and the Free
(44:25):
Soil Party. Could you talk aboutthat?
Thomas Campanella (44:27):
Yeah, you know, the details of this will
escape me but he uses the elm asa symbol of the...well, this is
a period when there's this, thefree soilers, and there's this
struggle over whether, not notonly the the Fugitive Slave Act,
which basically criminalizedanyone who assisted a slave
(44:54):
escaping the South, but therewas a fight over whether slavery
should be extended West.
Doug Still (45:01):
Right, and the Free Soil Party is in response to
that.
Thomas Campanella (45:05):
Exactly right. He's very facile in
adapting the metaphor of theAmerican Elm and these trees to
various political issues of theday.
Doug Still (45:16):
Could I could I read you a passage from your book,
and read for our listeners, thatis. "'The elms,' writes Thoreau,
'are Free Soilers in their ownbroad sense. They send their
roots north and south and eastand west into many a
conservative's, Kansas andCarolina who does not suspect
such underground railroads. Theyimprove the subsoil, he has
(45:39):
never disturbed, and many timestheir length, if support of
their principles requires it.
They battle with a tempest of acentury. See what scars they
bear, what limbs they they'velost before we were born, yet
they never adjourn. Theysteadily vote for their
principles, and send their rootsfurther and wider from the same
center. They die at their posts,and they leave a tough butt for
(46:02):
the choppers [Tom laughs] toexercise themselves about, and a
stump, which serves for theirmonument.'"
Thomas Campanella (46:09):
That's such an extraordinary passage and
beaut...I mean, he wrote like anangel. But it's such a powerful
metaphor for this, the valuesand the principles of the
abolition abolitionists and theabolitionist movement.
Doug Still (46:27):
There's another sort... he extends the metaphor
in this beautiful way, and talksabout how the center of the elm
may decay, but the growth isreally in the rings of the tree
in the cambium under the bark,and that is new.
Thomas Campanella (46:45):
Right, yeah.
And I think he's talking, he'sreferring to the renewal of the
movement and the passage or thepassing on of these principles
and values to a youngergeneration.
Doug Still (46:57):
So what you write sort of along those lines, you
know, we talked about treesbeing witness trees to the past,
and how they were in the sameplace that many historic events
happen, and important peoplewere, and they sort of draw our
memory back. But you wrote justthat the trees over time, put on
(47:18):
new rings of growth, and it'snot really the same tree it was
in the past, and that each sortof generation after that gets to
experience the tree in its ownway, and add their own history
to it.
Thomas Campanella (47:29):
So in many New England towns and cities,
these so called ...and in therural landscape too...these
these solitary elms, and theywere mostly elms, but not
always, right. There are witnessoaks, there are other trees, but
it's almost it's more commonthat these witness trees were
(47:51):
American elms. And they tend tobe elms of substantial size and
beauty and form. And one of thethings I discovered was that
there they tended to draw tothem historical events that
occurred in the general area,but not necessarily right there.
(48:12):
And over time, they come to berepresentative of the event and
in that location. But in mostcases,
Doug Still (48:22):
Not necessarily right under that tree,.
Thomas Campanella (48:24):
No, not necessarily right under there.
So there's this remarkable...andthis taps into what I was
talking about what we weretalking about earlier about
nature's Nation versus the theyou know, the stones of the old
world, right, the ruins thearchitectural ruins. So what is
a more appropriate monument forthis young nation? Is it the
(48:47):
marble, you know, the marbleobelisk? Or is it a great old
tree and reputed remnant of theoriginal forest? And very few of
these trees were remnants of theAboriginal forest, as was often
said. There was a witness treeon the Boston Common, for
(49:08):
example, where all sorts ofassociations were sort of tied
to, and it was the Great Elm andthat was what it was called the
Great Elm of Boston Common. Andin the book, you probably saw
this this this remarkablephotograph of all the Methodist
ministers of New Englandgathered for a meeting. And they
were did they gather not infront of Methodist Church?
(49:31):
Right, but under this greatwitness tree. Another example is
the Washington elm which Imentioned earlier in Cambridge,
which was said to be whereWashington you know, he stood
under this great elm when hetook command of the continental
troops at the outset of therevolution. Well, when the tree
(49:51):
finally came down, which by theway was was blamed on communists
that they had somehow sabotagethe tree. The rings were counted
and alas, if Washington tookcommand of the troops under this
tree, he would have beencrouching below [a small tree] a
little sapling, yeah.
Doug Still (50:11):
There's something about this being a living thing
that was alive at that time[yes] it's alive now. And it's
somewhat different than abuilding. The buildings are
there. [exactly] But we don'tvenerate the buildings in the
same way.
Thomas Campanella (50:25):
We do now, I think we do now, but yeah, the
fact that this was a livingbeing, right? That this was a
living entity that witnessedthis passage, and it literally
puts you into this continuum,right? Instead of an inertness
that a building or a symbol ofstone or monument would do.
Doug Still (50:49):
It's a powerful thought. This seems to be just a
very human reaction to alltrees, across cultures over
time, and I'm wondering...
Thomas Campanella (51:02):
Well, there are many cultures where you have
a tree, often of a particularspecies, that plays a role, a
sacred role, or, a quasi-sacredrole. The Bow tree, the Ceiba
tree in Central and LatinAmerica, the Bow tree in parts
of Asia. The American elm, Iwould say, it was the closest
(51:25):
thing we've had in our countryto a sacred tree. And often very
much in a religious dimension,as I said earlier, when you have
this notion of the the unhewn,cathedrals, right? The best
example of that, which was worldfamous, was Temple Street,
literally Temple Street, in NewHaven, which is the street that
(51:46):
cuts right across the New HavenGreen. And it was lined with
elms, very closely, too closelyit turns out, planted. And it
created thisextraordinary...Dickens, when he
visited, I think in the 1840s,he made this very celebrated
(52:09):
trip to America and he writesabout it, right? He visits
Temple Street, it's on his list.
It's on his bucket list, therewith Niagara Falls and New York
City, to see this remarkableexample of American space.
Doug Still (52:27):
I think one thing that drew me to this story in
1856, of this tree coming down,is that, you know, we do this
now. We venerate old trees andlove them and recognize them.
But here was Thoreau doing thesame thing, in a way, 150-160
(52:47):
years ago. And we seem to dothis almost in every era, like
we're looking back to it anothertime.
Thomas Campanella (52:54):
Yeah, yeah.
But he I mean, he really is atthe forefront of this because
he's coming out of an era whenwe Americans did not really look
to the natural world through alens like that. It was like I
said earlier, it was much moreexploitative.
Doug Still (53:13):
Yeah, and it's not just a simple act of nostalgia
to write about this tree either.
He's looking to the future. He'slooking at his current time
[Sure] and the future. So justto wrap up, I have a question
for you. Before you studiedlandscape architecture and urban
planning and became a professor,you studied forestry [Yeah, I
did, right] at ESF - that's theCollege of Environmental Science
(53:35):
and Forestry, in Syracuse.
[Right] And so you've had a longlove of trees yourself and
interest in their ecology. Whatmeaning does the Davis Elm as
some people call it, or theAmerican element general, if you
prefer, have for you?
Thomas Campanella (53:54):
I can point to the exact moment and place
where I fell in love with theAmerican elm. I grew up in
Brooklyn, and my mom used tobring us, my brother and I, to
the American Museum of NaturalHistory quite often. This was
right on, you know, from ourpart of Brooklyn, it was the I
(54:15):
think it was back then it wasthe D train now it's the B
train, but and it was, you know,there was a stop right there at
the museum. And we would go. Andin the Hall of North American
Forests, or Hall of NorthAmerican trees, there were two
exhibits that just moved meenormously. One was an enormous
(54:38):
section of a redwood. It mayhave been a Sequoia...it was a
California redwood. And it hadyou know, the rings were very
visible and it had littlemarkers showing the fall of the
Roman Empire and the fact thatthis was a record of it,
(54:59):
basically, this enormous passagein human history that just...
and when I finally went out westmyself, I worked for many
summers as a firefighter withthe United States Forest
Service. I remember that was oneof the things I first went to
see were the redwoods. Butacross in this one exhibit hall
(55:22):
across from the redwoods sectionwas a very evocative, back lit
painting. And it was titledsimply The Elm in New England.
And it was this very evocativeromantic scene of these arching
elm trees, looking down a roadinto like this pastoral New
(55:44):
England landscape, but I thinkthere was a farmer, their little
farm settlement. And it justthere was something about that
image that just so moved me. Ialso remember, this is the early
70s. And when we would go withmy family, when we would go up
to the Adirondacks for anextended weekend, or, you know,
(56:06):
the once a year family roadtrip, my dad would point out the
skeletal remains of these deadelm trees, because this was the
period when a lot of these greatelms were still present in the
landscape. They were dead. Andthere were actually a fair
number that you were stillliving. I remember at the
(56:26):
Saratoga Springs, at the actualhistoric site, the springs,
there were a couple of enormousbeautiful elms that you know
that I actually still have thephotos, the slides. And so I was
I was very moved from an earlyage by this tree. And like you
said, I fell in love with trees,generally. I just I just really
(56:48):
loved trees. And partly it wasfrom summer camp and, and Bear
Mountain I remember, I used toidentify all the trees on the
trails around Hessian Lake. So Idid, I studied forestry. And
then as I said, I worked summerswith the Forest Service. And, in
(57:09):
the process of studyingforestry, I discovered landscape
architecture, which had thatcreative dimension to it that I
really found fascinating.
Doug Still (57:20):
Well, I've really enjoyed our conversation today.
You mentioned that - I mean, youwork on a lot of things - but
you mentioned some work on treesthat you're doing now.
Thomas Campanella (57:32):
Yeah, I'm actually working on a book that
is really, you know, tracing theroots, quote, unquote, of three
New York trees, right? Andthey're not germane to
exclusively New York City, butthey're prominent entities in
New York's urban landscape. Andone is the American Elm. And
(57:54):
we've talked about two of thethree, the American Elm one is
the Ailanthus, Tree of Heaven.
And the third is the Londonplane. The book is organized,
obviously, in three parts. Itbegins with the element that's
called the Patrician. And thenthere's the whole part of the
book, the second part is aboutthe London plane, which is
(58:15):
called the Cosmopolitan. Andthat's a reference to the London
plane, I'm sure you know, thisis a hybrid. It was an
accidental hybrid between theAmerican Sycamore and the Asian
or Oriental Sycamore. And thiscombined to create really one of
(58:35):
the best street trees we've everhad. It's not quite as
romantically beautiful as theAmerican elm, but it's very
tenacious and fast growing. Andthen the third part of the book
is about the Ailanthus, andthat's called the Immigrant. So
it's the Patrician, theCosmopolitan and the Immigrant.
It's fun, I'm having a blastwith it, because I'm writing
(58:56):
about obviously, the culturalhistories of these trees, and
how they came to gain a presencein our landscape.
Doug Still (59:04):
I can't wait for that to come out and to read it.
Maybe I'll have you back...
Thomas Campanella (59:10):
Yeah, that'd be great.
Douglas Still (59:11):
...when that happens, and thanks again,
really enjoyed our conversation.
Thomas Campanella (59:16):
I've enjoyed it, too. Take care.
Doug Still (59:21):
Well, I'm going to end it there. Thank you tree
lovers, for joining us on thisjourney through the early
history of the American elm. Andthanks very much to Thomas
Campanella for sharing his greatwork. I've got links to more of
his writing in the show notes.
Don't forget to subscribe if youenjoyed the show, and you can
find photos of the treesfeatured here and other updates
for This Old Tree on Facebook,Instagram and Twitter. We don't
(59:42):
have a Tree Story Short thisweek, but definitely submit one
if you have a personal treestory to tell. It can be one to
three minutes long. Just recordit using the Voice Memo app on
your phone and email it to me,instructions in the show notes.
Hopefully together, we can slowthe indiscriminate removal of
large healthy trees. But thenext time you see it happen,
(01:00:04):
speak up. Thoreau would haveyour back. Here's arborist and
songwriter Dee Lee to take usout.
This Old Tree song - Dee L (01:00:11):
This old tree, standing here for more
than four centuries. I wonderwhat you'd say if you could talk
to me about what it's like tobe, this old tree. Shadow and
(01:00:31):
shade, kids down the block areselling lemonade. Send them down
to cool breezes sweet cascade,tailor made by this old tree. In
(01:00:52):
1600 you were just a seed,reaching bothers sky, high.
Waiting for a chance to takeyour place in the warm sunshine.
Here I go, high above the placewhere the people grow, leave my
(01:01:21):
troubles on the ground farbelow, so I can get to know,
this old tree. Summer sparke inyour leaves. Autumn winds will
(01:01:45):
bring relief. Winter calls foryou to sleep. Spring returns
again in green. But the town -ships on the water side spy your
(01:02:15):
royal crown. Sentinal of green,two points off starboard bow,
homeward bound to this old tree.
In 1800 you felt the thunder orroll, lightning split the sky,
high. Though the fire raged inthe little town below, you
(01:02:42):
managed to survive, this scarupon your side. This old tree,
reach out and touch a livinghistory! Beneath my hands an
ancient mystery, how small I amby this old tree. How small I am
(01:03:10):
by this old tree.
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