Harriet Ritvo, MIT’s Arthur J. Conner Professor of History, will discuss her latest book The Dawn of Green: Manchester, Thirlmere, and Modern Environmentalism on Wednesday, December 9th at 4 p.m. in the Institute Archives (14N-118).

In The Dawn of Green, Ritvo reveals how today’s environmental movement can be traced to Thirlmere, a bucolic reservoir in the English Lake District, and the 19th century battle around it that pitted industrial progress against conservation.

Ritvo is also the author of The Platypus and the Mermaid, and Other Figments of Classifying Imagination and The Animal Estate: The English and Other Creatures in the Victorian Age.

During her talk she will show materials used in her research and sign copies of her book.  This event is sponsored by the MIT Libraries’ Institute Archives & Special Collections, and the MIT History Faculty.  It is free and open to the public.