This Old Tree

04-29-23 Chronicling a Tree: Thoreau’s Concord Elm - This Old Tree

In this months This Old Tree host Doug Still explores Thoreau's Concord Elm. 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.
 

03-25-23 The Edison Banyan - This Old Tree

Host Doug Still explores The Edison Banyan in this month's This Old Tree. Why did Thomas Edison plant a banyan tree sapling at his winter residence in 1926? You guessed it, there was an experiment involved. Native to India, it is now a massive, beloved tree at the Edison & Ford Winter Estates in Fort Myers, Florida. While this isn’t an “escape from the lab” story, it is sort of a “took over the lab” story! Debbie Hughes, the Horticultural Director, explains what happened. Also, we dig into the mythology of fig trees - specifically “strangler” figs - and their critical ecological and cultural importance with rainforest ecologist and author Mike Shanahan. https://thisoldtree.buzzsprout.com/

02-25-23 Harlem’s Tree of Hope - This Old Tree

Host Doug Still explores Harlem's Tree of Hope in this month's This Old Tree. Picture yourself in Harlem in New York City in the 1920s. There's a cultural awakening: jazz and dance, theater and literature, big celebrities, and lots of new talent looking for a break. And, of course - because this is a show about trees - there's a tree that becomes a symbol of the Harlem Renaissance. It's the Tree of Hope, and it was a good luck charm for black performers looking to make the big time. Garden historian and storyteller Abra Lee tells the story of this tree's rise to fame, demise, and enduring legacy. https://thisoldtree.buzzsprout.com/