Much of the work we do in support of environmental law and toxic tort cases involves compiling comprehensive site histories. We work with our clients to come up with cost-efficient research strategies to compile these site histories, which help answer their most pressing environmental or historical questions. We’ve broadly discussed this type of work before in relation to chemical releases into local waterways. Today, we’d like to take the opportunity to discuss a specific case in which we reconstructed the history of an entire city block.
Crowdsourcing with the Help of Citizen Historians and Archivists
In our last post, we provided insight into how we find information for our clients. We explained that we spend most of our time in the field at libraries and archival repositories because, even in the era of Google, most of the historical records we’re after just aren’t online. Maybe they will be one day, but not any time soon. That’s not to say that public libraries, government agencies, and cultural institutions aren’t doing their best to digitize their collections and make them accessible online. Many repositories have embraced the power of the crowd to carry out their public-service oriented missions, which is good news for the general public and historical researchers like us who have insatiable appetites for finding and interpreting historical information.
T&H Behind the Scenes: Finding Information
When you are looking for information these days, where’s the first place you turn? Let us guess: Google. Often times, we do the same. A quick Google search helps us identify repositories (archives, libraries, historical societies, government agencies, and the like) that might hold pertinent record collections for the projects we take on.
Taylor & Hammel’s Holiday Gift Guide
‘Tis the season for warm coats, hot chocolate, family gatherings, religious celebrations, and, well, let’s face it, shopping. For those of you who groan at that very word, we’re here to help. We’ve compiled a list of gift ideas for the history fanatic in your life. The best part? We’ve included one that will cost you absolutely nothing.
How Will We Celebrate Thanksgiving in Years to Come?
EPA’s Proposed Clean Power Plan: The Historical Context and Future Implications of Section 111(d)
We recently attended the American Bar Association (ABA) Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources (SEER) 2014 Fall Conference in Miami, where the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed Clean Power Plan and the future of compliance was comprehensively discussed, analyzed, and debated from the beginning of the conference to the very end. The topic is of interest to us given our expertise in conducting historical environmental research into former industrial sites and manufactured gas plants, as well as our desire to improve and expand our research services in support of clients affected by emerging environmental litigation.
Fracking: A Historical Research Perspective
The business of natural gas production has been booming over the last decade thanks to recent technological improvements, namely horizontal drilling coupled with hydraulic fracturing (commonly referred to as fracking). This has given energy companies the ability to extract unconventional natural gas from previously impermeable shale rock formations.
Patriotic Holidays & Their Origins
To most Americans, summer includes swimming, sand, sun, and overall good time fun. It’s also the season packed with patriotic holidays. Though summer doesn’t officially begin until June 21st, the majority of us bookend the season with two such holidays. Memorial Day kicks it off at the end of May, signaling to kids all across the country that the summer vacation will soon commence. In early September, Labor Day serves as the last hurrah for barbeques, campfires, and, thankfully, mosquitoes. In between, the mid-summer blowout of the Fourth of July is celebrated. Fireworks explode high up in the dark night sky as the country joins in shouting “Happy Birthday!” to America. In this post, we’ll tell you about the origins of these hallmarks of summer — and, more importantly, our country’s history — and how they’ve been celebrated over time.
From Cherry Trees to Giant Pandas: Gifts to the United States
symbolic gestures of friendship and used to solidify relationships—not just between heads of state or government officials, but also from the people of one country to the people of another. America’s Founding Fathers tried to ban the practice of accepting gifts from foreign entities, viewing them as a corrupting influence on diplomacy. The Articles of Incorporation strictly prohibited gifts from being accepted by government representatives, while the U.S. Constitution states that gifts can be received so long as Congress approves:
Reform of the Toxic Substances Control Act
As members of the Defense Research Institute (DRI), we recently had the pleasure of attending the Toxic Tort and Environmental Law Seminar where the issue of federal reform of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) was a hot topic. This was of particular interest to us given our expertise in conducting research for asbestos litigation and historical environmental problems at industrial sites, manufactured gas plants, and military facilities throughout the U.S.