Urban Archipelago: An Environmental History of the Boston Harbor Islands, with Dr Pavla Šimková

HUB History - Our Favorite Stories from Boston History

The new book Urban Archipelago: An Environmental History of the Boston Harbor Islands explores how the city of Boston has transformed the islands on its doorstep time and time again, as the city’s needs shifted over the centuries. From a valuable site for farming, to a dumping ground for all of Boston’s problems, to a wilderness of history and romance, to an urban park, these many transformations reflect a changing city. Author Dr. Pavla Šimková joins us this week to discuss how Boston initially embraced the islands, later turned its back on the Harbor, and more recently has embraced them both again. You’ll hear us argue about the 1960s plan to hold a bicentennial expo on the harbor and the role of storyteller Edward Rowe Snow in promoting the Harbor Islands to a new generation, and you’ll hear us agree about the beauty and importance of this urban asset.

Full show notes: http://HUBhistory.com/239/

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Urban Archipelago

Dr. Pavla Šimková is a historian and postdoctoral researcher at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society at the University of Munich. The Carson Center is an interdisciplinary center focusing on the environmental humanities, from history to geography to anthropology to literary criticism, drawing fellows from around the world. In the past, she has researched the environmental history of Bohemia, and her current project investigates the transnational environmental history of the Bavarian Forest and Šumava.

• Purchase the book Urban Archipelago: An Environmental History of the Boston Harbor Islands
• To listen to my comments on the Boston Harbor Expo plan that Pavla and I disagreed on, listen to episode 219
• For more of my feelings about Edward Rowe Snow, try episode 213 about the manuscript by Ben Franklin he helped falsify or episode 147 about the “pirate” Rachel Wall.