The Connecticut State Museum of Natural History (CSMNH) is pleased to be hosting Janet L. Pritchard for a talk and signing event for her new book More than Scenery: Yellowstone, an American Love Story.
Janet L. Pritchard is a landscape photographer and Professor of Photography at the University of Connecticut, whose romance with the American West began with horseback riding, movies, and her father’s dreams of being a cowboy. When she started to spend adolescent summers in Wyoming during the 1960s, her world changed forever, as she fell under the spell of natural wonder in the shadow of the Grand Tetons. Only later did she recognize her feelings as a response to what nineteenth-century Romantics called the sublime.
A vintage 1914 picture postcard of Golden Gate Canyon by F. Jay Haynes inspired Pritchard’s most recent project. When she turned it over and read the message—“I cannot describe the Yellowstone as the dictionary is only a book. It is more than scenery. In some places, it is so beautiful that the men take off their hats & the women are silent!”—she was back in a childhood place of wonder tempered by a lifetime of work as an artist and teacher in landscape photography.
Yellowstone was established as the world’s first national park by an Act of Congress in 1872. One hundred fifty years later, the park and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem continue to occupy an iconic role in the public imagination—Yellowstone is seen as a place that is both real and ideal. In this complex ecosystem where wild nature and culture meet, the complexities of our relationship to the natural world are revealed, unlike any other national park.
In More than Scenery: Yellowstone, an American Love Story, Janet Pritchard surveys these relationships with captivating photographs and insightful text. Her talk will highlight the role Yellowstone National Park plays in American history from the perspective of a visitor on the ground. She will share her photographs and engaging personal stories, along with her deep knowledge and understanding of the ways the natural landscape can shape our collective memories and personal experiences.
The event will be held at Barnes & Noble UConn at 1 Royce Circle in Storrs, CT and will also be streamed live via Zoom. Registration is required if you wish to participate virtually but is recommended for everyone. A link to the live stream will be emailed to all virtual participants 24 hours and 1hour before the event start time.
This event is free and open to the public, but donations are always welcome. Copies of More than Scenery will be available for purchase from Barnes & Noble before and during the event, but no purchase is necessary to attend the talk. Light refreshments will be served during the reception and signing portion of the event.
If you require accommodations to participate, please contact the CSMNH at 860-486-4460 or [email protected] by Friday March 31.
The Connecticut State Museum of Natural History is part of the Institute of the Environment at the University of Connecticut.