Claremont, Calif. (January 6, 2014) — Pitzer College alumnus Char Miller ’75 will lead a discussion at the screening of the PBS documentary John Muir in the New World at the Ontario Museum of History and Art on January 9. Miller also appears in the documentary and served as a consultant on the film. John Muir in the New World is being shown as part of the museum’s exhibit Nature’s Beloved Son: Rediscovering John Muir’s Botanical Legacy, which closes on January 12.
Char Miller ’75
John Muir in the New World explores how philosophical writings and personal relationships shaped John Muir’s ideas about nature, the sanctity of the wilderness and the environmental movement he helped create. The film examines the influence of the renowned naturalist’s Calvinist father; the writings of Alexander von Humboldt and Ralph Waldo Emerson; his friend and mentor Jeanne Carr; his wife Louie Strentzel; and Robert Underwood Johnson, editor of The Century Magazine.
“Working on this project as a historical consultant and on-camera interviewee gave me a renewed appreciation for Muir’s paradoxical passions,” Miller wrote in a commentary about the film.
The head of The Claremont Colleges’ intercollegiate environmental analysis program and the W.M. Keck Professor of Environmental Analysis at Pomona College, Miller is an expert on environmental policy and the history of conservation in the US. He is the author of ten books, including On the Edge: Water, Immigration, and Politics in the Southwest, Seeking the Greatest Good: The Conservation Legacy of Gifford Pinchot and Death Valley National Park: A History, all published in 2013.
Miller majored in history and political studies at Pitzer College.
The reception for John Muir in the New World starts at 6:30 p.m., followed by a screening at 7 p.m. at the Ontario Museum of History and Art. FMI: (909) 395-2510.
