New “Homegrown” exhibition takes root in UMD Libraries’ Hornbake Library

A new exhibition has taken root in the Hornbake Library Gallery. “Homegrown: An Introduction to the Environmental Justice Movement” highlights how the environmental justice movement began with the rise of civil rights, labor, and environmentalism movements in the mid-twentieth century. 

Different from environmentalism, which centers wilderness and wildlife, environmental justice emphasizes the people neglected in environmental policymaking, safety regulations, and other protective measures meant to keep the public safe from environmental hazards. “Homegrown” focuses on activists and activism strategies among communities dealing with environmental racism and injustice. 

The materials in “Homegrown” pull from multiple collections within UMD Libraries’ Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA), underscoring the breadth of our collections and the global phenomena of environmental injustice and racism. Items in the exhibit range from censored newspaper articles on radioactivity in postwar Japan to photographs of the Delano Grape Strike and Boycott, a strike started in 1965 of over 800 Filipino farmworkers affiliated with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee that grew into a boycott of products from farms in the Delano region.

“We purposely chose a variety of items from different places and decades,” said Scotty Beland, a library and information science graduate student assistant in SCUA who helped curate the exhibit. “We wanted to convey the many different forms of environmental racism and injustice people experienced, and show various ways activists historically have stood up against this form of oppression.”

Though SCUA does not have a specialized collection dedicated solely to environmental justice, the curators of the exhibit sought to emphasize how UMD’s archival collections can still address this important topical issue by examining related collections and reading between the lines to gain a better understanding of the history of the environmental justice movement. “Homegrown” will be available to view through the Spring 2025 semester in the Hornbake Library Gallery from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. A version of the exhibition is also available online.

Contact our Special Collections to schedule an instruction or class tour. 

Additionally, through October, a companion exhibit to “Homegrown” is also available in the Maryland Room. “Environmental Inspiration – Artists’ Books and the Natural World” puts the spotlight on artists’ books that speak to themes of nature, climate change, and the environment. Experimenting with traditional elements of a book (structure, design, materials, and printing processes) artists’ books are wholly unique creations, often handcrafted and are produced in limited numbers.