This website has a rich store of material — where do you start? What's interesting?
I want a quick overview

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To get a good 15 minute overview of the website, try the follwing pages in this order:
- Meet Gaylord Nelson, a summary of his career and involvement with Earth Day
- Discover Earth Day, an overview of the1970 national day of protest, learning, and activity for the environment
- Video clip of Earth Day 1970, Gaylord Nelson speaks in Milwaukee about why Earth Day is historic and important.
- Nelson speech notes from 1990 about how he founded Earth Day and why it's still important
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Why was Senator Nelson so involved with the environment?

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To discover the story of how Wisconsin and Nelson changed the world, try these stories:
- Growing up in Clear Lake
- A new Governor and a new party for Wisconsin
- Joining the liberal revolution in Washington
- Redefining environmentalism in the 1960s
- Earth Day: a simple idea, a world of change
- Building an "environmental decade"
- A former Senator fights on
- The Nelson legacy: for us and our future
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How and why did Earth Day get started?

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To get the chronological story of how Senator Nelson founded Earth Day and what happened on Earth Day, follow these pages in order:
- Earth Day: an introduction
- Modest beginnings: Nelson's idea on a plane
- A proposal reprinted across the country
- Choosing not to be in charge
- A diverse coalition of supporters
- Organizing at the grassroots
- April 22, 1970
- "The wrong kind of pollution": Earth Day critics
- The living tradition of Earth Day
And then visit the Website Index to see more primary documents
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What is "modern environmentalism"?

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To view documents that summarize or explain how the modern environmental movement is different than resource conservation, try these documents:
- Two Entwined Stories, a summary by William Cronon, UW-Madison, on modern environmentalism
- Video of Nelson on the first Earth Day, describing why environmentalism means more than nature and pollution
- The "environmental decade" that changed America
- The power of grassroots involvement
- Speech by Nelson on the 25th anniversary of Earth Day about environmentalism
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I'm a teacher and want to use this material in my class

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Depending on your grade level taught, try the following:
- Website index of primary documents and images (sort by column heading)
- More resources online from the Wisconsin Historical Society
- Videos of Gaylord Nelson
- Nelson's famous speech in Congress about the environment and 11 point agenda for change
- Packet sent for teachers on Earth Day 1970
- Packet sent to high schools to get ready for the first Earth Day
- Schools ask Nelson to join them on Earth Day 1970
- The 25th anniversary globe and how students participated
- How Earth Day organized itself in each community, and why that is important
- A list of what some people in Madison did on Earth Day 1970
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Show me some unique documents!

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Here's some documents that are very interesting and new online!
- A typed memo about the first "teach-ins" in history
- A photo of Nelson with Chevy Chase and Tia Nelson
- Letters from business executives who didn't like Earth Day
- A Nelson re-election pamphlet with photos
- Some letters between President Kennedy and Senator Nelson
- Nelson's marked-up speech notes denouncing racist "domestic terrorism" in Mississippi
- A 1957 Democratic party campaign pamphlet
- A photograph of the young activists who helped Nelson organize the first Earth Day
- The Fred Dutton proposal for Earth Day, with top-down control Nelson did not agree with
- Election results from the 1958 governor's race
- Map of a tree Nelson planted on the Washington Mall in honor of the State of Wisconsin
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Top source documents — why or how Nelson founded Earth Day

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- 1969 - Gaylord Nelson Newsletter from Senate November 1969 re: earliest Earth Day plans
- 1969 - Gaylord Nelson proposes to Congress a national day for the environment, October 8, 1969
- 1970 - See also longer Congressional speech with environmental agenda and proposed constitutional amendment, January 19, 1970
- 1971 - Gaylord Nelson's letter to Frank Stanton of CBS News, April 17, 1971
- 1990 - Gaylord Nelson statement to the Beyond War Society, December 1990
- 1993 - Gaylord Nelson explains the timeline of his Earth Day idea and discusses attributions of Earth Day to John McConnell
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