Sustainability

The history of Woolrich jackets

I hunted Pennsylvania whitetail deer this winter wearing the same thing my great-grandfather wore hunting one hundred years ago: a red and black plaid Woolrich hunting jacket. Woolrich, “The Original Outdoor Clothing Company,” founded in 1830 in Plum Run, has weathered the years by remaining true to its tradition of offering finely crafted, durable “all-wool hunting toggery” (as the old ads called it) for the avid woodsman. To the classic buffalo-check jacket was added matching wool pants, and the “Woolrich Big Game Hunter’s Suit” became a regional uniform: “the Pennsylvania Tuxedo.” The Met has one on display. The label reads, “completely functional... also rather fashionable.” These days, the brand is a little different.

woolrich

Stop ignoring the real environmentalists

What does throwing soup on a piece of art have to do with the environment? When we hear the word environmentalist, what comes to mind is something like an Extinction Rebellion or JustStopOil activist: young, urban, progressive, with an expressly political agenda. But what if there are other categories of environmentalists that are expressly ignored, that may have the insights we need to solve the very real environmental problems we face? In my PhD research, I spoke with people who produced a significant amount of food for their own consumption in and around Chicago. Many of them were were disaffected by the focus on climate change and the obsession with consumption as activism.

environmentalists