KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — "Planet versus Plastics" is the 2024 Earth Day theme at the McClung Museum, and many organizers are hoping to raise awareness about plastic pollution and how it can harm our planet.
The McClung Museum at the University of Tennessee held an Earth Day event on April 22 in the hopes of spreading awareness throughout East Tennessee. It hosted a seed collection exhibit at the Pendergrass Library along with a conversation with curators from the Environmental Archeology Department.
Dr. Alison Damick and Dr. Kandi Hollenbach discussed their work in Archaeology and how they use soil science and seed collections to reconstruct paleoenvironments. This allowed them to understand how people used plants in the past.
They both emphasized the importance of Earth Day and highlighted their research as a way to educate people about the interconnectedness of the environment and human culture.
The seed collection included modern seeds that are currently growing as well as "heritage" seeds that have a history rooted in the local area.
"Dr. Hollenbach is showing people how the seed collection helps us understand how people used plants in the past, what things were growing in the past and how the plants we grow today are related to that," said Damick, an Associate Curator of Environmental Archaeology.
The event also used colored soil for painting, which was a common practice in the past.
"And I am helping people with understanding soil science better and how the different colors that soils change can reflect the environments that they were deposited in and can tell us something about what happened to them over time and how people use them," Damick said. "One of the big things that people have used different colored soils for over time is art and painting."
