Kendra Smith-Howard to Discuss the History of Cleanliness in 20th Century America June 7 at Western

The recipient of the 2016 James W. Scott Research Fellowship, Kendra Smith-Howard, will explore the history of cleanliness in 20th Century America, including the role and impact of Georgia-Pacific and other regional wood-pulp manufacturers, during the talk “A Messy History of Cleaning Up: Georgia-Pacific and the History of the Disposable Diaper,” at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, June 7, in the Special Collections area of Western Washington University’s Wilson Library.

The presentation is free and open to the public.

Smith-Howard is an associate professor at the State University of New York at Albany, and completed her doctorate at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Her research focuses on 20th century environmental history in the United States, and her first book, “Pure and Modern Milk: An Environmental History Since 1900,” was published by Oxford University Press in 2013.

Prior to her presentation, Smith-Howard will spend a week conducting research at Western’s Center for Pacific Northwest Studies as part of the opportunity given to her by the James W. Scott Research Fellowship, during which she will examine archival collections which include records of the Bellingham Division of Georgia-Pacific and oral histories of Bellingham’s industrial waterfront.

The James W. Scott Regional Research Fellowship was established to promote the use of Western’s archival collections and to forward scholarly understandings of the Pacific Northwest. Funding for the fellowship is awarded in honor of the late James W. Scott, a founder and the first director of the Center for Pacific Northwest Studies and a noted scholar of the Pacific Northwest.

For more information about this event or Western’s Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, contact Ruth Steele, CPNWS archivist, at 360-650-7747 or Ruth.Steele@wwu.edu.