Earth Day

Siskiyou National Forest

Siskiyou National Forest in California; detail of a DOCUMERICA image. (National Archives ID 542848)

The first Earth Day took place on April 22, 1970. Recognized by many as the birth of the U.S. environmental movement, the nationwide demonstration spurred a dramatic rise in public concern about environmental issues. It also secured political action that led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by President Richard Nixon later that year and the passage of important environmental protection legislation including the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts throughout the 1970s. In the 50 years since its creation, Earth Day has grown into an event observed by a billion people in nearly 200 countries each year. For many, the global challenge to preserve and protect the environment continues with increasing urgency.

DOCUMERICA Project

For the DOCUMERICA Project (1971–77), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hired freelance photographers to capture images relating to environmental problems, EPA activities, and everyday life in the 1970s. The National Archives digitized part of the series "Documerica" (Local ID 412-DA). More than 15,000 of these images are available in the National Archives Catalog. You can read about the project in the National Archives exhibition “Searching for the Seventies: The DOCUMERICA Photography Project” and see the items on National Archives’ DOCUMERICA image collection on Flikr.

Documerica collage of images