Leave No Trace: John Work Garrett in the American Outdoors

September 25, 2024 – June 8, 2025

Evergreen Museum & Library, North Wing Gallery

John Work Garrett II (1872-1942) is best remembered today as a diplomat and book collector, who was a product of the privileged East Coast milieu in which he was raised. But in addition to his boyhood summers at Evergreen, his teenage travels in Europe and the Far East, and his university years at Princeton, Garrett’s character and imagination were formed by numerous excursions into the American West. Leave No Trace: John Work Garrett in the American Outdoors examines these formative experiences through archival photography, diary entries, artifacts, sculptures, and more, asking visitors to consider the idea of the American West from multiple perspectives and reflect on their own relationship to the great outdoors.

Related Programming

Lunch with the Libraries & Museums: Leave No Trace Preview Talk with Curator Michelle Fitzgerald

August 1, 12 p.m. | Online | FREE

When Evergreen resident John Work Garrett made his first trip to Yellowstone National Park in 1894 as the student ornithologist in a Princeton University Geological Expedition, he would have been among the earliest white tourists to enter America’s first national park. For the future diplomat, the trip solidified a lifetime love of the American outdoors, and he documented it through journals and photographs, which offer a rare, personal glimpse into the outdoor recreational experience of late-19th-century Americans. In this free, virtual lunchtime talk, Michelle Fitzgerald, Curator of Collections for the Johns Hopkins University Museums, will give a sneak preview of Evergreen Museum & Library’s upcoming exhibition, Leave No Trace: John Work Garrett in the American Outdoors, share insights about her research process for the exhibition, and answer audience questions. VIEW A RECORDING OF THE TALK HERE

Exhibition Opening & Panel Discussion

September 25, 6-8 p.m. | FREE, please register here

Evergreen Museum & Library invites you to the opening of Leave No Trace: John Work Garrett in the American Outdoors. The evening will begin presentations by Michelle Fitzgerald, Curator of Collections for the Johns Hopkins University Museums, and Amy Young, field ecologist and historian-in-training at Natural History Society of Maryland. They will discuss the inspiration behind the exhibition and provide an overview of natural history collecting, from the past to the present. Afterward, guests can explore the exhibition and enjoy refreshments. VIEW PHOTOS OF THE OPENING HERE.

Let’s Talk Taxidermy!

October 30, 6-7 p.m. | $5-7, please register here

Robert Marbury, author of Taxidermy Art: A Rogue’s Guide to the Work, the Culture, and How to Do It Yourself, will present a talk on 19th-century taxidermy and the fascinating evolution of this unique art form.

Outdoor Market Day

November 16, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. | FREE, no registration necessary

Get a head start on your holiday shopping at Evergreen’s outdoor market, featuring local vendors and organizations inspired by the natural world. See Leave No Trace: John Work Garrett in the American Outdoors, and/or take a self-guided tour of Evergreen’s scenic grounds.

Curators

Michelle Fitzgerald is the Curator of Collections for Johns Hopkins University Museums (Homewood Museum and Evergreen Museum & Library). She received her MA in American Material Culture from the Winterthur program at the University of Delaware and has previously held positions at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Maryland Center for History and Culture, and the Maryland State Archives. Her past exhibitions at JHU include A History of Houseplants (2022) and Naturally Beautiful: Uncovering Nature in the Nineteenth-Century Home (2020).

Chokma! Chikashsha saya, Chahta sia hoke. Morgan Brown is a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation and descendant of the Choctaw people. She is a senior at the Johns Hopkins University studying the History of Art, Archaeology, Visual Arts, and Museums & Society. Morgan is passionate about the study of Indigenous history and culture, and how it is represented within museums. She uses her platform to decolonize the museum and empower Indigenous voices as a way to give back to her community. She conducted research on this topic through a fellowship provided by the Stokes Family Fund Undergraduate Research Stipend for Study of the Ancient Americas. She also interns at the National Park Service Museum Resource Center as a museum technician and is on the career path for art conservation. Morgan is spending the fall 2024 semester studying abroad in Scotland. In her free time, she likes to visit museums, spend time with friends, and play with her cat.