The Slideshow that Saved the White Mountains

The year was 1902, and Philip Wheelock Ayres, the first chief forester of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, was in the midst of a tour that took him in front of audiences throughout New England. His message was extraordinarily important–the forests of the White Mountains were being destroyed. But Ayres wasn’t just telling. Using a lantern slide projector, he was showing audiences dramatic photographs of the clearcuts and forest fires that were devastating the region. Ayres’s singular slide show built public support to pass the Weeks Act in 1911 and create the White Mountain National Forest in 1918.

In this presentation, conservation writer Christopher Johnson will tell the story of Philip Ayres and his remarkable slide show—the slide show that helped save the White Mountains. Johnson is the author of This Grand and Magnificent Place: The Wilderness Heritage of the White Mountains and the co-author, with David Govatski, of Forests for the People: The Story of America’s Eastern National Forests.