April 21, 2018

"Over time, the obsession with terrariums faded, but it returned in the 1960s and ’70s..."

"... when the environmental movement—and hippies—burst onto the scene in America and the U.K. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, published in 1962, revealed the toll of pollution on the environment and laid the groundwork for a movement that coalesced into the establishment of the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970. Terrariums were the physical embodiment of that movement: little shrines encapsulating the fragility of nature. These terrariums were mostly homemade, using a fishbowl or another sort of container that would have otherwise been discarded (a perfect example of what has come to be known as upcycling). Of course, terrariums were commodified, too. A company called Tiara Casa mass-produced a DIY terrarium kit—consisting of a large plastic globe atop a tall white stand—that became a fixture in many 1970s living rooms.... [T]he 1970s terrarium was a political statement."

From "Terrariums Let Anyone Create a 'Perfect World' in Their Own Apartment" (Artsy), which is mostly about a present-day artist who works in the terrarium form.

Ugh! Remember those awful terrariums on a white pedestal? Here, you can buy one at Ebay:



That was emphatically not hippie style or "political statement" style. That was the kind of thing that made us hippies hate the modern look and want to take refuge in everything really old-fashioned looking (e.g., heavy dark oak furniture). The classic hippie terrarium would be made from the old aquarium where you used to try to keep your neon tetras and angelfish from dying.

20 comments:

mockturtle said...

little shrines encapsulating the fragility of nature.

In actuality, nature is fiercely resilient.

rhhardin said...

A large plastic (half) globe would be useful for getting emergency drinking water from the lawn, with the addition of an inner lip to keep condensation from running back into the lawn.

Oso Negro said...

By golly, we slaughtered neon tetras and angelfish by the score back in the day!

dbp said...

The only terrarium I have much memory of was one made with a 5-gallon glass jug laid on its side. It looked lush but you couldn't really make out what was in there with all the water droplets and condensation which was ever-present.

I never thought of these neighbors as hippies: They were devoutly catholic, had 6 kids, the dad was a B-52 crewman and the wife worked for the Red-Cross.

Bay Area Guy said...

Rachel Carson's zealousness about DDT killed a lot of 3rd World people, because DDT woulda killed a lotta skeeters that infected folks with malaria.

So there's that.

Michael The Magnificent said...

...and laid the groundwork for a movement that coalesced into the establishment of the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970.

Which is Vladimir Lenin's 100th birthday.

rhhardin said...

I get Silent Spring mixed up with the aphorism book, with intependently turnable top half pages and bottom half pages, to produce improved truths, like a bird in the hand never forgets. They were both in the bookstore at the same time.

rhhardin said...

It's a long way to Terrarium.

Charlie Currie said...

From killing pet fish to killing pet plants to killing pet third world humans, the hippy environmental movement in a terrarium...

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

My hippie cousin in Tuscon had a bunch of terrariums in his living room with lizards and tarantulas and snakes in them (he didn't put them in the same terrariums). He really did fit the hippie stereotype: a sweet-natured pot smoker with a girlfriend named Star and dog-eared copies of "The Teachings of Don Juan" and "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" on a battered coffee table. I only met him a complete of times, and, because of the age difference, didn't know him well, but I liked him. Most people did, even older relatives who were not predisposed to like hippies, although they criticized his hair and shiftlessness. He was killed in a car accident in New Mexico in 1976. RIP, Greg.

Howard said...

BAG: DDT stops killing skeeters because rapid evolution. Over a 10-year period, mosquito control districts spending on DDT increased 10-fold. The DDT-ban turd world genocide is a myth. No patent, no long-term effectiveness, no protest from mega-petro-chem.

Howard said...

New Yorker had a nice arcticle on Rachel Carsen a month ago. They framed it as a sad tail of lesbo-enviromentalist died young before she could warn the world of global warmerung

BJM said...

Years ago we bought two 5 gal Pyrex lab carboys for a few dollars each at a yard sale. Lab carboys tend to have wider necks than water carboys which makes planting and tending a terrarium easier...and one of ours has a threaded bottom spigot which is very handy for tapping off excess moisture.

Glass Carboys come in many shapes and tints, they are excellent for spanning the gulf between sterile/hipster and kitschy/hippie.

Etienne said...

My brothers wife used large water bottles from water coolers.

Don't ask me how, but somehow she made them look beautiful inside. It was like a mini-planet.

My brother used to just shake his head. We both agreed you would have to have some mental issue to willingly construct something through a small hole.

Oh yea, she had mental issues... I think she's still in the big nut house in Portland, and my brother finally croaked after getting married four more times after that. I don't think any of his kids made it all the way through grade school.

It could be those things cause you to smoke a lot of dope...

mockturtle said...

My brother used to just shake his head. We both agreed you would have to have some mental issue to willingly construct something through a small hole.

Men have been known to build ships in bottles.

3MartiniLunch said...

It’s all fun and games until you’re curled up in the corner tying macrame pot hangers.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Rachel Carson's Data is all fudged. Her "results" have never been repeated. Repeatabality is crucial in science. Fake all fake. Her publicist reported her death was due to "cancer". The left's first earth goddess. One dare not dispute her, lest they be shunned. Heroin/heroine.
Like the UK veterinarian who chronicled the "Budgie kill" of "outdoor cats" as the reason for songbird population downturn in his service area, the truth is not to be told.

tcrosse said...

IIRC back in the early 1970's people were more obsessed with Nixon than they were with terraria.

rhhardin said...

Terrarium incognita.

Terrarium watch list.

BudBrown said...

In the summer of 73 I delivered those 5 gallon jugs of water. They were slowing switching
over from the clear smooth bottles to something like the ones you see today. Those clear bottles were dangerous. Easy to drop especially when wet and it rains a lot in Tampa in the summer. They docked your pay for about $3 if you lost a bottle. People would offer to buy them cause they made nice terrariums. You needed to produce the lip of the bottle to show it
had broken - they didn't charge for that because those suckers would often break. I did
mostly residential deliveries and a lot of the houses had the senate Watergate hearings on
the tv or radio. I hated Nixon though I cant remember why exactly.